Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra


The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra is a Korean orchestra, based in Seoul. Founded in 1948, it is one of the oldest orchestras in South Korea. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986 and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the Seoul Olympics that year, and a 1997 performance in Beijing. The Philharmonic is an incorporated foundation since 2005.

Overview

Founded in January 1948, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has a longer history than any other Korean orchestra. In February 1948, the orchestra held its opening concert, conducted by Seong-Tae Kim. In October of the same year, the Seoul Philharmonic Society was formed to provide support for the orchestra. The society published the music monthly Philharmony in the following year. After a subscription concert in the Seoul Civic Hall on July 25, 1950, the orchestra had to suspend its activities due to the outbreak of the Korean War, but resumed performance with the name of the Naval Symphony Orchestra, five months later. Its first foreign tour came on a 1965 trip to Japan, followed by performances in Southeast Asia in 1977, the United States in 1982, 1986 and 1996, a 1988 tour of Europe before the Seoul Olympics that year, and a 1997 performance in Beijing. The Philharmonic is an incorporated foundation since 2005.
In August 1957, the Seoul Metropolitan Council passed "The Seoul Metropolitan Ordinances to Install a City-Run Orchestra", and the Naval Symphony Orchestra became the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the first Korean orchestra funded by a government. The launching ceremony for the orchestra with triple winds took place in the city council's chamber. Saeng-Ryo Kim was appointed its first Chief Conductor. Since then, the SPO has helped the symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky take root as basic repertoire in the Korean music community. Through these concerts, Korean musicians such as Kyung-Sook Lee, Kun-Woo Paik, Kyung-Wha Chung, Dong-Suk Kang and Myung-Whun Chung attained increased recognition.
With the aim of growing into a major orchestra, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra was re-launched as an incorporated foundation on June 1, 2005 and appointed Myung-Whun Chung as its Music Director.
Since the re-launch as an incorporated foundation, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing with such world-class conductors as Leonard Slatkin, Alexander Frey, Pinchas Zukerman, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Charles Dutoit, James Judd, David Afkham, Pascal Rophe, Kirill Karabits, Mikko Franck, Andrey Boreyko, and Francois-Xavier Roth, as well as such distinguished soloists as András Schiff, Martha Argerich, Kyung-wha Chung, Viviane Hagner, Mischa Maisky, Alexander Melnikov, Ilya Gringolts, Julian Lloyd Webber, Valentina Lisitsa, Nicholas Angelich, Hakan Hardenberger, Leonidas Kavakos, Arcadi Volodos, Gary Graffman, Colin Currie, Alexei Lubimov, Martin Frost, and Heinz Holliger.
The orchestra focuses on interaction with modern music. According to the Los Angeles Times, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra "has the reputation for championing more new music than any other major Asian orchestra". It adopted the composer-in-residence system for the first time in Korea when it was re-launched as an incorporated foundation, and welcomed Unsuk Chin as its first Composer-in-Residence. Chin is founder-director of a series of modern music titled Ars Nova since 2006. It has featured conductors such as Peter Eötvös, Kwamé Ryan, Thierry Fischer, Susanna Mälkki, François-Xavier Roth, Ilan Volkov, Baldur Brönnimann and Roland Kluttig, among others. Until 2011, the series had presented around 100 Korean premieres - half of them being Asian premieres - of works by leading 20th- and 21st-century composers including Anton von Webern, Igor Stravinsky, Olivier Messiaen, John Cage, Giacinto Scelsi, Witold Lutoslawski, Iannis Xenakis, György Ligeti, Pierre Boulez and György Kurtág. In 2009, the series collaborated with IRCAM, the Paris-based centre for electronic music. Korea. Since 2011, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has commissioned or co-commissioned orchestral works by composers such as Pascal Dusapin, Peter Eötvös, Tristan Murail and York Höller for the 'Ars Nova' series. Additionally, several commissions by major Korean composers have been premiered.
The orchestra signed a contract with Deutsche Grammophon in 2011 to release 10 albums over five years, the first time that an Asian orchestra has signed such an extensive contract. A portrait CD with music by Unsuk Chin was named an International Classical Music Award and a BBC Music Magazine Award winner in the Contemporary Music category.
Myung-Whun Chung, the orchestra's most recent music director, resigned the post in December 2015. In September 2016, the orchestra announced the appointments of Thierry Fischer as its principal guest conductor and of Markus Stenz as conductor-in-residence, effective January 2017, with initial contracts of 3 years. In April 2019, the orchestra announced the appointment of Osmo Vänskä as its next music director, effective January 2020, with an initial contract of 3 years.

Conductors

;Principal Conductors
;Music Directors
;Conductor-in-Residence
;Principal Guest Conductor
;Full-time Conductor
;Artistic Supervisor
;Associate Conductor
;Composer-in-Residence