A highly decorated pianist with a delicate and expressive touch, Yekwon Sunwoo has built his career on the international stage tackling a wide range of challenging pieces. Born in Anyang, South Korea in 1989, Sunwoo began playing the piano at the age of eight, studying in his native country with Min-ja Shin and Sun-wha Kim. Relocating to the U.S. as a teenager, he studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia before moving on to Juilliard, where he earned his Master's under Robert McDonald. The winner of numerous prestigious competitions including the 2015 International German Piano Award in Frankfurt, the 2014 Vendome Prize at the Verbier Festival, and the 2012 William Kapell International Piano Competition, Sunwoo has performed as a soloist under Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School and with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra under Marin Alsop. He has toured internationally giving recitals in Europe, Asia, and Central America and he made his solo recording debut in 2014 on the Fontec label. In June 2017, Sunwoo won the gold medal at the revered Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Houston, Texas. A recording of his recital, titled Cliburn Gold 2017, was issued by the Decca label that summer. Also released that year was Crossing Spheres, a recording of pieces by Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin, and Tchaikovsky. ~ Timothy Monger