Concert
VIRTUOSITY UNBOUND: A CLASSICAL JOURNEY
JÜLİDE YALÇIN, violin
EUNYOUNG KIM, piano
BAHAR SOYÖZ, piano
HYUN-JI KWON, cello
Join us for a mesmerizing evening of classical music featuring world-renowned violinist Jülide Yalçın, concertmaster of the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and graduate of the New England Conservatory and Longy School of Music.
Accompanied by eminent pianists, Eunyoung Kim and Bahar Soyöz, and cellist Hyun-Ji Kwon, Yalçın will perform a program of classical masterpieces by Muammer Sun, Ludwig van Beethoven, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Gabriel Fauré. This concert promises to be a musical journey filled with passion, emotion, and technical brilliance.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2024 | 7:30 pm
GSU Auditorium, Boston University
2nd Floor
775 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215
Free admission. Donations encouraged.
Limited seating. First come first served.
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Co-presented with the Boston University Turkish Student Association
JÜLİDE YALÇIN, violin
Jülide Yalçın was born in Ankara. She began her violin studies at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory in 1981 with Professor Murat Tamer. Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory sent her to Lyon National de Musique Conservatory for a year as part of a cultural exchange program, where she continued her violin studies with Jean Estournet and Veronique Riou. She graduated from Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory in 1990. In the same year, she passed the audition for the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and became a first violin member.
She earned her Master's Degree at Bilkent University (Music and Performing Arts) under the guidance of State Artist Professor Suna KAN. She received her Master's Degree in 1992. Between 1992 and 1996, she successfully completed her Graduate and Artist Diplomas at the New England Conservatory and the Longy School of Music while on a Fulbright Scholarship. She studied with Eric Rosenblith and chamber music with Louis Krasner, Eugene Lehner, Felix Galimir, Daniel Phillips, and Benjamin Zander.
She performed with renowned musicians such as Yo-Yo Ma, Leon Fleisher, Seiji Ozawa, Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Gilbert Kalish, Reinbert de Leeuw, Yehudi Wyner, and the Julliard String Quartet. She worked with composers like György Ligeti, Herman Weiss, and Theo Loewendie, interpreting their works.
Among her awards are: First place in the violin competition "Lyon National de Musique" (France); "Honorary Mention" awards as a violin-piano duo in "The Shoreline Alliance" chamber music competition (USA). She has participated in numerous national and international festivals, including the "Yellow Barn" and "Tanglewood" Music Festivals in USA and the Varna Summer International Music Festival in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria, she served as concertmaster and soloist and also gave master classes and recitals at the New Bulgarian University.
She has given countless solo recitals in Turkey and abroad and has appeared as a soloist with various orchestras, including the Presidential, Istanbul, Izmir, Çukurova, Bursa, Antalya, Eskişehir, Brampton, and Sofia Symphony Orchestras.
Ms. Yalçın founded the Suzuki Music Education Association of Turkey in 2008.
She became the first female concertmaster of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra.
In 2015, she was awarded the title of Associate Professor. Ms. Yalçın taught at Hacettepe University Ankara State Conservatory and Başkent University State Conservatory.
She has a CD recording titled "Kırsaldan Ezgiler," a work based on Turkish composers, which is currently available on a digital platform at Gloss Musik, GmbH in Germany.
She continues to serve as the first concertmaster at the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra.
EUNYOUNG KIM, piano
Pianist Eunyoung Kim, a virtuoso professional soloist and chamber musician, has performed in many concerts in her native Korea, the United States, Japan, and Türkiye with organizations including Brockton Symphony Orchestra, International Soroptimist, International Contemporary Music Ensemble Musica Anatolia, Xanthos New Music Ensemble, The Fifth Tier New Music Ensemble, La Scena, and the Stratus Ensemble.
Ms. Kim began playing piano at the age of four, gave her first piano recital at age six, and in the same year won the national piano competition organized by The Korean Music & Art Society in Seoul. She continued playing the piano with passion and without any outside pressure. At age 15, she began studying with pianist Ha-Kyung Kim at the Sun-Hwa Arts High School in Korea. She won numerous piano competitions in Korea, including the prestigious Sam-Ik Piano Competition, and studied at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul with Jong-Pil Lim, Kyung-Sook Lee, Dae-Jin Kim, and Choong-Mo Kang on a scholarship from the Korean Government given to the top students of the music department. After graduating, she served as the director and a piano and music theory instructor at Bon Music Academy in Korea.
