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Holly Hyun Choe has given her inaugural concert as Principal Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK) on January 14 with Beethoven's Third Symphony.
Holly Hyun Choe is appointed Directrice musicale of the Orchestre national de Cannes.
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.
Emmanuel Chabrier, Habanera
Ernest Chausson, Poème de l’amour et de la mer
Johannes Brahms, Sinfonie No. 1
Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria
Holly Hyun Choe, conductor
Airam Hernández, tenor
Edward Elgar, Concerto for violoncello and orchestra in E-flat minor, Op.85
Sergej Rachmaninow, Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
Hayoung Choi, violoncello
Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra
Richard Wagner, Overture to "The Flying Dutchman"
Claude Debussy, La Mer
Stuttgarter Philharmoniker
Jean Sibelius, Concerto for violin and orchestra in D minor op.47
Benjamin Britten, Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes, Op. 33a
Dmitry Smirnov, violin
Works by Bizet, Bernstein, Donizetti and others
Ilia Staple, soprano
Rolando Villazon, tenor
Teya, singing
Wiener 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 been named to two major leadership positions in 2026: Chief Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra (KORK), where she conducted her inaugural concert in January 2026, and Music Director Designate of the Orchestre National de Cannes, beginning with the 2026/27 season.
A sought-after guest conductor in both Europe and the United States, 2025-26 season highlights include Holly Hyun Choe’s South Korea debut conducting the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra at the Seoul Arts Centre Orchestra Festival, her debuts with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich Orchestra, Wiener Symphoniker, and Orquesta Filharmonica Gran Canaria, subscription concerts with the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra, as well as her final performance as Artiste associée with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève, following such acclaimed projects as Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground at the Grand Théâtre de Genève.
Highlights of recent seasons include her hometown debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in May 2025, where she was a Dudamel Fellow, as well as returns to the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Orchestre de Paris, Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, and a tour with Kammerakademie Potsdam. She has also conducted the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestra della Svizzera italiana, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and Odense Symphony Orchestra, and the symphony orchestras of Tucson, Spokane and Oakland in the United States.
Deeply committed to championing works by female composers, she has programmed, this past season alone, works by Kaija Saariaho, Joan Tower, Anna Meredith, Valerie Coleman, Julia Wolfe, Camille Pepin, Molly Joyce, Marta Kowalczuk, Charlotte Bray, Therese Ulvo, Grażyna Bacewicz, Ruth Gipps, Amy Beach, and Clara Schumann. 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 Principal Conductor of Ensemble Reflektor (2022-2025) and Assistant Conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi (2020-2022).
Her musical journey began self-taught: 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 Esa-Pekka Salonen, Gustavo Dudamel, Fabio Luisi, Simone Young and Xian Zhang 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.
2025/2026 season
“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
"And 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
“Under the motivating direction of Holly Hyun Choe, the young instrumentalists filled the uninterrupted slowness of the seven movements (…) with crackling tension: it was a pleasure to hear this touching music in the mirror of constantly changing tone colours.”
Esslinger Zeitung, Rainer Kellmayer, 2/5/2023
“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
“In this location, too, it is more than just assiduous fun to listen to this combination. This is also due to (...) guest conductor Holly Hyun Choe, whose energetic conducting shows that she is Paavo Järvi's assistant in Zurich. 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
Schumann
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
Alberto Navarra (flute); Claudia Lucia Lamanna (harp); Odense Symphony Orchestra;Holly Hyun Choe (conductor), Orchid Classics, Orchid Classics