Jo Hyun Jae

Yiruma’s “First Love” is the first album that Jo Hyun-Jae recommends for an autumn night in the September issue of IN STYLE magazine.  (Please see our August 22 post “JHJ’s favourite midnight pastime” and August 27 post “Midnight IN STYLE” under Category: JHJ magazine.)

JHJ says: “A soft piano melody will relax you in a late night. If you listen to it with your girlfriend drinking a glass of slightly bitter wine, wouldn’t that be the icing on the cake?”

Yiruma is the stage name of Lee Ru-ma (born February 15, 1978), a South Korean pianist and composer. The name “Yiruma” means accomplishment in Korean.

Yiruma began playing the piano at the age of five and moved to London at the age of eleven in 1988.  He studied at The Purcell School of Music, graduating in July 1997, and then graduating as a composition major from King’s College, London in June 2000. His first album was released by DECCA while he was still studying at King’s College. During this time, he also went on a music tour throughout Europe and composed for musicals, film, and theater.

Yiruma is well-known throughout the world, and his albums are sold all over Asia, as well as the United States and Europe. His best-known pieces are “River Flows in You”, “Love Me” and “Kiss the Rain”, the former two appearing in the album “First Love” (2001), and the latter appearing in the album “From The Yellow Room” (2003). Yiruma lived in Osaka, Japan, for six years before giving up his dual citizenship (Korean and U.K.) and enlisting in the Republic of Korea Navy in July 2006 to begin his two-year military service, which is compulsory for all male South Koreans.

When Yiruma finished his service in the Korean Navy, he performed the 2008 Yiruma Come Back Tour, Ribbonized, in 20 cities across Korea. On January 1, 2009, he became a DJ for KBS1FM Yiruma’s Music from All Around the World.

(Visit his website: www.yiruma.com)

Videos of the 3 tracks here are identical, in each case PHOTOBUCKET is followed by YOUTUBE.  Some fans tell us they prefer YOUTUBE, but some countries cannot see YOUTUBE.

First Love

River flows in you

When the love falls (from “Winter Sonata” OST)

 
(Credit: Information on Yiruma from wikipedia; videos from the web – thanks to all uploaders!)