Important Information

The South Korean concert pianist/composer Lee Ru-ma was born in South Korea on February 15, 1978.
He began playing the piano at the age of five, and was raised in South Korea until the age of eleven when the musical prodigy moved to London, England to accept an invitation to attend the prestigious Purcell School of Music.
While attending the school, he applied for and received dual citizenship from the British and South Korean governments.
After graduating from Purcell in 1997, he earned a college degree in Composition from King's College London, finishing his college work in 2000.
By then, he had already made a name for himself while touring during his college years under the name Yiruma.
In 2002, he played at the MIDEM in Cannes, France.
It was the first time a Korean born musician received such an invitation, making a historical impact for his country.
Yiruma's musical style is easy to misclassify.
Because his music is popular among listeners who are not familiar with classical music, the solo piano instrumentation and tendency toward "movements" often leads to labels like "new classical" or "contemporary classical".
However, although his composition studies would have included the classics, neither the structure of his pieces nor his technique as a pianist are heavily influenced by them.
For the actual structure of his music, the movement and reach required to play his pieces averages around Grade 7 by Royal Conservatory standards.
Pattern and repetition feature prominently, however, making the structure more like popular pieces or movie themes than traditional solo piano compositions.
Yiruma's pieces are also heavy in simple melody and rhythm, making them immediately attractive to many modern ears. Between 2001 and 2003, he released his first three albums.
They included "Love Scene" (2001), "First Love" (2001) and "From the Yellow Room" (2003).
Each album did quite well for the classical genre, establishing him as a popular pianist throughout Europe.
Several of his most popular pieces include, "River Flows in You", "Kiss the Rain", and "Maybe".
After recording and releasing four more albums, he was obliged to serve in the South Korean Military in order to maintain his citizenship.
He had to denounce his British citizenship to do so and joined the Navy late in 2006.
After completing his tour of duty in 2008, he headed straight to his Yiruma Comeback Tour throughout South Korea.
In early 2009, he was hired as a DJ on KBS1FM to do his own radio show called "Yiruma's Music from All Around the World".
After settling a dispute with his former record company, Yiruma signed with Sony Music Entertainment Korea in 2010.
Under the new label, he has released three albums.
He has remained active by writing scores for movies and TV and started working with a new radio show called MBC on HLKV-FM.