Korea-Japan Jointly Honor Cello Maestro on 100th Birth Anniversary

Janos Starker 100th Birthday Concert
From the 3rd to the 5th at Lotte Concert Hall
Professor Yang Sung-won and Students Prepare the Stage

The upcoming 5th marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Hungarian-American cello maestro J?nos Starker (1924?2013). Starker, a world-renowned cellist, was passionate about music education. As a result, many famous cellists active on the global stage today are his students. In Korea, Professor Yang Sung-won, a cellist and faculty member at Yonsei University College of Music who also serves as the artistic director of the Pyeongchang Daegwallyeong Music Festival, is a representative example.

At Professor Yang Sung-won's suggestion, the "J?nos Starker 100th Birthday Commemorative Cello Festival" will be held simultaneously in Korea and Japan. This music event, planned and sponsored jointly by the Lotte Cultural Foundation, the Japan Cello Association, and Suntory Hall, will take place from the 3rd to the 5th at Lotte Concert Hall in Korea. In Japan, it will be held from the 5th to the 7th at Suntory Hall, a premier classical music venue in Tokyo.

Artistic directors of the concert are Director Yang Sung-won and Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, the representative of Suntory Hall. Tsuyoshi is also a student of Starker. Director Yang and Representative Tsuyoshi formed their teacher-student relationship while Starker was a professor at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in the United States. When Starker had many performances and could not teach, they would substitute for him.

Starker visited Korea several times starting in 1967 to perform cello concerts. Notably, a performance in 1975 at Ewha Womans University Auditorium, when Yang Sung-won?born in 1967?was seven years old, became a turning point in Yang’s life. Professor Yang said, "It was the first time I heard a cello performance, and it would not be an exaggeration to say it was a life-changing experience." Professor Yang became Starker’s student at Indiana University in 1986.

Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Representative of Suntory Hall, Japan (left), and Yang Sung-won, Artistic Director of Pyeongchang Daegwallyeong Music Festival
[Photo provided by Lotte Cultural Foundation]

This concert was arranged after Professor Yang proposed to Representative Tsuyoshi two years ago to hold a music event commemorating their teacher’s 100th birthday, and Tsuyoshi gladly accepted.

On the first day of the concert at Lotte Concert Hall, the 3rd, six cellists will perform all six of Bach’s Cello Suites. Representative Tsuyoshi will perform the first suite, Director Yang will perform the final sixth suite, and others including Mark Kosower, principal cellist of the Bamberg Symphony, will join the performance. On the 4th, under the theme "Sonatas and Ensembles," Beethoven’s cello sonatas and Kod?ly’s solo cello sonata will be performed. Gary Hoffman, another student of Starker, will perform Beethoven’s cello sonata with pianist Shigeo Neriki, who frequently collaborated with Starker on recordings. Japan’s next-generation cellist Michiaki Ueno will perform Kod?ly’s solo cello sonata. Michiaki is a student of Hoffman, thus indirectly learning Starker’s musical world through his teacher.

All musicians participating in this concert are either students of Starker or students of his students, maintaining a connection to Starker. Korea’s next-generation cellist Han Jae-min is scheduled to perform on the 8th at Suntory Hall in Japan; he was taught by Representative Tsuyoshi during several lectures at the Korea National University of Arts.

The final event on the 5th is "Night of Concertos," featuring cello concertos by Haydn, Schumann, and Dvo??k. Lee Seung-won, winner of the Malco International Conducting Competition held in late April, will collaborate with the Seoul Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra for the performance.