Maike Charlotte Fuchs
mf(at)karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594-220
Maria Dubinets
md(at)karstenwitt.com
+49 30 214 594-225
General Management
The South Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung is a real trailblazer of her profession. She is the first female conductor out of South Korea to make the leap to the podium of internationally renowned orchestras, such as the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin, the Bamberg and the Nuremberg Symphony.
When James Levine appointed her as his Assistant Conductor at the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2007, she already had a reputation as one of the most exciting emerging talents on the international music circuit: shortly before, Shiyeon Sung had won the International Conductors‘ Competition Sir Georg Solti and the Gustav Mahler Conductors‘ Competition in Bamberg. During her three-year tenure in Boston, she began a close collaboration with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and conducted their season opening concert in 2007. In 2009, the orchestra established an Associate Conductor’s position especially for her, which she held until 2013.
The list of orchestras that Shiyeon Sung has worked with since then is remarkable. This includes renowned European orchestras such as the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and the Bamberg Symphony, as well as the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which she led in a spectacular debut concert with Martha Argerich at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. Furthermore, she appeared as guest conductor at the Teatro Colón and the Stockholm Opera.
She was chief conductor of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra from 2014 until the end of 2017, during which time she led the orchestra to international success. Following a performance in 2015 at the Philharmonie Berlin, Shiyeon Sung and her orchestra were the first Asian orchestra to be invited for a guest appearance at the Musikfest Berlin, the renowned international orchestra festival, in 2017. Their recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 for Decca documents Shiyeon Sung’s outstanding work with the group of predominantly young orchestral musicians, for which she was awarded the Musical Performance Prize 2017 from the Daewon Cultural Foundation. After her departure from Gyeonggi, Shiyeon Sung has relocated to Berlin, but remains a popular guest in her home country and regularly returns to the Korea National Opera and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
Her debuts with the Utah Symphony, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, the Oviedo Filármonia and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra will be special highlights of the 2020/21 season, during which she will also return to the Seattle Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Born in Pusan, South Korea, Shiyeon Sung won various prizes as a pianist in youth competitions. From 2001 to 2006, she studied orchestral conducting with Rolf Reuter at the Hanns Eisler School of Music in Berlin and continued her education with advanced conducting studies with Jorma Panula at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm.
2020/2021 season
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On Shiyeon Sung conducting Shostakovich at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden:
With great certainty and incredible power Shiyeon Sung leads the powerful orchestra apparatus through the alternating flow of emotions and through Shostakovich's overwhelming sound inventions. Long applause thanks her for one of the best performances of the work in a long time and expresses the wish to see this great conductor again.
Wiesbadener Kurier, 25.10.2019
On the Padereweski & Chopin Piano Concerto CD with Claire Huangci:
With the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie under Shiyeon Sung, Claire Huangci presents an album that doesn't need to shy away from a comparison with the "really big ones".
hr2-kultur
The Deutsche Radio-Philharmonie under the Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung is an equal musician with its smooth sound and cultivated woodwinds.
The Pianist
Claire Huangci's partners on this album are the German Radio Philharmonic and Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung. She does her job brilliantly, and orchestra and soloist pull together audibly.
Radio Bremen
On Shiyeon Sung conducting Dvořák at the Boston Symphony Orchestra:
A former BSO assistant conductor, Sung’s unassuming stage presence masks a charismatic musician with strong interpretive insights. That was abundantly clear in the stirring account of Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, which concluded the evening.(...)Indeed, Sung’s command over the proceedings meant that, while the score’s climaxes were full-bodied and thrilling, they were never shrill or unruly. Nor did Sung’s interpretation lose itself in the details: rather, the Symphony’s whole canvas unfolded with satisfying logic.
Boston Classical Review, Jonathan Blumhofer, 4/01/2019
Conductor Shiyeon Sung leads with great certainty, not because she sees herself as the captain of Ravel's boat, but because she manages to rule the elements.
SWZ, 13/06/2018
On Shiyeon Sung's unexpected opportunity to conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra in London:
Here was a chance for Sung to show her mettle in what appears to have been her UK debut – certainly with a major London orchestra – and that she most emphatically did. (…) Sung created some superbly magisterial, expressive climaxes with her incisive direction, and she managed Tchaikovsky’s pregnant pauses very skillfully.(…) I hope that we will hear her again in London before too long.
Seen and Heard International, Alan Sanders, 15/06/2018
On Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra:
A truly ‘fantastique’ rendition… If you want to hear something truly original, I’d urge you to catch this dynamic maestro while you can. She may have been making her debut Down Under, but this was one of the most exciting pieces of conducting I’ve heard in quite a while.
Limelight Magazine, Clive Paget, 30/06/2016
On the concert with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra:
[Shiyeon Sung] the winner of international competitions was convincing – strongly defined baton technique, empathetic sign language, considered rhythmic and dynamic arrangements in the orchestra (…). The orchestra displayed its lush capability, its conductor directed proceedings with impressive baton technique to perfection. Saarbrücker Zeitung, Helmut Fackler, 15/06/2018
Boston Symphony Orchestra assistant conductor Shiyeon Sung’s leadership was impressively crisp, clear, and elegant.
Boston Globe, Jeremy Eichler, 30/09/2009
PADEREWSKI & CHOPIN: PIANO CONCERTOS
Claire Huangci, Shiyeon Sung, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie
Berlin Classics, B07T4RYMLT, 2019
MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 5
Shiyeon Sung, Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra
DECCA 2016, DD41140
JOHN WILLIAMS: ON WILLOWS AND BIRCHES, CONCERTO FOR HARP AND ORCHESTRA
Shiyeon Sung, Ann Hobson Pilot, Boston Symphony Orchestra
℗ 2015 Boston Symphony Orchestra Inc., 2011
The Korean conductor Shiyeon Sung has held her first post as Chief Conductor since January 2014 with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra is now touring Germany, taking in the Berlin Philharmonie, the city of Wiesbaden and the Musikfestspiele Saar. Shiyeon Sung is therefore leading her orchestra to the country where she learnt her conducting trade and where she acquired her reputation as one the most exciting emerging talents on the international music scene....