Van Cliburn Gold Medal Winner (2017)

The 28-year-old is fresh off that three-week keyboard gauntlet also known as the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, where he captured the coveted gold medal. Soon, he’ll give recitals in cities all over the map–including at Boulder's own Macky Auditorium.

CU Presents

His playing was crisp and effervescent, with crystalline trills; in a work that demanded parity, he was an ideal foil.

The New York Times

Sunwoo, 28, seems to have music pouring out of his fingers; his musicality and elegance—combined with an economical technique and multiple variations in tone and dynamic levels—are gaining him fans.

Clavier Companion

Muhammad Ali’s famous quote ‘Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee’ came to my mind. This was because Sunwoo employed a very wide range of dynamics, from the softest soft to the loudest loud, in his interpretation. His performance became more effective as it went on, and the finale raised goose bumps.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

[He] started out in a deceptively unassuming way and then quietly snuck up on greatness: a thoughtful performance of one of the hardest concertos in the repertoire ... Sunwoo certainly walked an assured line between these two extremes, offering technical brilliance set off by artistic sensitivity.

The Washington Post

The first half of his program for Macky is filled by a single large work, Schubert’s C-minor Sonata, the first of three sonatas Schubert wrote shortly before his death. “The C-minor is lesser known, compared to the last two,” Sunwoo says.

After an intermission, he will play “Ramble on the Last Love-duet,” based on a theme from Richard Strauss’ opera Der Rosenkavalier by the eccentric Australian composer Percy Grainger. After a gentle opening that reminds Sunwoo of “a sunset on the ocean,” the piece becomes rhapsodic and virtuosic.

Peter Alexander, Boulder Weekly

 He performs on Friday at Macky Auditorium as part of the CU Presents Artist Series, which always brings the winner of the quadrennial competition to Boulder the following fall. "I've been fortunate to win quite a few competitions, but the Cliburn is the big one," Sunwoo said. "The gold medalist is guaranteed to have a lifelong concert career right after winning."

Kelly Dean Hansen, Daily Camera