Pianist William Youn benefited from an international education in his native South Korea, the U.S., and Europe, and he has enjoyed an international career to match. His work extends into chamber music and historical performance on the fortepiano.

Youn was born in 1982 in Seoul. He took up the piano at six, and by 11, he was ready to make his debut with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Two years later, Youn moved to the U.S., undertaking musical studies at the New England Conservatory and regular secondary school classes at the Walnut Hill School in Boston. After five years in Massachusetts, Youn moved to Germany to attend the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Median in Hannover, studying with Bernd Goetzke. In 2006, he received a scholarship that allowed him to attend the International Piano Academy Lake Como in Dongo, Italy, for three years; among his teachers there were Fou Ts'ong, Charles Rosen, and fortepianist Andreas Staier. Settling in Munich, Germany, Youn embarked on an international career that has included appearances with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and the Seoul Philharmonic. His recital career has taken him to such top halls as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, and Wigmore Hall in London. An enthusiastic chamber music player, Youn has collaborated with such musicians as violist Nils Mönkemeyer, clarinetist Sabine Meyer, and the Signum String Quartet. He performs on a fortepiano as well as a modern piano.

Youn recorded several albums for the Ars Produktion, Oehms, and Genuin labels, beginning with a 2009 performance of the two Chopin piano concertos on which he joined the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra. Signed to Sony Classical in 2018, he released a recital of music by Schumann, Schubert, and Liszt in 2018. Two years later followed the first in a Sony Classical series devoted to Schubert's piano sonatas. Youn was heard in 2021 on an ECM recording devoted to music by composer Konstantia Gourzi. ~ James Manheim, Rovi