Yun Isang 尹伊桑 (윤이상) was the son of a poet. He was born in 1917 in Korea, which was a Japanese colony at the time. He studied music in Seoul and Tōkyō and began composing. When Japan became involved in the Second World War, he returned to Korea and took part in the Korean War of Independence. In 1943, he was imprisoned in Japan for this. He then taught composition in Seoul. In 1955 he traveled to Europe. He lived in Germany from 1957.

He celebrated great success by introducing East Asian elements into his concert music. In 1963, he visited North Korea from Germany. The South Korean secret service kidnapped him from Berlin in 1967 and brought him to Seoul via Bonn, where he was threatened with a life sentence. The solidarity of international artists led to his release in 1969. Since then, he has lived in Germany, from where he campaigned for the democracy movement in South Korea and for Korean reunification.

Yun died in Berlin in 1995.

An honorary grave of Yun Isang was located at the Gatow landscape cemetery in Berlin-Spandau. In 2018, his urn was transferred to Korea and buried there.