After receiving the 18th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera, composer Unsuk Chin reflects on her international career and the evolution of her creative language. Chin discusses her decision to move to Germany and the impact this experience had on her artistic development, as well as how she has built a distinctive musical voice within the contemporary music landscape. Throughout the conversation, she explains the philosophical, literary, and artistic influences that shape her work, and describes how she has expanded the expressive possibilities of the voice and the orchestra through innovative compositional techniques. The composer underscores her interest in creating symbolic worlds of great expressive power, capable of generating sonic experiences that inspire the audience’s imagination and reflection.
Unsuk Chin was awarded for developing a “distinctive
After receiving the 18th BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Music and Opera, composer Unsuk Chin reflects on her international career and the evolution of her creative language. Chin discusses her decision to move to Germany and the impact this experience had on her artistic development, as well as how she has built a distinctive musical voice within the contemporary music landscape. Throughout the conversation, she explains the philosophical, literary, and artistic influences that shape her work, and describes how she has expanded the expressive possibilities of the voice and the orchestra through innovative compositional techniques. The composer underscores her interest in creating symbolic worlds of great expressive power, capable of generating sonic experiences that inspire the audience’s imagination and reflection.
Unsuk Chin was awarded for developing a “distinctive voice,” in the words of the committee, that has resonated throughout the contemporary music world, distinguished by its “instrumental virtuosity” and a “boundless imagination” with the power to evoke “symbolic worlds of great expressive depth.”
00:00 Introduction
00:09 Why did you decide to move to Germany and what impact did this decision have on your professional career?
01:12 The jury describes you as one of the great innovators of contemporary music. How have you developed your own musical voice?
02:02 What philosophical, artistic, and literary concepts have inspired your work?
03:39 How have you expanded the use of the voice through different techniques in your operas?
04:40 This award recognizes the expressive power of your music to represent symbolic worlds. What key messages have you sought to convey to audiences through your work?
