Happy Birthday, Violinist Dong-Suk Kang!

Today is South Korean violinist Dong-Suk Kang's 70th birthday!

South Korean violinist Dong-Suk Kang was born on this day in 1954.

Born in Korea, Dong-Suk Kang went to New York in 1967 to study at the Juilliard School and then the Curtis Institute with Ivan Galamian. He first came to the attention of the American public in 1971 when he created a sensation by winning both the San Francisco Symphony Foundation Competition and the Merriweather Post Competition in Washington D.C.

Following his debut at the Kennedy Center and a performance with conductor Seiji Ozawa, Kang went on to win top prizes in a number of international competitions, including the Montreal, the Carl Flesch in London and the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels.

Throughout his 40+ year career, Mr Kang has performed extensively with many  of the world's top orchestras, including those of Philadelphia, Cleveland, Los Angeles, Saint Louis, San Francisco, Baltimore, Washington and Montreal in America, and Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonia, BBC Orchestras, Halle, Birmingham, Scottish National.

In the realm of recording, he has recorded well-known works, such as Vivaldi's Four Seasons, but also the Nielsen and Elgar violin concertos, complete chamber music of Honegger and Alkan, and the Furtwängler Sonata. His recordings have won critical acclaim and awards among which include the Grand Prix du disque from both the Académie Charles Cros and the Nouvelle Académie du disque. His CD recording of Walton's Violin Concerto was chosen as CD of the month by the Gramophone magazine and nominated for the Gramophone Award in 2000.

Currently, Dong-Suk Kang is a professor at Yonsei University in Seoul and artistic director of the MusicAlp Festival in France and the Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music in Korea. He also serves on the jury of a number of prominent international violin competitions.

DONG-SUK KANG | SIBELIUS VIOLIN CONCERTO IN D MINOR | JERZY MAKSYMIUK & BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA | 1990 BBC PROMS FESTIVAL