Because the KBS Symphony Orchestra prepares to have a good time its seventieth anniversary in 2026, it’s planning a sequence of large-scale performances that includes main conductors and famend Korean soloists within the classical music world.
Based in 1956, the KBS Symphony Orchestra was the primary orchestra in Korea to be affiliated with a broadcasting group. It performed a major position in elevating public consciousness of classical music and offering wider entry to the style.
The 2026 lineup prominently options Korean maestro Chung Myung-whun, a former chief conductor of the orchestra. Even after stepping down, Chung has continued to collaborate with the orchestra; subsequent 12 months he’ll conduct Mahler’s Symphonies No. 4 and No. 5 at undertaking concert events on March 13 and Oct. 12, respectively, after main Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2 this 12 months. He’s additionally anticipated to conduct a live performance model of Bizet’s opera “Carmen.”
Different conductors within the highlight embody Eliahu Inbal, who will conduct Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13; Marek Janowski, who will lead Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4; and Pietari Inkinen, who will conduct Sibelius’ Symphonies No. 6 and No. 7. Inkinen served because the orchestra’s chief conductor for 3 years, from 2022 to 2024. Violinist-turned-conductor Chang Han-na will lead the orchestra in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125.
Plenty of rising Korean musicians are additionally anticipated to carry out throughout the anniversary season.
Clarinetist Kim Han will carry out Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A serious, Ok. 622, with Janowski on the rostrum. Pianist brothers Lee Hyuk and Lee Hyo — who each competed on this 12 months’s Worldwide Chopin Piano Competitors — will carry out Francis Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra in D minor. Pianist Kim Se-hyun, the 2025 Lengthy-Thibaud-Crespin Competitors grand prize winner, will carry out Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18.
Different globally famend soloists can even be a part of the orchestra subsequent 12 months. Greek violinist Leonidas Kavakos can be amongst them, together with Serbian violinist Nemanja Radulović, Israeli pianist Boris Giltburg, German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann and British cellist Steven Isserlis.
“Constructing on the traditions of classical music, we hope to convey even deeper resonance and empathy,” Lee Seung-hwan, president of the orchestra, mentioned in a press launch. “Grounded within the inventive belief cultivated over the orchestra’s 70-year historical past, we aspire for this 12 months to show the facility of music that transcends generations and borders — permitting classical music to change into a transferring a part of on a regular basis life.”
Season tickets for all 12 subscription concert events will go on sale on Dec. 9, with basic gross sales opening on Dec. 12. Tickets for the particular undertaking concert events — together with Chung’s Mahler symphony performances — can be accessible beginning Dec. 18.
