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Holly Hyun Choe becomes Principal Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra.
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.
Albert Schnelzer, Burn my letters – Remembering Clara
Clara Schumann, Liebesfrühlingslieder (Fr. Rückert)
Clara Schumann, Six songs Op. 13
Robert Schumann, Symphonie No.4 in D minor Op.120
Holly Hyun Choe, conductor
Marianne Beate Kielland, mezzo-soprano
NRK Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Alexander Borodin, Overture to 'Prince Igor'
Maurice Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte
Maurice Ravel, La Valse
Peter Tschaikowsky, Symphony No. 4 op. 36 (overwriting Aziza Sadikova)
Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg
Holly Hyun Choe, born in South Korea and raised in Los Angeles, impresses with her presence and radiance on the podium. The Recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award 2025 and designated Principal Conductor of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, she remains a highly sought-after guest conductor in both the United States and Europe.
After serving two years as assistant conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under the direction of Paavo Järvi, she is now residing in Germany. The 2024/25 season is her third one as Principal Conductor of the chamber orchestra Ensemble Reflektor, which sees itself as an ambassador for a musical culture without borders. She is also associated with the Orchestre de Chambre de Genève as Artiste associée, and she will conduct the orchestra both in concert and in Gerald Barry's opera Alice's Adventures Under Ground at the Grand Théâtre de Genève in April 2025.
A significant debut in her hometown stands out among her engagements in the current season: in May 2025, Holly Hyun Choe will conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for the first time. As part of the Dudamel Fellowship, she will also work alongside Gustavo Dudamel, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Xian Zhang, Natalie Stutzmann, and Philippe Jordan. Another debut will take her to the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, where she will conduct works including Kaija Saariaho’s Ciel d’hiver and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 4. Additionally, she will return to the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Orchestre de Paris, the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg, and the Kammerakademie Potsdam, with which she will also perform in Munich and Essen. In recent seasons, she has among others been a guest with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, and the Odense Symphony Orchestra.
As part of her commitment to promoting female composers, Holly Hyun Choe regularly programs works by Ethel Smyth, Clarice Assad, Grażyna Bacewicz, Lili Boulanger, Britta Byström, Louise Farrenc, Fanny Hensel, Jennifer Higdon, Jessie Montgomery, Emilie Mayer, Caroline Shaw, Dobrinka Tabakova, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Galina Ustvolskaya.
Holly Hyun Choe completed her studies with Prof. Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts in 2023. Her musical journey began self-taught: she learned to play the clarinet at the age of 13 and only received her first private music lessons at the age of 19. In 2015, she completed a master’s degree with Prof. Charles Peltz at the New England Conservatory. She has participated in master classes with Bernhard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Fabio Luisi (Concertgebouw Orkest), Peter Eötvös, Sylvia Caduff, and Jaap van Zweden, and has assisted Esa-Pekka Salonen (Orchestre de Paris), Leonard Slatkin (Orchestre National de Lyon), Simone Young (Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne/Zurich Opera), François-Xavier Roth, and Karina Canellakis (Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne).
In 2018, she was selected for the German Music Council's Forum Dirigieren; she has also been supported by a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation, a scholarship from the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, and as a participant in the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Programme.
2024/2025 season
"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