Contact
Karoline Jacobkj@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-221
Estefanía Monteses@karstenwitt.com+49 30 214 594-228
General Management
As a Dudamel Fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Holly Hyun Choe will work with the orchestra, its chief conductor Gustavo Dudamel and prominent guest artists in the 2024/25 season.
For a new recording with the Odense Symphony Orchestra and flautist Alberto Navarra, Holly Hyun Choe conducted works by Mozart, Reinecke and Nielsen.
Ludwig van Beethoven, Overture to 'Leonore' No. 3 in C major, Op. 72
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64
Dmitri Schostakowitsch, Symphony No.9 in E-flat major, Op. 70
Holly Hyun Choe, conductor
Jiska Lambrecht, violin
Akademisches Kammerorchester Zürich
Kaija Saariaho, Winterhimmel
Peter Tschaikowsky, Symphonie No. 4
Orjan Matre, Concerto for posaune and orchestra
NRK Norwegian Radio Orchestra
Sverre Riise, tenor trombone
Britta Byström, A Drama in the Air
Edward Elgar, Concerto for violoncello and orchestra in E-flat minor, Op.85
Edward Elgar, Nimrod
Jenaer Philharmonie
Johannes Brahms, Luciano Berio, Klarinettensonate Nr. 1 in f-Moll, Op.120 Nr.1
Arvo Pärt, Fratres
Dmitri Schostakowitsch, Chamber Symphony Op. 73a (arr. R. Barshai)
Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana
Corrado Giuffredi, clarinet
Camille Pépin, La Source d’Yggdrasil
Camille Saint-Saëns, Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor, Op. 61
Robert Schumann, Symphonie Nr. 4 d-Moll, op. 120
Daishin Kashimoto, violin
argovia philharmonic
Holly Hyun Choe, born in South Korea and raised in Los Angeles, impresses with her presence and charisma on the podium. From 2020/21 to 2021/22, she has served as assistant conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich under Paavo Järvi. At the same time she has already conducted the Orchestre de Paris, Sinfonieorchester Basel, and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra.
In the 2023/24 season the up-and-coming conductor will continue her series of exciting debuts on the podium of orchestras such as Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Beethovenorchester Bonn, Musikalische Akademie Mannheim, Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the Spokane Symphony Orchestra, and Orchestre National de Cannes. Also, she will start her role as Artiste Associée of the Geneva Chamber Orchestra for the next three seasons.
Further, Holly Hyun Choe holds the position of principal conductor of the chamber orchestra Ensemble Reflektor, which envisions itself as a messenger of music culture without boundaries. Together, they will make their debut at the Beethovenfest Bonn and return to the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival / Elbphilharmonie as well as to Alte Oper Frankfurt.
As part of her commitment to promoting female composers, she regularly programmes works by Clarice Assad, Grazyna Bacewicz, Lili Boulanger, Britta Byström, Louise Farrenc, Fanny Hensel, Jennifer Higdon, Jessie Montgomery, Emilie Mayer, Caroline Shaw, Ethel Smyth, Dobrinka Tabakova, Anna Thorvaldsdottir, and Galina Ustvolskaya.
Holly Hyun Choe recently completed her studies with Prof. Johannes Schlaefli at the Zurich University of the Arts. She began her musical journey self-taught: having learned to play the clarinet at the age of 13 by herself, she did not receive her first music lessons until the age of 19. In 2015, Holly Hyun Choe completed a master's degree with Prof. Charles Peltz at the New England Conservatory. She has attended 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), as well as François-Xavier Roth, and Karina Canellakis (Gürzenich-Orchester Cologne).
In 2018, she was selected for the German Music Council's Grant Forum Dirigieren; she has also been supported by a Solti Foundation Career Assistance Award, a scholarship of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship, and as a participant in the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Programme.
2023/2024 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
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