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About
Yunchan Lim is a South Korean pianist. In 2022, he gained widespread recognition when he became the youngest person ever to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at eighteen years of age.
Lim was born in Siheung, South Korea. He started to take piano lessons when he was seven years old, and entered the Music Academy of Seoul Arts Center a year later. He began to take the piano more seriously when he was nine years old. At thirteen, he was accepted into the Korea National University of Arts, where he began to study with his current teacher, Minsoo Sohn. In the fall of 2023, Lim will transfer his studies with Sohn to the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston.
2018–2022: Early career
In 2018, Lim received both the Second Prize and Chopin Prize at the Cleveland International Piano Competition for Young Artists, where he performed with the Cleveland Orchestra in the final round. In the same year, he was the youngest participant in the Thomas & Evon Cooper International Competition at the Oberlin College and Conservatory, where he won the Third Prize and the Audience Prize. In 2019, he became the youngest ever winner of the Isang Yun Competition at fifteen years old.
In 2020, Lim was featured in the recording of the “2020 Young Musicians of Korea” album, which was organized by the Korean Broadcasting System and released in the same year.
2022–present: Van Cliburn Competition victory and present career
In June 2022, Lim won the Gold Medal at the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth, Texas, making him the youngest winner in the competition’s history. The prize came with $100,000 USD and career management for three years. He also won two special prizes, the Audience Award and the Best Performance of a New Work. His final round performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 is currently the most viewed video of the piece on YouTube. It peaked at #24 on YouTube’s global trending list and accumulated more than 10 million views in a span of eight months.
Following his win at the Van Cliburn competition, Lim collaborated with orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Music Makers and the KBS Symphony Orchestra. In recitals, he has performed at Wigmore Hall, Victoria Concert Hall, Fondation Louis Vuitton, Seoul Arts Center, and the National Concert Hall in Taipei, among many others. He has also made appearances at the Aspen Music Festival, the Bravo! Vail Music Festival, and the Ravinia Festival.
In 2023, Lim was included in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list under the Arts category for Asia. On July 7 of the same year, the Steinway & Sons label released an album of Lim’s live performance of Liszt’s Transcendental Études from the semi-final round of the Van Cliburn competition. The album debuted at number 5 on Billboard's Traditional Classical Albums chart.
In August 2023, Crescendo, a feature documentary that follows the 16th Van Cliburn International Piano Competition's proceedings and Lim’s emergence, premiered at the Jecheon International Music and Film Festival.
In October 2023, Lim signed with Decca Classics on an exclusive recording contract. His first recording on the label is scheduled for release in Spring 2024.