Highly praised as a ‘spiritual conductor’ by the French magazine ‘Le Monde’ Hailed as “a spiritual conductor” by Le monde,
Maestro Myung-Whun Chung is one of the most respected conductors of our time today.
Following his studies Carlo Masria Giulini’s assistant in 1979 at the Los Angeles Philharmonic and two years later was named Asso-ciate Conductor.
Since then, he has conducted virtually all of the most prominent European and American orchestras, as well as mahor opera houses. From 1984 to 1990, Myung-Whun Chung served as Music Director og the Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra in Germany.
From 1989 to 1994, he served as Music Director of the Paris Opera, from 1997 to 2005 he was the principal conductor of Santa Cecilia orchestra of Rome and from 2001 to 2010 he served as the Special Artistic Advisor og Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Since 2000, he has been the Music Director of the Orchestra Philharmonique of the Radio France, Music Director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, and Music Director of the Asia Philharmonic Orchestra which he founded in 1995. in 2011 he was appointed as the Principal Guest Conductor of the Dresden Staatskapelle.
He was awarded many prestigious prizes worldwide, among them the
Premio Abbiati and the Toscanini prize in Italy, Artist of the year prize, Victoires de la Musique prize and the Commendeur de Legion d’Honneur prize in France, the top Record Academy Prize in Japan, and Kumkuan prize in Korea.
As an exclusive artist of the famed recording company Deutsche
Grammophon Gesellschaft since 1984, his recordings have garnered numerous prestigious competitions worldwide. Con-tinuing his collaboration his recoding company, in 2011, Maestro Chung and Deutsche Grammophon established a 5-year exclusive contract with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Long committed to humanitarian causes, Maestro Chung has launcjed several music programs dedicated to youth devel-opment. As a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, he traveled to Benin last year where he pledged his time to programs in HIV/AIDS, water sanitation, and education. Through the Miracle of Music Foundation which he founded in 2008, Maestro Chung continues to bring together the worlds of humanitarian causes and music.
Seung Gwak studied at Kyung Hee University and was a trumpet player at the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and KBS Symphony Orchestra.
He then studied conducting at Mannes college in New York.
Seung Gwak served as conductor in residence for the American Ballet company, Gwak was assistant to Robert Shaw at the Atlanta Symphony for 3 years. In addition, he served as assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra under Lorin Maazel.
Mark Ermler studied conducting at the St. Petersburg Conservatory and made his debut in 1952 with the Leningrad Philharmonic orchestra and started conducting the Bolshoi opera since 1957. He conducted opera in Covent Garden, Bastille, Bayern Munchen. In addition, he conducted London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Leipzig, Gewandhaus orchestra.
Mark Ermler served as music director of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 2000 to 2002 while conducting music of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Musorgsky, the Russian masters.
His recordings of Tchaikovsky ‘s Swan Lake ,The Nutcracker, Sleeping beauty with British Covent Garden, Royal Opera House, Orchestra are critically acclaimed.
Kyung-Soo Won studied composition and conducting at Indiana University after graduating from the College of Music at SNU.
Won studied with Neville Marriner, David Zinman, and Erich Kunzel. He conducted world-renowned orchestras including the London Philharmonic, the Berlin Symphony, Vienna Tonkünstler Symphony Orchestra, and served as conductor in residence for the Stockton Symphony Orchestra in America for many years. In addition, he served as conductor in residence on two separate occasions in 1970 and 1994. He also served as Music director for the KBS Symphony Orchestra. He displayed enthusiasm for recording and upgraded the symphony orchestra’s musicianship to a higher level.
Conductor Eun-Sung Park started as a conductor with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and also as conductor in residence of the Seoul Youth Philharmonic Orchestra in 1984.
He is the first Korean to graduate from the Vienna National Music. He studied under Otmar Suitner and conducted Vienna’s Tonkunstler symphony orchestra and American symphony.
He is was invited to conduct at Carnegie Hall’s 100th anniversary and received recognition as a conductor with an extensive repertoire including opera and ballet music.
He served a conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 1984 to 1989 and also conductor in residence of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra from 1990 to 1991.
Conductor Jae-Dong Jeong studied conducting at the New English Conservatory of Music in Boston after graduating from college of music in SNU. He worked with renowned artists such as Ruggiero Ricci, Itzhak Perlman, Maurice Gendron, Pierre Founier and Barry Tuckwell.
He successfully arranged the Korean orchestra’s first European tour in 1988.
In addition, he served as a professor and dean at Joongang University and Hanyang University.
Man-Bok Kim served as Conductor in Residence from 1961 to 1969. During his time as conductor he dramatically expanded the repertory of the orchestra from the classical period to also include works by modern composers. As a conductor, he gave the Korean premieres of Mahler’s symphony and Straninsky’s Petrouchka in the 1960’s.
Man-Bok Kim graduated from the University of California after studying the composition at SNU. After graduating, he served as an associate conductor for Oakland Symphony Orchestra. When he returned to Korea he became an associate conductor for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. He conducted at the Berkshire Festival in the United States, the Yiena International Music Festival in Italy and was awarded the German National medal of culture from German Federal government. He also received the national medal, ‘Dongbaekjang’ in Korea. He served as a professor at Sudo Woman’s Educational College and Sookmyung Woman’s University.
“He posses tremendous talent and must grab the conductor’s baton.”
Originally a violinist, Saeng-Ryeon Kim studied conducting under Rolfe Zacova. He participated in the in the Tanglewood Music Festival and was praised by Charles Munch; “He possess tremendous talent and must grab the conductor’s baton.”