Hae-Sun Kang
„Hae-Sun Kang’s supernatural stamina and precision, together with her spotless intonation, an exquisite, crystal-clear sound, and a phenomenal musical creativity, is a revelation for me.“
Unsuk Chin
Hae-Sun Kang is one of the most sought-after violinists on the international contemporary music scene. She is held in high regard by audiences and composers alike, as evidenced by the ever-growing number of works that have been dedicated to her.
The soloist is regularly invited to perform in prestigious concert halls including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna and Philharmonie de Paris, as well as at many festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Wien Modern, Lucerne Festival, Musica Nova (Helsinki) and Festival Musica to name just a few. Hae-Sun Kang has premiered many important works for her instrument, including some that have gone down in the history of contemporary music. This is the case for Pierre Boulez’ Anthèmes 2 for solo violin and electronics, which she premiered in 1997 in Donaueschingen and recorded for Deutsche Grammophon. Since then she has regularly performed the work in concert halls and at festivals all over the world, so she did 2015 in Baden-Baden on the occasion of Pierre Boulez’s 90th birthday. In the same year, she performed Anthèmes 2 at the Opéra National de Paris in a staged version with choreography by Wayne McGregor. Hae-Sun Kang’s close collaboration with living composers is also reflected in the violin concertos she has premiered: she gave the world premiere of Pascal Dusapin’s Quad in 1997 in Paris and performed on the South Korean premiere of his violin concerto Aufgang with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung in April 2015. She has also performed concertos by Ivan Fedele, Beat Furrer and Matthias Pintscher with the Orchestre National de Belgique, Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester, among others. She recorded Michael Jarrell’s violin concerto …prisme/incidences… in 2007 for the French label Aeon with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. After its world premiere in Stuttgart, she performed Philippe Manoury’s Synapse in France (with the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in 2012), in South Korea (with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra) and in Germany (2016 with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Susanna Mälkki).
In her solo recitals, Hae-Sun Kang frequently performs new pieces written especially for her such as Trait d’Union for violin and violoncello by Philippe Hurel (Festival Messiaen, 2013), Red for solo violin by Martino Traversa (Festival Traiettorie, 2012), Raggi di Stringhe for violin and electronics by Lara Morciano (Centre Pompidou, 2011), Samarasa for solo violin by Dai Fujikura (Festival Messiaen, 2010), Bruno Mantovani’s All’ungarese for violin and piano (Festival Messaien, 2009), Marco Stroppa’s Hist Whist for violin and electronics (Printemps des Arts de Monaco, 2008), Georges Aperghis’ The Only Line (Munich Opera Festival, 2008), Beat Furrer’s solo work for violin (Ultraschall Festival Berlin, 2007) and Unsuk Chin’s Double Bind? (Paris, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, 2007). Since its world premiere in 2012, Hae-Sun Kang has performed Philippe Manoury’s Partita II for solo violin and live electronics (co-commissioned by the Festival Messiaen, Lucerne Festival and Françoise & Jean-Philippe Billarant) on numerous occasions, including at the Festival Musica in Strasbourg and in 2016 a new version for ensemble and live electronics with the Ensemble Linéa as part of the Festival ManiFeste at the IRCAM festival. She performed Jonathan Harvey’s Scena with the Philharmonia Orchestra during a concert to mark the composer’s 75th birthday in 2014. The same year, she gave the world premiere of Benjamin Attahir’s Izaaj for violin and ensemble at the Festival Messiaen. In 2016, Hae-Sun Kang premiered the ensemble version of Matthias Pintscher’s Mar’eh with the Ensemble Intercontemporain at the Philharmonie de Paris under the composer’s direction.
Hae-Sun Kang began playing the violin at the age of three in her native South Korea. At the age of 15, she moved to Paris to continue her studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, where she teaches today. Inspiring figures in her musical development included Yfrah Neaman, Franco Gulli, Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, Herman Krebbers, Josef Gingold and Yehudi Menuhin. She has won prizes at several major international violin competitions (Rodolfo Lipizer, ARD Music Competition, Carl Flesch, Yehudi Menuhin). In 1994, she joined the Ensemble intercontemporain as a solo violinist. Hae-Sun Kang now teaches chamber music and contemporary repertoire at the Conservatoire Supérieur National de Musique et de Danse de Paris and was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2014.