Chee-Yun - Chee-Yun's Sentimental Memories (2019)

Since winning the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 1989, Chee-Yun has garnered an international reputation as a renowned violin soloist. Highly praised for her dazzling tone and compelling artistry, Chee-Yun has been sought after around the world by many of the world’s leading orchestras such as Pittsburgh, Toronto, National, Albany, Dallas, Detroit, and NHK symphony orchestras, as well as Seoul, London, New York, Haifa, Hong Kong, and the National philharmonic orchestras. Chee-Yun has collaborated with distinguished conductors like Michael Tilson Thomas, Jesus Lopez-Cobos, Manfred Honeck, Krzysztof Penderecki, Hans Graf, James DePriest, Giancarlo Guerrera, Jose Luis Gomez, Piotr Gajewski, Neeme Jarvi, Pinchas Zukerman, Jaap van Zweden, Myung-Whun Chung and Carlos Kalmar. In addition, Chee-Yun has worked and toured with celebrated musicians including duo recital tours with cellist Alisa Weilerstein, a recital tour with pianist Alessio Bax, and the US premiere of Penderecki’s violin sonata no.2 with pianist Barry Douglas. Chee-Yun’s prodigious talent paved the way to her debut performances at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center at age 15; Chee-Yun continues to make recurring performances at Carnegie Hall and Kennedy Center, as well as other major concert halls around the world.
Nearly more than a decade later with successful recordings under her belt, and an established career, Chee-Yun embarked on a new musical adventure in 2002. A classical-crossover album titled, “Chee-Yun’s Sentimental Memories,” was released exclusively in Korea. Chee-Yun prepared for this project by gathering the most experienced individuals to help her navigate the new material. Chee-Yun chose Ettore Stratta, an expert producer, to oversee the album. Stratta compiled numerous songs that were popular among Korean listeners and had them re-arranged. Kenji Bunch, a Juilliard classmate of Chee-Yun, helped arrange the selected list of songs. The album consists of numerous themes from movies such as Cinema Paradiso and Somewhere in Time. It also includes a song made famous by the great French cabaret singer, Edith Piaf, as well as the theme from the soap opera “The Young & The Restless”, and other short songs/pieces from Broadway and composers such as Caccini and Handel. Chee-Yun cherishes each of the songs in this album, as these were pieces she grew up listening to during her early days as a violin student in Korea and her days studying at Juilliard in New York City. The album was enthusiastically received by Korean audiences and went platinum. The album was so successful that many of the tracks have been used in Korean films and soap operas. After seventeen years of being exclusively available to Korean listeners, Chee-Yun is releasing the album to the rest of the world.