Young Concert Artist Ji will perform a program of works by Bach/Busoni, Schubert, Corigliano, Beethoven and Ravel for his ArtPlay show Thursday, May 1.
Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as “a gifted young pianist who is clearly going places,” 22-year-old Ji began his career at the age of 10, when he was the youngest pianist to win the New York Philharmonic’s Young Artists Competition. He then played at Avery Fisher Hall under Maestro Kurt Masur. In December, Ji made his debut at New York’s Merkin Hall and the Kennedy Center.
He will make his ArtPlay debut with a 7 p.m. performance as part of the Patty McDonald ArtPlay Parlor Series, presented by the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s Alys Stephens Performing Arts Center. ArtPlay is the Alys Stephens Center’s home for arts education, located at 1006 19th St. South.
Ji is set to perform Toccata, Adagio and Fugue, BWV 564, by Bach/Busoni; Impromptu in B-flat major, Op. 142, No. 3 by Schubert; “Etude Fantasy” by John Corigliano; Beethoven’s Sonata No. 26 in E-flat major, Op. 81a (“Les adieux”); and Ravel’s “La Valse.” Tickets are $37.50; beverages and hors d’oeuvres are included. For tickets, call 205-975-2787 or visit www.AlysStephens.org. The performance is sponsored by Merrill Lynch.
Well-known in his native Korea, Ji performed Korea’s first outdoor classical concert as soloist with the BBC Symphony and performed in Seoul with world-renowned ballerina Sue Jin Kang and dancers from the Stuttgart Ballet. Ji’s creative vision to make classical music accessible to young people led to his “Stop & Listen” outdoor “guerrilla” performances in 2010, during which he worked with renowned Korean pop-artist Tae Jung Kim, bringing classical music to the public on the busy streets of Seoul. Ji was featured on a special program dedicated to the music of John Corigliano on NPR’s “From the Top,” on which he played Corigliano’s “Etude Fantasy.”
| ArtPlay will present Ji in a Meet the Artist On the Road school show at Advent Episcopal School earlier in the day. This residency is made possible in part by the Annaliese Soros Educational Residency Fund of Young Concert Artists. |
As a winner of the 2012 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Ji was also honored with seven YCA prizes: the Sander Buchman Award, the Slomovic Concerto Prize, the Korean Concert Society Prize, and four concert prizes, the Harriman-Jewell Series Prize, the Bronder Prize for Piano from Saint Vincent College, the Tannery Pond Concerts Prize and the Usedom Festival Prize in Germany. Ji has recorded two CDs: “Bach Exhibition” and “Lisztomania.”
Ji began playing the piano at age 5, and at age 9, his family relocated to New York, where he studied at the Music Preparatory Division of the Mannes College with Yuri Kim, and later at The Juilliard School’s Pre-College with Yoheved Kaplinsky. Ji is currently working with Choong-Mo Kang at The Juilliard School.
ArtPlay will present Ji in a Meet the Artist On the Road school show at Advent Episcopal School earlier in the day. This residency is made possible in part by the Annaliese Soros Educational Residency Fund of Young Concert Artists.