"His piano sings, paints, and describes the rise and fall of the wind. But whatever the mood, there is always this precision and attention to detail which draws the audience into the depth of the music"

"Playing Liszt for Kun Woo Paik is a mystical journey, bringing his audience to the very heart of his work to feel its fundamental pulse"

A pianist of great musicianship and integrity, Kun Woo Paik has captivated musicians, audiences and promoters all over the world.

Kun Woo Paik was born in Seoul and gave his first concert, aged 10, with the Korean National Orchestra (Grieg piano concerto). In the following years he performed many important works in Korea, including several premieres such as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Later he studied in New York (Juilliard School), London, and in Italy with Rosina Lhevinne, Ivona Kabos, Guido Agosti and Willhelm Kempff. Kun Woo Paik is also a laureate of the Naumburg and Busoni International Piano Competitions.

Over the years Kun Woo Paik has performed recitals in major musical centres such as the Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall and Berlin Philharmonie. He has also performed with such orchestras as the London Symphony, BBC Symphony (Last Night of the Proms 1987), Pittsburgh Symphony, Russian National Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Rai Torino, Warsaw Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra and Polish National Radio Orchestra, with such conductors as Mariss Jansons, Sir Neville Marriner, Lawrence Foster, Mikhail Pletnev, Dmitri Kitaenko, James Conlon, John Nelson and Eliahu Inbal. Kun Woo Paik is also a regular guest artist at major music festivals such as the Berlin Festwochen, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Antheron, Colmar, Spoleto, Aldeburgh, "Mostly Mozart" and Ravinia Festivals, and has toured extensively in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Italy.

His repertoire is very varied and comprises such rare works as Busoni’s piano concerto, Fauré’s Fantasy for piano and orchestra and Liszt’s Fantasy on themes from Berlioz’s Lelio. Kun Woo Paik also performs a wide selection of transcriptions by Liszt and Berlioz and is the dedicatee of Suk-Hi Kang’s piano concerto.

Mr Paik has recorded the complete Prokofiev piano concertos with Antoni Wit/Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra for RCA (Diapason d’or in 1993), the complete Rachmaninov’s piano with Wladimir Fedosseyev / Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra (BMG), as well as several solo CDs of Scriabin, Liszt, Mussorgsky, Rachmaninov, Mendelssohn piano music. In 2000 he signed an exclusive recording contract with Decca Classics. The first release was Bach/Busoni, a much acclaimed CD of transcriptions of Bach’s organ works. In February 2002 Decca will release a 2nd recital dedicated to Fauré.

Kun Woo Paik lives in Paris, is the Artistic Director of the Emerald Coast Music Festival in Dinard (France) and was made "Chevalier de l’ordre des arts et des lettres" by the French Government in 2000. In September 2000 he was the first Korean artist to be officially invited to perform in China.