Friday, January 22, 2010

Yiruma, a Korean Pianist

Yiruma is the stage name of I Ru-ma (born February 15 1978, Seoul, Korea), a South Korean piano music composer. The name "Yiruma" means accomplishment in Korean. He is married to Son Hye-im.

Yiruma is well-known throughout the world, and his albums are sold all over Asia, as well as the United States and Europe. His most famous pieces are "River Flows in You", "Love Me" which appear on the album "First Love" (2001) and "Kiss the Rain" from the album "From The Yellow Room" (2003). Although he formerly held dual citizenship as a citizen of the United Kingdom and South Korea, in July 2006 he gave up his British citizenship and entered the Republic of Korea Navy to begin his military service, which is compulsory for all male South Koreans. He lived in Osaka, Japan, for 6 years to promote album sales before giving up his dual citizenship.

From Wikipedia


I am fond of mellow songs because such compositions suit my melancholic mood. For dominantly melancholic like me, piano pieces are heaven.

I haven't heard of Yiruma nor of his music until I got my first LG phone. I just wanted to download and listen to any piano piece. Then, I remembered that one of my Korean students has a piano piece as her ringback tone. (I prefer piano pieces with lyrics unknown to me or without any lyrics at all.) Upon clicking Youtube and keying in Korean pianist, Yiruma's name appeared on top of the search list. I watched him play the piano and as soon as I heard his music, I downloaded a dozen of his pieces from Limewire. And, then, I uploaded them to my new cellphone.

So, there it is. Many times as I sleep, travel, work, contemplate, pray or read the Bible that I let Yiruma's music fill the air. So far, Spring Time is my favorite. ^^



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