Concert Organist - Dong-Ill Shin
Dong-Ill Shin has been hailed as “one of the world’s most promising talents of
his generation” (Echo Republicain, France) and as having “formidable discipline
and considerable musicality” (Dallas Morning News, USA) and “an amazing
technique, sensibility, and talent” (ABC, Spain). He has been praised for his
“impressive precision, brisk sense of purpose, and deliberate avoidance of empty
display” (The Straits Times, Singapore) and for having played “one of the best
classical music concerts of the year” (Star Telegram, USA).
At age 10, Shin made his concert debut as a pianist with The Busan Philharmonic
Orchestra, playing Mozart’s Concerto in D Minor, no. 20. Attracted by J. S.
Bach’s music and the orchestra-like colors produced by the organ, he started his
organ studies at age 14. He majored in organ performance and church music at
Yonsei University in Seoul and completed his Bachelor of Music degree in 1997.
Shin then studied in France with Jean Boyer and received the Diplôme National
d’Etudes Supérieures Musicales from the Conservatoire de Lyon. His studies
continued with Olivier Latry and Michel Bouvard at the Conservatoire de Paris in the prestigious Cycle de
Perfectionnement Program.
Shin is a prize winner of international competitions such as the Musashino-Tokyo International Organ Competi-
tion, the Prague Spring International Music Festival and Competition, the St. Albans International Organ Competi-
tion, and the Grand Prix de Chartres International Organ Competition. He has been a featured artist on radio and
TV in Korea, Japan, France, Lithuania, Hungary, Spain, Germany, Luxembourg, Australia, and the USA. He has
given numerous concerts in 23 states in the US and in Latin America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and the Far East
and has appeared at prestigious venues in Paris, Budapest, St. Petersburg Russia, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong,
Beijing, Seoul, Washington D.C., New York City, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Melbourne Australia. He has been
featured in numerous music festivals, including the Monaco International Organ Festival, the Chartres Interna-
tional Organ Festival, the St. Albans International Festival, the Nuremberg International Festival, the Festival du
Comminges, and the International Bamboo Organ Festival.
Shin has played under the baton of Jean-Claude Casadessus, Yoel Levi, Hans Graf, Myungwhun Chung, and
Thierry Fischer and has collaborated with other musicians, such as Sumi Cho and Yo Yo Ma. He has premiered
new works by Unsook Chin and Joel Martinson and has been commissioning new works for organ and
saenghwang, a traditional Korean wind instrument. His collaboration with saenghwang player Hyoyoung Kim has
been highly praised as a “wonderful collaboration between two instruments that have different backgrounds but
have the same way of producing sound. They show how a Korean traditional instrument can marry with a typical
Western instrument.”
Shin held music positions for more than 10 years in the USA before moving back to his native South Korea in
2011. He is currently professor of organ and university organist at Yonsei University, Seoul.
Event Links
Website: https://go.evvnt.com/3582401-0
