Once upon a Time

Flutist Sung-hyun Cho is one of the brightest stars in today’s Korean classical music scene. In 2018 Cho became a permanent principal flutist of Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra whilst still in his twenties, only nine months after he joined the prestigious orchestra with the full support of its artistic director Francois Xavier Roth.

Cho began his professional career as an orchestral musician at the prestigious Karajan Academy under the Berlin Philharmonic. There, Cho had the privilege of being mentored by world-class flutists Emmanuel Pahud, Andreas Blau, and Michael Hasel. He participated in regular concerts and tours of the Berlin Philharmonic under the baton of eminent conductors such as Simon Rattle, Zubin Meta, and Ricardo Chailly. Cho previously served as a guest principal flutist of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in the 2015/16 season under Iván Fischer, and the Cologne Chamber Orchestra under Christophe Poppen (2017/18/19 season).

Cho’s competition highlights include winning the top prize and a special prize for the best performance of Luciano Berio’s “Sequenza” at the inaugural International Flute Competition“Severino Gazzelloni” in Italy in 2012, and second prize at the Prague Spring International Competition in 2015.

He has been frequently featured in numerous music festivals around the world, including the Falaut Festival, Slovenian Flute Festival, Beijing International Flute Festival, Incontri Musicali Series in Milan, Kammermusik Cologne, Schwetzingen Festival and Musikalischer Sommer in Ostfriesland in Germany, Villa Musica, and Cremona Wind Festival in Italy.

Cho is a keen chamber musician, and is a founding member of the Veits Quintet, along with oboist Kyeong Ham, hornist Ricardo Silva, bassoonist Koyama Rie, and clarinetist Han Kim. The quintet won second prize at the Carl Nielsen International Music Competition in 2015, and is still actively performing in Europe. Their recording of the 19^th and 20^th French music with the ARS label was released worldwide in 2015.

Cho relocated to Korea in 2019 after becoming the youngest person ever to be appointed as a faculty member at the Department of Instrumental Music at Yonsei University in Seoul. In just two years, Cho has quickly established himself as one of the most prolific and sought-after flutists in the country. His recent appearances include Music in PyeongChang, Tongyeong International Music Festival, Seoul International Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival, and the Korean Orchestra Festival by the Seoul Art Center.

Cho is a graduate of Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, U.S., Hochschule für Musik Hannover, and Hochschule für Musik München, studying with Eui Kyung Park, Michel Debost, and Andrea Lieberknecht.

Oboist Kyeong Ham won the second prize at the 66th ARD International Music Competition in Munich 2017 (no first prize was given). He holds the position of the second oboe and english horn at the prestige Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Concurrently, he serves as a second principal of Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, a principal of Budapest Festival Orchestra, and a member of Veits Quintet. He studied with Nicholas Daniel at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen and later at the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin with Dominik Wollenweber. He was a scholarship holder of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Herbert von Karajan Academy where he was taught by Jonathan Kelly. Also he served as solo english horn at the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and principal oboe at the State Opera Hannover. He appeared with numerous leading orchestras, such as Bavarian Radio Symphony, Munich Chamber, Moscow Chamber, Seoul Philharmonic and Baden-Baden Philharmonie. 

Sunwook Kim came to international recognition when he won the prestigious Leeds International Piano Competition in 2006, aged just 18, becoming the competition’s youngest winner for 40 years, as well as its first Asian winner. He has performed the world’s leading orchestras, including London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Finnish Radio Symphony, London Philharmonic, Radio-France Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and Philharmonia Orchestra. He has been Invited regularly for the performance at Wigmore Hall, the London International Piano Series (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Stockholm Konserthuset, Teatro Colon Buenos Aires, La Roque d’Antheron International Piano Festival in France, Kioi Hall in Tokyo, Symphony Hall Osaka, Brussels Klara Festival, Beethoven-Haus Bonn, Klavier-Festival Ruhr and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele. He recorded two concerto discs (Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ concerto and Unsuk Chin’s piano concerto) with the Seoul Philharmonic and Myung-Whun Chung for Deutsche Grammophon. Released three solo albums with Accentus Label as well.

