ABOUT
HJ Lim
HJ Lim is a pianist of extraordinary imagination and vision; an artist who has won praise for refreshing and rediscovering the pinnacles of the piano repertoire, for the intellectual depths of her musical insight, but above all as an artist who balances all of these talents with an undeniable flair and virtuosity. She created a sensation in the music world when, in 2010, she performed the complete Beethoven sonatas over eight consecutive days. The following year, she recorded the complete cycle for EMI Classics and became not only the youngest interpreter to ever record these masterpieces, but the first and only classical pianist to debut at number one on the Billboard classical chart and n.1 on iTunes chart all over the world. Her second album is a solo recording of works by Ravel and Scriabin, released by EMI-Warner Classics. In 2016, Les editions Albin Michel has discovered her extraordinary life story and has released a book with her, “Le Son du Silence” relating her philosophical, spiritual and musical reflexions, as well as her unusual path.
HJ Lim began her musical studies at the age of three. At the age of twelve she made the decision, of her own accord, to leave her native South Korea and move to France. Here she immersed herself in the musical world of the composers who shaped her early years. After studying under Marc Hoppeler, she graduated from the Conservatoire National Région de Rouen with First Prize, and went on to become the youngest person to obtain the Diplôme d’Etudes Musicales Complètes of Normandy - aged fifteen. In 2006, HJ Lim graduated from studying under Henri Barda at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, again with First Prize.
Recent concerto performances included a tour with NDR Sinfonieorchester of Hamburg at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, in Sala Sao Paulo in Brazil, an Asian tour with Sir Roger Norrington and the Zurich chamber orchestra and 4 Rachmaninov concertos with Barcelona Symphony and Pablo Gonzalez in three days, concerts with Seattle Symphony, Philadelphia Chamber Orchestra, KBS Symphony, Moscow Virtuosi, Welsh National Opera, Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra at Zurich Tonhalle, with München Symphoniker at Herkulessaal and Prinzregententheater. She also performed at Royal Albert Hall with Royal Scottish National Orchestra, le Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Stavanger Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony at Suntory Hall, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony at the Tokyo Metropolitan Theater and the orchestra of Valencia.
In recital, HJ Lim performed at Théâtre du Palais Royal in Paris, Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord, London Wigmore Hall, Sala Verdi in Milan, Victoria Hall in Geneva and the Stadtcasino. Her festival appearances include Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Festival de Musique de Menton, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, Beethoven Festival Chicago and the Annecy Classical Festival, and at the Dublin International Piano Festival, at Festival International Piano de Biarritz, Festival of Flanders, Pianos festival de Lille, at the Grand théâtre de Provence, the Philharmonie Essen, and Osaka Symphony Hall, at Asahi Hall and at the Seoul Arts Center.
As an author, she published a spiritual and musical essay on music and life called « Le Son du Silence », and since then, HJ Lim is invited by schools and conservatories to share her passion for classical music, her life path and the importance of the pursuit of dreams with young students. She’s also invited to give concert-conferences for a wider public in search of spirituality. She is the ambassador of the foundations Graine de Génie and Allegry Philanthropy. In 2017, the Swiss leading newspaper “Le Temps” has nominated HJ Lim as one of the 100 personalities that make Switzerland.
HJ Lim has been the subject of several documentaries including “The Global Success Story” on Korean television KBS, “The super Korean that changes the world” on Korean National Assembly Television, then “The sound of silence”, a documentary filmed by Stéphane Haskell, broadcast on TV5 Monde and on France 3.
She received the Neuchâtel intercultural prize for her social work.
In 2020, she published her second book on Beethoven and writes columns for the «Hankyoreh» newspaper.