Hailed for his outstanding artistry, musicianship
and virtuosity, violinist Dong-Suk Kang has performed on five continents
to extraordinary acclaim. Dominic Gill, a London music critic, describes
Dong-Suk Kang in his book « The Book of the Violin »,
as « already one of the world’s great violinists. His flawless
technique and perfect bow arm certainly produce one of the most beautiful
violin tones to be heard anywhere today ».
Ormandy, Serkin, Menuhin, Francescatti, and other eminent musicians
also have praised him as one of the most outstanding violinists of
his generation and a musician of the highest order.
Born in Korea, Dong-Suk Kang went to New York in 1967 to study at
the Juilliard School and later at the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian.
He first came to the attention of the American public in 1971 when
he created a sensation by winning both the San Francisco Symphony
Foundation Competition and the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington
D.C..
Following a debut at the Kennedy Center and an appearance with Seiji
Ozawa, he went on to win top prizes in a number of international competitions
including the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elisabeth
in Brussels.
Since then, he has appeared with many great orchestras of the world
including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Saint Louis,
San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and Montreal in America, and
Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Halle, Birmingham,
Scottish National, Munich, Stuttgart, Gewandhaus, French and Belgian
National Orchestras, Gothenburg, Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Polish
National and Rotterdam in Europe.
Tours of Asia have brought performances with the orchestras of NHK,
Yomiuri, Tokyo Metropolitan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, KBS and
Seoul Philharmonic with whom, he has toured the U.S.A. and Europe.
He also toured extensively in Australia playing with all six orchestras
of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
The conductors he has worked with include Dutoit, Ozawa, Mazur, Jarvi,
Menuhin, Salonen, Slatkin, Chung, Barshai, Jansons, Norrington, Foster,
Svetlanov, Berglund, Lazarev and Herbig.
He has performed at major music centers and festivals throughout the
world and his concerts, such as London Proms, were frequently televised
and broadcast on the radio in many countries. His strong interest
in chamber music has resulted in his participation at various chamber
music festivals including those in Spoleto, Santa Fe, Kuhmo, Seattle,
Vancouver, Newport and Australian Festival of Chamber Music. As a
guest artist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center he has
performed in New York and toured throughout the country.
Dong-Suk Kang’s wide-ranging repertoire includes all the standard
works as well as many unusual and neglected works. He has recently
given the premier of the violin concerto « Mistral » by
Alan Hoddinott in Great Britain which was commissioned by BBC as well
as the Asian premier of the the Third Concerto by Isang Yun at the
opening concert of « World Music Days » Festival after
having performed Isang Yun’s First Concerto earlier.
In the field of recording, in addition to the well-known works, such
as Vivaldi Four Seasons (with The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields),
he has recorded Nielsen and Elgar concertos, complete chamber music
of Honegger and Alkan, and Furtwängler Sonata.
His recordings have won critical acclaim and awards among which are
the Grand Prix du disque from both the Académie Charles Cros
and the Nouvelle Académie du disque. His Walton Concerto CD
was chosen as the CD of the month by the Gramophone magazine and nominated
for the Gramophone Award 2000.
Acclamé pour son sens artistique, sa
musicalité et sa virtuosité hors du commun, le violoniste
Dong-Suk Kang s'est produit sur les cinq continents. Dominic Gill,
critique musical londonien, décrit Dong-Suk Kang, dans son
ouvrage "Le livre du violon", comme l'un des plus grands
violonistes au monde. "Sa technique souple et son archet parfait
produisent certainement un des plus beaux sons de violon qui puisse
être entendu aujourd'hui".
Ormandy, Serkin, Menuhin, Francescatti, ainsi que d'autres musiciens
éminents l'ont aussi consacré comme l'un des plus exceptionnels
violonistes de sa génération et comme musicien hors
pair.
En plus des. grandes oeuvres du répertoire (Bruch, Saint-Saëns,
Ravel, Fauré, Debussy, Schubert, Sibelius etc....), il a enregistré
le concerto de Nielsen, celui d'Elgar, l'intégrale de la musique
de chambre de Honnegger et d'Alkan et la sonate de Furtwängler.
Ses enregistrements chez Naxos, Bis et Timpani ont reçu des
critiques élogieuses et remporté, entre autres, le Grand
Prix du Disque de l'Académie Charles Cros et celui de la Nouvelle
Académie du Disque.