Youn Sun Nah
PROJECTS:
Hailed by The Guardian as “a style-bending star,” South Korean vocalist Youn Sun Nah, has built “an impressive mainstream following” (The Times UK) performing on some of the world’s greatest stages, such as the Sochi Winter Olympics, the Montreal Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, and International Jazz Day. On her January 2024 release, the award-winning vocalist teams with pianist Jon Cowherd for new collection of songs made famous by iconic female artists including Nina Simone, Edith Piaf, Grace Jones, and others. Entitled, Elles (the feminine “they” in French), the album arrives via Warner Music Arts and was mastered by Tomek Miernowski (producer) and Bob Ludwig.
Youn’s refreshingly rich voice, which All About Jazz describes as “dramatic, sensual, and bluesy,” is a reflection of her cultured background. She was born into a family with a high appreciation for the arts in South Korea and quickly earned a reputation for her astonishing musical prowess. After relocating to Paris to study chanson and jazz, Youn’s new home embraced her with the great distinction of being appointed Officier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture in 2019. Youn made her Warner Music debut that same year with the highly lauded Immersion. Stuck in place by the pandemic, she wrote and recorded her first ever collection of all original songs, 2022’s evocative Waking World, marked as always by deep emotional insight and a haunting musical approach bridging pop gestures, folk intimacy, and surprising jazz instrumentations. Now, with the remarkable Elles, Youn Sun Nah continues to explore musical possibilities through her idiosyncratic creativity and deep sense of craft, reaching across boundaries and borders to once again touch something universal and true.
PRESS QUOTES:
The Korean vocalist presented her set’s sumptuous music, she and her rich voice, a treasure box of timbres, were the focal points.
Ottawa Citizen
A style-blending star.
The Guardian
An impressive mainstream following.
The Times UK
The South Korean singer Youn Sun Nah showed how seamlessly she could move between impressionistic high drama, abstract improv, or a folk artist’s candid simplicity.
The Guardian
