Juri Yun Records at GSI

2023-2024 GSI Scholar and inaugural GSI intern, Juri Yun, recorded four videos for GSI. Juri, a doctoral candidate at USC Thornton School of Music, is a distinguished Canadian guitarist with performances across North America and Europe. He has been a consistent prize-winner since and in 2019 he debuted at Carnegie Hall as a competition laureate. He holds a faculty position at the Pasadena Conservatory of Music. Juri is also a teaching artist for Lead Guitar which has a partnership with the GSI Foundation.

Mentored by renowned guitarists including David Russell, Marc Teicholz, and Pepe Romero, Yun holds a Bachelor’s from the University of Toronto and a Master’s from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Sergei Rudnev’s The Old Lime Tree is a poetic and evocative work for solo guitar, blending Russian folk traditions with contemporary classical techniques. Written by one of Russia's most prominent guitarists and composers, the piece is a hallmark of Rudnev's ability to merge his deep cultural heritage with the expressive capabilities of the modern classical guitar. Juri recorded this piece on a 2023 German Vazquez Rubio "Concert 635" classical guitar made with spruce top and maple back and sides.

Written for solo viola, Henri Vieuxtemps' Capriccio "Hommage à Paganini," Op. 55, is a dazzling showcase of virtuosity and homage to the legendary Italian violinist and composer, Niccolò Paganini. Vieuxtemps, a Belgian violinist and composer of the Romantic era, was renowned for his technical brilliance and expressive playing, and this capriccio exemplifies his mastery of the violin. Juri heard this work and thought it would be a great candidate for a guitar transcription due to the prevalence of chords throughout the piece. Juri recorded this piece on a 2019 Luigi Locatto classical guitar made with spruce top and Indian rosewood back and sides.

J.S Bach’s Prelude and Fugue in A minor BWV 543 was written for organ sometime around Bach’s years as court organist to the Duke of Saxe-Weimar. Here he plays this with Marc Teicholz. Juri has transcribed this fugue for two guitars. This piece is not unfamiliar to being transcribed as Franz Listz made a transcription for piano which he titled the work as the “great fugue”. Juri began his process by referring to both the organ and piano transcription but quickly realized it would be easier to refer to the piano transcription and not lose any crucial information. Juri valued making sure there was good separation between both guitar parts and that whenever the subject was being played by either guitarist it was clear and unhindered. Juri plays here on a 2023 German Vazquez Rubio "Concert 635" classical guitar made with spruce top and maple back and sides, while Marc plays on his former guitar, a 1995 Paulino Bernabe made with cedar top and CSA rosewood back and sides.

Juri also did his own arrangement of the iconic piece, “Merry-Go-Round Of Life" from the movie by Studio Ghibli's "Howl's Moving Castle". This was recorded on a 2023 Stefan Nitschke "Vicente Arias".