Conductor: Chi-Yong Chung
Chi-Yong Chung studied composition at College of Music, Seoul National University. At that time he conducted contemporary works by Korean composers with Ars Chamber Ensemble. He graduated from conducting class by Michael Gielen in Salzburg Mozarteum, Austria. Chung’s success as a conductor was launched in 1986, when he won the International Conducting Competition of the Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation in Vienna. After his appearance as a guest conductors of Radio Symphony of Leipzig, Munich Symphony, and Michigan State Symphony, he debuted in Seoul with Seoul Philharmoniker in 1992. In 1998 he was appointed as a chief guest conductor of Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and from the following year to 2001 he was music director of the orchestra. Recently his engagements include his debut appearances with Prague Radio Symphony, KBS Symphony, Bucheon Philharmonic, Korean Symphony, Daegu Philharmonic, and Daejeon Philharmonic etc. Chi-Yong Chung holds the posts of music adviser of Contemporary Ensemble of Korean Traditional Music, and music director of Changwon-Philharmonic Orchestra. He is a chairman of Korean Conductors Association and also a professor of conducting at Korea National University of Arts. Chung led Korean premieres of many works by Isang Yun, including Symphony No.1, Engel in Flammen-Memento for Orchestra with Epilogue for Soprano Solo, Three-Part Women Choir and Five Instruments, and operas such as Der Traum des Liu-Tung and Die Witwe des Schmetterlings. He is also respected for his work as an opera conductor and has performed many new productions and world or domestic premieres throughout Korea. These include by Isang Yun, Apron-Weared Soldiers by Keung-Soo Lim, A Buckwheat Flower Season by Hyeon-Ok Kim, Koo Kim and Interim Government in Shanghai by Dong-Hoon Lee. He also conducted many operas such as Italian, French, and German etc. Chung received Austrian Culture Ministry Award, Soo-Keun Kim Culture Award, and Young Artist Prize of Korean Culture Ministry, the Music Association of Korea Award, Korea Music Journalist`s Association Award.
Orchestra: Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra
The Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra has been praised at home and abroad for its outstanding performance quality, including at Suwon’s major international arts events such as the Suwon International Music Festival, Suwon International Conducting Competition, and Peace & Piano Festival; at invitational concerts and tours at leading concert halls in the world: an invitational concert at the Osaka Symphony Hall during Asia Orchestra Week; and a 4-city concert tour during the Eckes Hausen International Environment Music Festival in Germany. In 2012, the Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra successfully completed a concert tour of nine cities, the first of its kind in Korea, and presented outstanding performances at the 2012 Suwon International Music Festival. Furthermore, the Suwon Philharmonic began to perform on the European stage with the “Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra Europe Tour in 2014 Sponsored by Samsung Electronics” and an “Invitation to the 2014 Italy MERANO Music Festival”. The Orchestra’s success through all of these performances serves as an objective indicator that the Suwon Philharmonic is the best symphony orchestra in Korea, going beyond the domestic stage to stride out onto the world stage. The Suwon Philharmonic, which previously released albums on musical pieces by Berlioz, Wagner, and Bruckner, released Beethoven’s symphonies number 2 and 5 under the command of Artistic Director Daejin Kim under the Sony Classical label in 2012 to commemorate its 30th anniversary. On January, 2014, for the first time in Korea, the orchestra released a live performance CD of all the Tchaikovsky symphonies, under the Sony Classical label. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of Sibelius’s birth in 2015, the Orchestra is recording his complete symphonies and planning to record various albums in order to reach a wider audience.