BEST OF YIRUMA
Lee Ru-ma, born February 15, 1978, better known by his stage name Yiruma, is a South Korean pianist and composer. Yiruma frequently performs throughout Asia, Europe and North America. His alma mater, King's College, London, helped him gain European popularity and recognition. Among his most popular pieces are "River Flows in You", "Love Hurts", "Kiss the Rain", and "May Be". Yiruma's most popular album, First Love, was released in 2001.
Yiruma's musical style primarily focuses on new-age, and is said to be similar to the contemporary classical music in film scores or television dramas. Because his music is popular among many listeners who are not familiar with classical music, the solo piano instrumentation and tendency toward "movements" often leads to labels like "new classical", "pop classical" or "contemporary classical". However, although his composition studies would have included the classics, the structure of his pieces do not reflect such forms. His music has sometimes been classified vaguely as "popular", as shown by the inclusion of his hit piece River Flows in You on a compilation of wedding pieces titled "Wedding Essentials: The Ceremony". The iTunes Store considers him a World Music or New Age artist. The categorization of his style as New Age is especially prevalent among classical musicians and listeners.