– After studying at Korea National University of Arts, studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover in Germany

– A second-prize winner as well as two special prizes at the Tchaikovsky International Music Competition in 2011

– Had close collaborations with Valery Gergiev, Dmitri Kitajenko, and Lorin Maazel. Also performed with many distinguished orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Radio France Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, and Konzerthausorchester Berlin

– Recently released a recording of Mozart piano concerto with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, which became Sir Neville Marriner’s last recording

Alexandre Baty was born in France in 1983, and studied at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has performed as a soloist with prestigious orchestras such as Radio France Philharmonic (Paris) and Seoul Philharmonic since 2008. Alexandre was awarded the first prize of the International Competition Joseph Haydn in Budapest and the International 62nd competition “Prague Spring” and also the second prize of the Munich ARD in 2011. He was the principal trumpet of the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. Currently he serves as a principal trumpet at Orchestre philharmonic de radio france and professor at Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He established ‘Baty Brass Academy’ to train young artists in Korea since 2013.

Award-winning Ukrainian-British violist and conductor Maxim Rysanov has established himself as one of the worldʼs most vibrant and charismatic musicians. As a violist, he is principally known as a frequent guest of the crème of the international music scene, such as BBC Last Night of the Proms and the festivals of Edinburgh, Salzburg and Verbier. He has performed with the Mariinsky Orchestra (Valery Gergiev), Russian National Orchestra (Mikhail Pletnev), BBC Symphony Orchestra (Jiří Bělohlávek), Seattle Symphony (Andrey Boreyko) and Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León (Vasily Petrenko). Maxim is also a keen chamber musician whose chamber partners include Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Mischa Maisky, Gidon Kremer, Nicola Benedetti, Vadim Repin, Augustin Dumay and Viktoria Mullova. His enthusiasm for new music generates many exciting collaborations which extend the viola repertoire, including world premieres by Dobrinka Tabakova and Pēteris Vasks. Maxim enjoys a parallel career as a conductor, which he studied in tandem with the viola at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He works every season with La Verdi Orchestra Milan. Other recent conducting engagements include Basel Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra etc. He is delighted to have a Giuseppe Guadagnini viola (1780) on an extended loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation.

Born in Frankfurt in 1985, Leonard Elschenbroich studied in London’s Yehudi Menuhin School and spent more than half of his life in England. He started garnering worldwide attention after performing with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Schleswig-Holstein Festival in 2009. The artistic sensibility he inherited from his father, an Italian documentary director and author, and his mother, a German sociologist and author, is evident both in his playing and his musical outlook. He is skilled at expressing the richness of the cello sound, evoking the feeling of listening to a cellist from the past. His balance between clarity in the high notes and weightiness in overall sound is first-class. He has been performing at BBC Proms since 2012, and at last year’s festival, he performed Brian Elias’ Cello Concerto. His ability to step in at the last minute to perform a newly written piece in just two weeks exemplifies his strength of concentration.

Since winning the first prize at the widely acclaimed first Sendai International Competition in May 2001, the charismatic violin virtuoso Svetlin Roussev enjoys a prestigious international career in many of the world’s major concert halls, including the Bolshoi Theatre and Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Seoul Arts Center, Salle Pleyel, UNESCO. Roussev is a regular guest soloist with various orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Orchestre National de Belgique, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, George Enescu Philharmonic Orchestra (Bucharest) among others.
Roussev is a professor at his alma mater at the prestigious Haute École de Musique in Geneva after 10 years being a professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris. He has won numerous prizes at many international competitions, including Indianapolis, Long-Thibaud and Melbourne. At the Sendai International Music Competition he also garnered the audience prize and the Best Bach concerto performance. Svetlin Roussev performs on the Stradivarius 1710 Camposelice violin kindly loaned by the Nippon Music Foundation.

South African born violist Gareth Lubbe currently teaches viola at the Folkwang University of the Arts in Essen, Germany. He collaborated as a solo violinist with orchestra at the age of five, and performed at the inaugural ceremony of Nelson Mandela in Pretoria in 1994. He was a former principal viola of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He has worked regularly as principal violist of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, led by Claudio Abbado and Daniel Harding, among others. He has been acclaimed in the art of overtone singing (polyphonic vocal technique), performing and giving master classes worldwide.

Julian Steckel is widely praised as one of the leading cellists of our time. Julian Steckel played his way to first prize in the ARD International Music Competition, also winning the Audience Award, the Oehms Classic Award as well as the prize of the Münchner Kammerorchester. Julian Steckel regularly performs with leading orchestras including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, and so on. He has partnered with eminent conductors such as Valery Gergiev, Sir Roger Norrington, Jakub Hrusa and Christopher Hogwood. Julian Steckel is a passionate chamber musician and can be heard alongside leading fellow musicians such as Janine Jansen, Christian Tetzlaff and Antje Weithaas. He also performs with the Modigliani, Armida and Ébène quartets and is a regular guest at major festivals such as the Lucerne Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern festivals and Beethovenfest Bonn. Julian Steckel studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. He is a professor of cello at Munich University of Music and Performing Arts. He plays an Urs W. Mächler cello (2005).

