Special music offering by Yang In-mo, winner of Paganini violin competition

Special music offering by Yang In-mo, winner of Paganini violin competition. January. 12, 2016 07:23. creating@donga.com.

“I feel a special commitment since this is my first performance in eight years.”

To violinist Yang In-mo (21), the Kumho Arts Hall in Seoul has special meaning. It was the venue where he held his first solo concert in 2008 when he was 13 years old. Yang will serve as the first performer of the "Rising Star Series" at the same venue at 8 p.m. on Thursday in eight years. He is playing in a concert in Korea for the first time in three years since 2013.

There has been a sea change to Yang for the past eight years. In March last year, he became the first Korean to win the grand prize at the Premio Paganini International Violin Competition, which had not honored any winner for nine years. He swept the audience prize, the modern work performance prize, and a special prize accorded to the youngest performer who advances to the final round, emerging as a global rising star. “I feel responsibility because many people are now watching me, unlike eight years ago,” Yang said. “I want to display my performance style that has changed for the past eight years.”

He was extremely busy last year. While studying at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boson, he held a number of joint performances with orchestras in major U.S. cities. “I had most concerts last year since I started playing the violin," he said. "More than anything, I was able to focus on performance, and had ample communications with audiences, which made me very happy.”

In the upcoming concert, Yang will perform Ludwig van Beethoven`s Kreutzer Sonata, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 34, and Robert Alexander Schumann’s Violin Sonata No. 3 in collaboration with pianist Park Young-sung. “A performer should not have a prejudiced view. I want to become a performer who can embrace a wide variety of audiences, while making diverse trials,” Yang said.