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The Korean pianist, Sonya Bach, started playing the piano at the tender age of 3, gave first public concert at age 5 and orchestra debut at age 9 with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra in her native country where she was admitted to the YeWon Arts School as the top of piano students where she studied with Kyung Sook Lee (1993). She received musical educations on full scholarships at the Juilliard School in New York with Olegna Fuschi (1993-1997) and at the Accademia Pianistica “Incontri col Maestro” in Italy where she has been the youngest pupil of the late Lazar Berman. As a teen, she studied with Cheng Zong Yin, one of China's most eminent pianists, and frequently visited Mordecai Shehori with whom she mastered Vladimir Horowitz' techniques while in New York. A protege of the late Alicia de Larrocha, she has earned Master in Spanish Music at the Academia Marshall in Barcelona, Spain (2007). Her numerous prizes include Gina Bachauer Memorial Award (1996); the Special Prize at the 12th Viotti-Valsesia International Music Competition in Italy as the youngest participant; top prizes at the St. Charles International Piano Competition in the USA and the ECO International Music Contest in Italy; the First and Grand Prize as well as the Eugen d'Albert Interpretation Award at the Eugen d'Albert International Music Competition held in November 2012 in Lugano, Switzerland.
Praised as "a born master", "Bach not only in her name" by winning hearts of critics and audiences alike, Sonya Bach has appeared in various prestigious concert venues in Europe, North America and Asia. She feels particularly honoured to have been invited to appear in a recital promoted by the Catalunya Government for the victims and survivors of Ravensbruck Women’s Concentration Camp and to be featured as the first classical musician to perform at the newly inaugurated Community Theatre and Arts Centre in Dubai, UAE under the patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum. In 2012, she performed to commemorate the 50 Years Diplomatic Relations between Korea and Switzerland at the Swiss Residence in Seoul, Korea. As a devoted performer of rarely performed repertoire, she made the Korean premiere of Turina’s Rapsodia Sinfonica with the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra. Recently she has successfully toured Korea once again with the SNO featuring Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1.
In 2016-2017 season, Sonya Bach performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Seoul Pops Orchestra and premiered Iloh Yang's Piano Concerto with the Songpa Philharmonic Orchestra. Both concerts were telecast by the KBS and SBS. She also performed Sergei Rachmaninov's Concerto No. 2 and Yun Concerto with the Ureuk Symphony Orchestra in New York's Merkin Hall to critical acclaim. The 2017-2018 season's highlights will include orchestra debut in London by joining the English Chamber Orchestra for their London season's opening concert where she will present the complete J.S. Bach's Keyboard Concertos, which she has recorded with them, due to release by the UK label Rubicon Classics in September 2017. Other upcoming appearances include recitals and as a soloist with orchestras in Europe, North America and Asia.
Sonya Bach is a Steinway Artist. |