Michinori Bunya studied double bass at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music. He also took classes in violoncello with Prof. Reine Flachot and in conducting with Prof. Erwin Born. After his studies in Tokyo, he continued his academic education with Prof. Guenter Klaus in Wuerzburg. He won the Music College Prize in England, the Valentino Bucchi Competition in Rome and the ARD International Music Competition in Munich. After five years in Germany he received the first professorship in Wuerzburg. He educated more than 110 professional double bass players until today.

Violinist Paul Huang, is the recipient of the prestigious 2015 Avery Fisher Career Grant and a 2017 Lincoln Center Award for Emerging Artists. His recent and forthcoming engagements include recital debut at the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, concerto appearances with the Mariinsky Orchestra (Valery Gergiev), Nuremberg Symphony (KahChun Wong), Detroit Symphony (Leonard Slatkin), Houston Symphony (Andrés Orozco-Estrada), Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Seoul Philharmonic (Markus Stenz), and Taipei Symphony (Gilbert Varga). This season, he also appears with the Grant Park Festival Orchestra and Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Santa Barbara, Charlotte, Alabama, Pacific, and the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan. An artist member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and guest artist at festivals worldwide, Paul Huang’s chamber music collaborators have included Gil Shaham, Nobuko Imai, Lawrence Power, Mischa Maisky, Lynn Harrell, Edgar Meyer, Yefim Bronfman, and Marc-André Hamelin. Winner of the 2011 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Mr. Huang graduated from The Juilliard School and plays on the 1742 ex-Wieniawski Guarneri del Gesù on extended loan from the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

A-Rah Shin gained international recognition as a top prizewinner at the George Enescu, Tibor Varga, and Sendai Competitions. She has appeared as soloist with world-famous orchestras in Europe and Asia, and given recitals in Hannover and at the Teatro Carlo Felice, Israel Festival, and Blue House. She is the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s associate concertmaster and has served as associate concertmaster for the Clos Vougeot music festival orchestra in France.

Youngki is a soloist, chamber, orchestral musician, and associate principal flutist of the Beijing Central Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. An active solo flutist, Youngki has won 1st prize in London Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music competition, 1st prize in New York American Protégé International Music competition, a winner of the Accent Music Festival concerto competition, Flute Society of Kentucky competition, Baur Music foundation competition (with Honors Award) and Seoul Flute Young Artist Competition. Prior to his appointment at Bejing Central Symphony, Youngki performed as principal flute with orchestras including Orchestra Excellence (Italy), Orford Symphony, PRISMA Philharmonic (Canada), Cincinnati Starling Chamber Orchestra, Music X contemporary ensemble (USA). Youngki has appeared in many music festivals such as Orford Music Academy, Suoni dal Golfo Music Festival, Accent Music Festival, Busan Maru International Music Festival and Beijing Modern Music Festival. He graduated with his Performer Diploma in flute performance from Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music as a student of Thomas Robetello and holds degrees both Bachelor of Music and Master of Music from College Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati where he studied with Dr. Brad Garner and Randy Bowman.

Clarinetist Han Kim has already been recognized around the world as the most promising clarinet prodigy. Han Kim has appeared as a soloist with a number of orchestra such as KBS symphony orchestra and Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra and has been collaborated chamber music performances with many of world’s finest musicians including Arto Noras, Wolfgang Meyer and Daniel Müller-Schott. Since he launched his international career by recital at the 2008 international clarinet festival in Japan at the age of 12, he was among the distinguished artists invited to perform numerous music festivals. Han Kim is the 1st prize winner of the 3rd Jacques Lancelot International Clarinet Competition, as well as receiving the audience prize and the prize for the commissioned work. He received numerous awards including the Jury’s special prize of the 2nd Beijing International Music Competition on 2009. He is the youngest member of Kumho Asiana Soloists and a founding member of Veits quintet, the 2nd prize-winning woodwind quintet of the 1st Carl Nielsen international chamber music competition. He graduated Eton College in U.K. He studied with Sabina Meyer at Musikhochschule Lübeck. Currently he is the 2nd Solo Clarinet of Finnish Radio Symphony.