YI Ji-young

Yi Ji-young is the most representative gayageum player that continues to carry the tradition of korean performing arts - music, dance, and singing as well as contemporary avant-garde. Colleagues and critics alike consider her to be the most talented gayageum artist of our time whose music represents a perfect harmony of the emotionand the senses and her musical spectrum ranges from very traditional to very avant-garde elements. She is also known as the most important figure in the interpretation and performance of gayageum.
She began to learn Korean traditional performing arts, such as gayageum, traditional song, and dance, at the age of five. Her musical experience in Korean traditional arts along with teaching Korean traditional music from young age has made her perform the greatest traditional music. She obtained both BA and MA in gayageum performance from Seoul National University and Ph.D. in Ewha Womans University. She was the first Ph.D. in gayageum performance in Korean music history.
She was a notable soloist of the National Center of Korean Traditional Performing Arts from 1988 to 1993. In 1991, she became the youngest member of the ‘Jeongnongakhoe,’ the most prestigious Korean classical music ensemble in Korea, and she now is a Candidate for Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 23 ingayageum sanjo (solo instrumental folk genre) and gayageum byeongchang (folk song accompanied by gayageum).
Since her professional debut, she has performed numerous solo recitals in Korea, the U.S., Germany, Hong Kong, Sweden etc. She has performed with numbers of world-renowned orchestras and ensembles including Shanghai Orchestra, Tokyo City Philharmonic Orchestra, Kyoto Orchestra, Jerusalem Philharmonic Orchestra, Atlas Ensemble, KNM Berlin Ensemble, Del Sol String Quartet, and Lydian String Quartet. In addition, she has been recognized as the most frequently invited Korean musician to international music festivals including the Edinburgh Festival, Kuhumo Festival, ISCM, Asian Composer's League, Otherminds Contemporary Festival, Pacific Rim Music Festival, MIDEM.
In 2003, she was awarded "The Best Young Musician" by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which is granted to the most prominent young musicians.
She is now serving as a professor of Gayageum Performance in the Department of Korean Music in the College of Music at Seoul National University and also a music director of Gimhae Municipal Gayageum Orchestra. She is also the representative of CMEK (Contemporary Music Ensemble of Korea) which consists of musicians who perform both Korean traditional musical instruments and Western classical instruments.