The overall winner of the Geneva Competition (unanimously awarded First Prize) and the Busoni Competition (first Asian pianist to win First Prize since it began in 1949), Jiyeong Mun – known in the music world as Chloe Mun – seems to be following in the footsteps of Martha Argerich, who won both awards in 1957, launching a brilliant international career. Thanks to her absolutely genuine and natural approach to the instrument, the young South Korean pianist, who was born in 1995, has earned the appreciation of the public and prestigious international juries alike in recent years. Jörg Demus, president of the 60th International Busoni Competition jury, said about her: “I have rediscovered in her a naturalness of musicality that I thought had disappeared.”
Chloe Mun began studying piano at the age of five. She soon decided that she wanted to take her piano career seriously, refusing to be discouraged by anything that stood in the way of bringing her dream to fruition. In fact, she discontinued traditional schooling in order to spend more time at the piano and subsequently graduated on her own – well ahead of her peers. In 2012 she won Germany’s Ettlingen International Youth Music Award Competition, selected for her “amazing musical imagination, so rich and full for a sixteen year old.”
She won several competitions including the Rubinstein in Memoriam International Piano Competition in Poland(2009) and the Takamatsu International Competition in Japan(2014); she also won prestigious scholarships from foundations such as the Daewon Foundation for Culture and the Korean Foundation. Considered in Korea to be one of the most talented pianists of her generation, she has performed throughout South Korea and Japan; in Europe, she has appeared in recitals and concerts with orchestras in Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Switzerland, England and the Czech Republic.
She is currently studying with Professor Daejin Kim at the Korea National University of Arts.
