In Seoul, conductor Roberto Abbado urged young colleagues to develop their own style — Korea Herald

In Seoul, South Korea, Roberto Abbado, music director of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, urged four young participants during a conducting workshop not to consider themselves students and to develop their own artistic individuality. Korea Herald reports.

The three-day KNSO Conductor Workshop took place on September 14–16. Abbado, the orchestra’s eighth music director, said that he did not seek to shape the participants in his own image, but only shared experience gained throughout his career.

Four workshop participants

Kwon Sujeong, Oh Sung-bin, Jeong Seong-woo and Choi Jae-hyuk were selected for the program from among 37 applicants. All of them study or work with orchestras and music institutions in Europe and the United States.

The participants took turns conducting the KNSO Academy Orchestra and then reviewed recordings of their own performances. Comments after each session were provided by Abbado and Kim Noltemy, president and chief executive officer of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. For the first time, the KNSO Academy Orchestra served as the workshop’s performing ensemble.

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The conductor’s role beyond the stage

Noltemy delivered a lecture on the expanded role of a conductor in an American orchestra. She stressed that conductors do not necessarily have to become cultural administrators, but that it is important for them to understand the environment in which orchestras operate, including organizational and business aspects.

She also highlighted the complexity of working with musicians with whom a conductor has not previously collaborated and assessed the level of the four participants as comparable to that of their colleagues in the United States and Europe.

Choi Jae-hyuk received a scholarship of 2.5 million won, or about $1,800, from the SeAH Woon Hyung Lee Foundation as a promising young conductor. He called the opportunity to conduct Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony a particular honor.