Contact
Karoline Jacobkj@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-221
Dorothea Delbrückdde@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-225
General Management
The album LAUTER! with the Ensemble Reflektor under the direction of its Principal Conductor Holly Hyun Choe, released at the end of November, presents works by Ethel Smyth, inti figgis-vizueta and Ying Wang.
For a new recording with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and flautist Alberto Navarra, Holly Hyun Choe conducted works by Mozart, Reinecke and Nielsen.
Jessie Montgomery, Records from a Vanishing City
Ludwig van Beethoven, Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin and Violoncello in C major, Op. 56
Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 104 in D major
Holly Hyun Choe, conductor
Clara-Jumi Kang, violin
Maximilian Hornung, violoncello
Sunwook Kim, piano
Orchestre national de Cannes
Joan Tower, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No. 1
Magnus Lindberg, Ottoni
Robert Kurka, The good sodier Schwejk, suite
Richard Strauss, Suite in b-flat, op. 4
Louis Andriessen, Workers' Union
NRK Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Joan Tower, Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman No.2
Julia Wolfe, Big, Beautiful, Dark and Scary
Anna Meredith, Nautilus
Selecte Poems
Esohe Weyden, speaker
Antwerp Symphony Orchestra
Peter Tschaikowsky, The Nutcracker Suite op. 71a
Carl Nielsen, Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
Ethel Smyth, Serenade in D Major for Orchestra
Lilja Steininger, flute, piccolo
Düsseldorfer Symphoniker
Born in South Korea and raised in Los Angeles, rising conductor Holly Hyun Choe is well known for her radiant presence, creative programming, and compelling artistry on the podium. The 2025 recipient of the prestigious Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award from The Solti Foundation U.S., she has assumed two major leadership positions in 2026.
In January 2026 she started her tenure as the new chief conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), entering a promising high-profile collaboration with a major, innovative, and versatile Nordic orchestra. With the new 2026/27 season, she also serves as Music Director of the Orchestre national de Cannes, presenting a rich selection of core classical repertoire at the Côte d’Azur.
A sought-after guest conductor in both Europe and the United States, Holly Hyun Choe will make her debuts with the New York Philharmonic, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony at Wiener Festwochen including a world premiere of a work by Caroline Shaw, among others.
Highlights of recent seasons include her Korean debut with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Centre Orchestra Festival and her hometown debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May 2025, where she was a Dudamel Fellow. She also conducted Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Vienna Symphony, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Copenhagen Philharmonic, and at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
Deeply committed to championing works by female composers, she has programmed, this past season alone, works by Joan Tower, Anna Meredith, Missy Mazzoli, Valerie Coleman, Charlotte Bray, Julia Wolfe, Therese Ulvo, and Grażyna Bacewicz. Her most recent recoding features Ethel Smyth's large-scale Serenade for Orchestra for the album LAUTER! with Solaire records and Ensemble Reflektor.
Holly Hyun Choe’s previous posts include Artiste Associée with l’Orchestre de Chambre de Genève (2023-2026), Principal Conductor of Ensemble Reflektor (2022-2025) and Assistant Conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi (2020-2022).
Her musical journey began as a self-taught musician: she learned to play the clarinet at thirteen and only received her first formal lessons at nineteen. She studied conducting with Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts (completed 2023), and with Charles Peltz at the New England Conservatory, and has assisted Gustavo Dudamel, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Fabio Luisi, Simone Young, Philippe Jordan, and Ludovic Merlot, among others.
Her career has further been supported by a Los Angeles Philharmonic Gustavo Dudamel Fellowship, the German Music Council's Forum Dirigieren, the Solti Foundation’s Career Assistance Award, a scholarship from the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, and the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Programme.
2026/2027 season
This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorised by the artist management.
“Choe, who has risen to the top of the young conductors, redeemed her reputation with a masterful performance. When the gigantic sound mass of a large orchestra is missing, numerous details, ingenious polyphony, handsome rhythmic twists and solo parts emerge, tickling the mind.”
Helsingin Sanomat, Annmari Salmela, 18/2/2026
“Holly Hyun Choe presents a remarkably accurate, sarcastic and ironic interpretation that expresses the ambiguity, sorrow, pain and grief of the war years.“
Resmusica, Patrice Imbaud, 2/5/2025 (Shostakovish: 9th Symphony, Orchestre de Paris)
"The orchestra and conductor are enchanting in Mozart's "Prague Symphony" (No. 38, K. 504), which is not played quite as much. The TSOI's interpretation is crystal clear"
Tiroler Zeitung, Markus Schramek, 21/4/2024
"The way Holly Hyun Choe performs Beethoven's 3rd Leonore Overture with the NTO, dense, compact, dramatically painted in the Adagio, finely chiselled or swinging and springy in the Allegro (…) - this is the highest category of symphonic music-making."
Mannheimer Morgen, Stefan M. Dettlinger, 9/4/2024
“The interpretation [of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony] by Holly Hyun Choe is captivating. She begins cautiously, without straining the slow introduction. In the Vivace and all that follows, she achieves high energy and shadings that transmit chamber music-like intimacy. The orchestra follows her, brilliantly disposed, carried by the timpani as a resonant foundation.”
Tagesspiegel, Sybill Mahlke, 15/10/2022
“She ensures evident precision and keeps the fire burning. Thus the E minor symphony becomes a listening adventure, and the not quite large orchestra enlivens this rarity with vigour and enthusiasm. Applause and encore for Ensemble Reflektor. As is sometimes the case with insider tips: the really good ones should not remain secret for too long.”
Hamburger Abendblatt, Joachim Mischke, 7/4/2022
“The orchestra mastered the turn to the baroque (…) in style. With Holly Hyun Choe at the helm, the sound remained transparent and coherent even at high tempi, as is the case when performance ability and passion come together.”
Landeszeitung für die Lüneburger Heide, Hans-Martin Koch, 7/4/2022
B. Byström, J. Brahms, A. Pärt, D. Šostakovič
Brahms: Symphony No. 4, I. Allegro non troppo
Orchestre National de Metz
Wald Ensemble, recorded on 30 September 2021Flagey Hall, Brussels, Belgium
M. Karlowicz: Serenade for Strings, Op. 2, September 2021
Wald Ensemble, recorded on 30th September 2021Flagey Hall, Brüssel, Belgien
Dvořák: Symphony No. 9, II. Largo
Filharmonie Hradec Králové
Schumann
Alberto Navarra (flute); Claudia Lucia Lamanna (harp); Odense Symphony Orchestra;Holly Hyun Choe (conductor), Orchid Classics, Orchid Classics