JEHI BAHK
Born 1971 in Vienna to Korean parents, Jehi Bahk began his musical education at the age of 4. He received his first lessons in piano and composition by his father Junsang Bahk, a renowned composer, and his first violin lessons by Franz Istvanits.Already at the age of 5 he was admitted, as one of youngest students ever in the history of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, into the pre-college piano class of Renate Kramer-Preisenhammer.
At the Conservatory he studied violin with Walter Barylli, former concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic, from 1979 to 1982. He continued his studies with Michael Frischenschlager and Dora Schwarzberg at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where he graduated with distinction and Master of Arts degree.
As a young student Jehi Bahk won first prize and the special prize of the Vienna Philharmonics in a contest for young musicians ("Jugend musiziert") and also won the "Stephanie Hohl" violin competition held at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.
During his studies he founded the Hugo Wolf Quartet (1993). This ensemble won the first prize at the 5th International Competition for String Quartets in Cremona and the prize for "best string quartet" at the 45th International G. B. Viotti-Wettbewerb for Chamber Music in Vercelli. In 1999 the quartet was awarded the European Culture Award in Paris.
As a soloist and most of all as a chamber musician he performed in many of the world's well-known concert halls, including Carnegie Hall (New York), Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Wigmore Hall (London), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), Hoam Art Hall und Sejong Arts Center (Seoul), Berlin Philharmonie, Herkulessaal (Munich), Tonhalle (Zurich), Vienna's Musikverein & Konzerthaus, Mozarteum (Salzburg), Philharmonie (St. Petersburg), and Rachmaninoff Hall at the Moscow Conservatory. He has taken part in numerous festivals such as Colmar, Dortmund, Edinburgh, Prague, Schwetzingen, Salzburg as well at the Carinthian Summer, Klangbogen, L'été musical dans la vallée du Lot, Mondsee Tage, Schubertiade, and Styriarte. With the Hugo Wolf Quartet he toured North- and South America, Mexico, Great Britain, Ireland, South Korea and Japan.
Jehi Bahk performed together with musicians such as Paul Gulda, Paul Meyer, Ernst Ottensamer, Xavier Philips, Alois Posch, Peter Schmidl, Mihaela Ursuleasa.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Hugo Wolfs death, Jehi Bahk arranged selected songs from Wolf's "Italian Songbook" for voice and stringquartet (2003) which was premiered by soprano Ildikó Raimondi and the Hugo Wolf Quartet at the Vienna Musikverein.From 1997 and 2003 the ensemble premiered works by Zbigniew Bargielski (Stringquartet No.4 "Le Temps ardent" und Stringquartet No.5 "Le Temps qui n'est plus"), Egon Wellesz (Stringquartet No.3 d minor, op.25), Johannes Maria Staud ("Dichotomie" for Stringquartett), Dirk D'Ase (Stringquartet No.2), Friedrich Cerha (Stringquartet No.4), Erich Urbanner (Stringquartet No.5) und Junsang Bahk (Stringquartet No.1).
He has recorded numerous CDs with the Hugo Wolf Quartet, released by the Atlantis Art, Extraplatte und Gramola labels. The latter received the ORF Pasticcio-Award. The ensemble also took part in TV, radio, and video productions for ORF, the BBC, Deutschland Radio Berlin, SWR, Radio France, Minnesota Public Radio, Unitel, RTE Irland, and KBS.
For several years Jehi Bahk has been active as a pedagogue and was recently appointed to a professorship at the German School of Music Weimar (a co-operation between the College for Music Franz Liszt in Weimar and the Kangnam University in Korea).
In May 2005 Jehi Bahk also became vice concertmaster of the "Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra" (chief conductor Myung-Whun Chung).
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