Korean National Symphony Orchestra seeks to become 'classical music ambassador'

David Reiland, second from left, the artistic director of Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO), speaks during a press conference at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul, Tuesday. From left are KNSO CEO Choi Jung-sook, Reiland, an interpreter, and KNSO composer-in-residence Chun Yie-eun. Courtesy of KNSO

By Lee Yeon-woo

The Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO) will focus on nurturing talent in classical music, not only musicians in Korea but also musicians abroad, with a blueprint to become a "Korean classical music ambassador," its leaders said, Tuesday.

Such goals and ambitions have followed the orchestra obtaining the title of "national" from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in March.

"Now is the moment for KNSO to have a fresh start and establish our identity as a national orchestra. We take our responsibility and obligation to heart," Choi Jung-sook, the CEO of the KNSO, said during a press conference at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul.

Choi and Artistic Director David Reiland, who was appointed to the position in January, said they hope to create a "K-classic international cluster" through exchanges with world-renowned composers, musicians and relevant organizations.

One project for the expanded exchanges is to foster talented classical musicians. As a part of it, they have expanded recruitment for the KNSO International Orchestra Academy from those in Asia to those across the country. They said 109 applied for this year's 30 positions.

KNSO also plans to provide more opportunities to young composers and conductors. It appointed Elias Peter Brown, who won the first prize in the first KSO International Conducting Competition last year, as the deputy conductor, and selected Chun Yie-eun, who had been from the orchestra's "composers' atelier" program, as a composer-in-residence.

Reiland also said that he hopes to make collaborations in various art genres, such as pop music, literature, visual arts and drama.

The artistic director's other focus will be discovering forgotten women composers in history, a project that he had before with France's National Orchestra of Metz. "We don't play so many female composers' music. I'd like to give a chance to female composers," Reiland said.

"Korea's repertoire is very large. Korean composition school is very famous but in Europe, we only know Yun I-sang and Unsuk Chin. I have started a large study of the Korean repertoire, not only the composing pieces, but also my interest (is in) for example 'changgeuk,' a kind of traditional opera, and pieces written in the 1930s to '40s. I discovered a lot of Korean overtures. I saw a lot of female composers. I have a really big picture in front of me to listen and read," Reiland said.

KNSO also plans to recruit more members to the orchestra in the next three years to reduce the burden on its 74 members, who have performed on more than 100 occasions a year, already selecting five this month.

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