Yunchan Lim

Born in 2004 in Siheung, South Korea, the pianist Yunchan Lim began playing piano at seven and at thirteen was admitted to the Korea National University of the Arts, where he met his teacher Minsoo Sohn, with whom he still studies at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Lim rose to international prominence in 2022 as the youngest competitor to win the Gold Medal, two special prizes, and the Audience Award at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. After performing Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto with Lim, conductor Marin Alsop was moved to tears; juror Jean-Efflam Bavouzet remarked, “I was simply speechless.” His career has since developed rapidly, with appearances with all major American symphony orchestras within a short time. In the 2025-26 season, he performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, he has appeared with the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Orchestre de Paris. He toured Asia with the Czech Philharmonic under Semyon Bychkov and the Munich Philharmonic under Lahav Shani. He has collaborated with conductors such as Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Paavo Järvi, Cristian Măcelaru, Klaus Mäkelä, Sir Antonio Pappano, and Tugan Sokhiev. In the 2026-27 season, he will give Mozart recitals at the Berlin Philharmonie, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, and Carnegie Hall in New York. An exclusive artist with Decca Classics, Lim released his debut album in 2024 of Chopin’s Études Op. 10 and 25, for which he received the Gramophone Award as Young Artist of the Year, the Diapason d’or de l’année as Jeune Talent, and the BBC Music Magazine Award for Recording of the Year. His most recent release (February 2026) is a live recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Yunchan Lim has served as Apple Music Classical Global Ambassador since January 2024.

May 2026