Maestro Kwak Seung returns to the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra as chief conductor and musical director after 40 years, celebrating with a special concert at the Sejong Center for Performing Arts at 7:30pm, January 11. The youngest musician ever to join the SPO, at the age of 16 as a trumpet player in 1958, Kwak went to the US in 1961 and succeeded in a conducting career.
The special concert repertoire includes familiar numbers such as Wagner's overture from 'Tannhauser', Beethoven's 'Cantata' and 'Choral Fantasy,' and Rachmaninov's Concerto no. 2. Pianist Kim Dae-jin will perform the 'Choral Fantasy' along with the Yonhap Choir.
Some of US' most prestigious orchestras have been under the baton of Kwak, as he was Lorin Maazel's assistant conductor at Cleveland Orchestra and spent seven years at the New York Geoffrey Ballet Company as standing conductor. Kwak also taught conducting at Mannes College of Music, and he made the Austin Symphony Orchestra one of the most celebrated orchestras in the US during his fourteen years as director there. Kwak conducted the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra's concert at Carnegie Hall in 1997 as well as the North Korean national orchestra's concert in Seoul.
For information, call (02) 399-1629~30.
(Kim Yong-un, proarte@chosun.com )
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