Conductor Yoon Han-gyeol and Queen Elisabeth Competition Winner to Perform on National Symphony Stage Next Year

National Symphony Orchestra Announces Next Year's Lineup
No Jaebong Appointed Resident Composer for 2024-2025 Season

Next year, the National Symphony Orchestra will return to audiences with a variety of performances, including a collaboration stage with the winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition violin category.

National Symphony Orchestra performance stage. [Photo by National Symphony Orchestra]

On the 6th, the National Symphony Orchestra unveiled its 2024 season repertoire under the theme of ‘The Face of Music.’

Next year, the National Symphony will hold a total of eight performances. The orchestra defined the two pillars of the 2024 season program as the ‘innovation’ and ‘contemporaneity’ of music.

In line with this theme, the National Symphony will showcase works by French and Russian composers such as Ravel, Debussy, Berlioz, Chabrier, and Rodrigo, instead of German and Austrian composers like Beethoven and Brahms.

The performances will feature pianist Jean-Effran Babuze, Jaehong Park, guitarist Milos Karadaglic, harpist Xavier de Maistre, and cellist Jan Vogler, among others.

In particular, the collaboration stage with the winner of the Queen Elizabeth Competition violin category is highly anticipated. The Queen Elizabeth Competition is considered one of the world’s top three competitions and is the fastest way to meet promising future classical musicians domestically. The collaborator will be decided based on the results of the 2024 Queen Elizabeth Competition finals scheduled for June 1st (local time) next year.

Next year’s performances will feature Artistic Director Davit Ryland along with three guest conductors. The first to take the stage is Han-gyeol Yoon, who gained attention after receiving the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductor Award last June. On March 9th, at Lotte Concert Hall, Yoon will present Stravinsky’s 'Pulcinella Suite' and 'The Firebird Suite.' French pianist Jean-Effran Babuze will join as a soloist to perform Ravel’s complete Piano Concerto.

Additionally, Leo? Sv?rovsk?, praised as a conductor who sublimated Czech nationalism into art, will present Dvo??k’s music on July 21st at the Seoul Arts Center. Ludovic Morlot, music director of the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra, will explore the new sounds and rhythms of neoclassicism proposed by Stravinsky on August 31st at the Seoul Arts Center.

The National Symphony has commissioned composer No Jaebong as the resident composer for 2024-25 and will premiere his new work ‘I Want to Go Home’ at the regular concert on December 6th next year. The new work by Jeon Yae-eun, the 2022-23 resident composer, will be unveiled for the first time at the July 21st performance next year.

David Ryallant, Artistic Director of the National Symphony.
[Photo by National Symphony Orchestra]

Davit Ryland, who has been working with the National Symphony for three years, will introduce the representative works of Ravel, Debussy, and Berlioz, as well as the musical worlds of Mahler, Chabrier, Rodrigo, and Elgar.

He will also perform a program highlighting Stravinsky and Shostakovich, who raised the banner of anti-ideology amid the current reality of concerns about a domino effect of war.

Davit Ryland, Artistic Director of the National Symphony, said, "This season will be a year that fully reveals the persona of the National Symphony," adding, "The rich repertoire and the feast of specialists will captivate the audience’s eyes and ears. Based on the experience and trust of the past two years, we will refine a more delicate ensemble." Ryland was awarded the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French government last November.

Choi Jeongsook, CEO of the National Symphony, said, "Next season will be a feast of concertos that delight the eyes and ears, including the complete Ravel Piano Concerto as well as guitar and harp concertos."