Ms. Kim continued her studies in the United States at Boston University, where she earned a Master’s Degree in Piano Performance in 2003. The American National Music Honor Society, Pi Kappa Lambda, selected her as a member in that same year. She furthered her studies at Longy School of Music with Robert Merfeld, Victor Rosenbaum, Wayman Chin, and Jonathan Cohler, and in 2006 she received a Graduate Performance Diploma in both Piano Performance and Collaborative Piano Performance with distinction.
After graduation from Longy, Ms. Kim performed as a soloist at the New Hampshire Music Festival, in addition to premiering new solo and chamber works of Koray Sazlı, Çağlar Arsu, Mark Berger, Mauricio Pauly, and Gorge Grossman in the New England area. She also performed at the Kendal Music Series as a soloist, as well as in Nagoya, Japan, with the organization International Soroptimist. She has also appeared at the Tanglewood Music Festival as well as New England Conservatory faculty concerts.
Ms. Kim was awarded prizes in both 2005 and 2006 in the International Chamber Music Ensemble Competition, and in 2008 she was awarded the third prize in the Hugo Kauder International Piano Competition and the Glady Cauthen Award from the International Beethoven Sonata Competition in Memphis in 2009. She has been recognized for her "coherent interpretation and emotional depth" by pianist David Allen Wehr and her "uncanny, virtually unique ability to perform contemporary music” by pianist Victor Rosenbaum, who also described her as “one of the most sought-after pianists.” In reviews about Xanthos Ensemble, of which Ms. Kim has been a member since 2006, the group has been described by the New York Times as “so copiously skilled and confident”, and by the Boston Globe as "brilliant" and “stunning.”
Besides her active performance career, she has been the music director of the Boston Youth Music Ensemble, a young performance group, since 2021. She also loves teaching piano and maintains a private studio in Lexington. Massachusetts, USA.
BAHAR SOYÖZ, piano
Pianist Bahar Soyöz came to Boston from Türkiye to pursue her passion in collaborative music as a Fulbright scholar. She performs solo and chamber music in the New England area, teaches piano at the South Shore Conservatory where she also serves as Piano Department Chair. At her alma mater Longy School of Music, she works as an accompanist where she performs with graduate students.
Ms. Soyöz held faculty positions in Hacettepe and Bilkent University Music Departments. In Hacettepe she has coached students of percussion, wind and brass, in addition to teaching piano at Bilkent University.
Ms. Soyöz has performed in venues such as Gokyay Chess Museum and Mozarthaus in Ankara, Turkiye. She also performed in Fulbright concerts that took place in Harvard Paine Hall and B.U. Tsai Performance Center. In the summer of 2022, Bahar performed along with Violinist Ming-Hang Tam and cellist Kay Jang, in the final event of 'Evenings Under the Stars' concert series in Hingham, MA. She was recognized by Steinway & Sons, and was the recipient of '2023 Top Piano Teacher' award.
Her biggest joy in performance has always been collaboration, and this brought Baritone David T. Mather and Bahar together to perform as Duo A Priori since 2021. She also had fantastic partners such as Soprano Jessica A. Bloch, Violinist Maria loudenich and Dramatic Soprano Funda Yazıksız.
HYUN-JI KWON, cello
Cellist Hyun-Ji Kwon is an active soloist, chamber musician, and educator. She is a member of the Boston Lyric Opera, Meadowlark Trio, Echo Bridge Cellos, and Convergence Ensemble, and frequently performs with the Boston Ballet Orchestra, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project (BMOP), and the Rhode Island Philharmonic Orchestra.
Kwon recently held the solo cello chair in the pre-Broadway musical 'The Queen of Versailles' and in the national tour of the Broadway musical '1776'.
She has taught at Colby College, Boston University, and the Boston University Tanglewood Institute (BUTI), where she served as Co-director of the Cello Workshop and cello coach for BUTI's Young Artist Orchestra Program. Currently, she is a cello faculty member at Phillips Exeter Academy, Project STEP, and Four Strings Academy.
Kwon earned her Bachelor of Music degree at Ewha Women's University in Seoul, Korea; her Master of Music and Graduate Diploma at the New England Conservatory in Boston; and her Doctor of Musical Arts at Boston University under the mentorship of Rhonda Rider.
