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| Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO) President Choi Jung-sook, left, and KNSO Artistic Director David Reiland pose during a press conference at Seoul Press Center, Monday. Courtesy of KNSO |
By Dong Sun-hwa
The Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO), Korea's only national orchestra, has vowed to strengthen its identity and expand the horizons of Korean classical music.
"I want to solidify the KNSO's identity so that it lives up to its name, helping it become more flexible in interpreting music and build more diversity in its repertoire," KNSO Artistic Director David Reiland said during a press conference at Seoul Press Center, Monday. The event was held to mark the one-year anniversary of his appointment to the post and to ruminate on the changes the orchestra has seen since being named a "national orchestra" by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2022.
"It is important for our orchestra to perform the classical music compositions of Mozart and Haydn, as the members have to hone their performing skills," he said. "But we will go beyond that. We will take on a new challenge by handling the pieces from Germany, France and Russia that were not frequently played in Korea before. We will not only perform the traditional ones, but also the modern ones."
The Belgian director added that the KNSO, which currently consists of 78 members, will hire 16 more people by this summer to showcase high-quality performances. According to him, one of its most ambitious projects is to release an album in 2024 that chronicles the history of Korean classical music.
"It is yet to be revealed, but we will feature the works of acclaimed Korean composers like Isang Yun and Unsuk Chin," he said. "We will bring them together to imprint the concept of the 'Korean Schule' on the mind of people worldwide."
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| The KNSO performs in Vienna, Austria, Oct. 2, 2022. / Courtesy of KNSO |
KNSO President Choi Jung-sook said she mainly focused last year on expanding the budget.
"In pursuit of portfolio diversification, we received more sponsorships from individuals and companies," she stressed. "We only had two members in our supporters' association in 2021, but now we have 30. The amount of sponsorships we got last year grew 1,700 percent compared to 2021."
The KNSO has also been running a range of programs to nurture future talent, such as the "KNSO International Conducting Competition" and the "Composers' Atelier." The former aims to discover the next-generation conductors, while the latter intends to foster composers.
"We will continue to provide students with good opportunities to grow and work hard to promote Korean classical music," Choi said.
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