YUMI HWANG WILLIAMS
Yumi Hwang Williams began violin studies at the age of ten in Philadelphia, one year after emigrating from South Korea. At fifteen, she appeared as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra and was accepted as a student of Jascha Brodsky and Yumi Ninomiya-Scott at the renowned Curtis Institute of Music.
Today, her exceptional musicianship has earned her a reputation as an artist of considerable stature. In addition to her thoughtful and stylish interpretations of the classics, she is known for her commitment to exploring and performing the works of contemporary composers. Her interpretations of Aaron Jay Kernis’ Lament and Prayer, Michael Daugherty’s Fire and Blood and Christopher Rouse’s Violin Concerto, have earned unreserved approval from the composers as well as critical acclaim. In 2003, in an historic collaboration between Marin Alsop, John Adams, John Corigliano and Christopher Rouse, at the Colorado Symphony Orchestra Contemporary Music Festival, her account of the Rouse Violin Concerto was proclaimed by Rouse to be ‘the definitive version’. She has also performed the Rouse concerto and Fire and Blood at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music under Maestra Alsop’s baton.
Yumi Hwang Williams has performed with orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony, Santa Rosa Symphony and the Fort Collins Symphony Orchestra, with conductors Paavo Jarvi, Lawrence Leighton Smith, Jeffrey Kahane and Wes Kenney, amongst others, and has made numerous solo appearances with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra (CSO) under the batons of Marin Alsop and Peter Oundjian to name but a few.
The past season saw Hwang Williams perform Isang Yun’s Violin Concerto No 1 with the Basel Symphony Orchestra, Switzerland with Dennis Russell Davies conducting, to standing ovations. She was also soloist with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra in performances of Mozart and Barber with, respectively, conductors Christophe Campestrini and Christian Arming. In the upcoming season she performs Dvorak with Jeffrey Kahane conducting the CSO, and Brahms with the Denver Philharmonic and Horst Bucholz.
Hwang Williams is an avid chamber musician and recitalist and has collaborated with such artists such as Gary Graffman, Ida Kavafian, Joanna MacGregor, Christopher O'Riley, John Kimura Parker and Robert Koenig and has performed Lou Harrison’s Grand Duo with Dennis Russell Davies as pianist. She is also a member of the piano trio Tre Voce which made a triumphant Carnegie Hall debut in February 2006.
Yumi Hwang Williams has served as concertmaster of the Colorado Symphony Orchestra since 2000 and is concertmaster for the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music. She is a faculty member of the Lamont School of Music, University of Denver.
On August 9, 2007 Hwang Williams will perform selected pieces at the Cabrillo Festival's Music In the Mountains Benefit Concert. On August 11, 2007 at the Festival she will perform in Thomas Adès' Concentric Paths.