... Leading Choral Conductors In Korea
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Currently the artistic director of the National Chorus of Korea, SangHoon Lee (b.1960) has also been a professor in choral conducting at the Sungkyul University since 1995. He led the Bucheon City Choir for ten years before working with the National Chorus. With his choirs, he has performed much traditional European choral repertoire, following performance practice according to each period. There is also a group of conductors who Sang-Hoon Lee are devoting their musical leadership in developing civic choirs as well. They were inspired by the first generation of conductors in this area and are trying to set a trend with their own sound and interpretation. Leaders of this movement include Namgyu Jung, In-Gi Min, Gi-Seong Gang, Eui-Joong Youn, and Ki-Tae Gong. The music director of the Wonju Civic Choir, Namgyu Jung (b. 1961) has put all his musical energies into creating beautiful choral tone since his appointment with this choir in 1997. Studying both conducting and composition in Australia, Jung tries various genres and types of choral repertoire with his choir from Renaissance music to modern Jazz repertoire. Just back from their U.S. tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Sang-Hoon Lee Suwon Civic Chorale, In-Gi Min (b. 1961) has worked hard to make this choir a world-class one with its own tone color. And as a professor, Dr. Min has taught at the Dankook University and Honam Theological Seminary for last eighteen years, and has been invited as a guest conductor, lecturer, and clinician throughout the country.
One of the academic conductors, Gi-Seong Gang (b. 1963) made the Gunsan Civic Choir one of the major civic choirs in Korea. His baton technique and musical interpretation according to each period of compositions are well appreciated by many choral music lovers. He is also the founder of the Seoul Baroque Singers which mainly perform compositions from the Baroque and Classical eras. Eui-Joong Yoon (b. 1962), one of the leading conductors in Korea, has explored a wide range of repertoire with the Changwon City Chorale since his appointment as the artistic director in 2005. Combining with two neighboring civic choirs, the choir now totals 120. Dr. Yoon’s stage management and wonderful musicianship in performing various genres and types of pieces are supported by powerful sound and energy. There are also many rising conductors after finishing their study abroad, and now trying to represent what they learned from their study with many choirs: One of them is Gi-Tae Gong (b. 1968). He started his career as the assistant conductor under SangKil Lee at the Daegu City Choir, and is currently serving as the music director at the Pohang City Choir. He is also active as an orchestral conductor. In addition, some conductors have formed their own choirs to perform repertoires from specific periods. One of them is ChiYong Park (b.1963), who has led a private professional choir, the Seoul Motet Choir, since 1989. As its name suggests, Park’s choir is dedicated to the pursuit of true spirituality and high quality in church music. In the same vein, Sunah Kim (b.1970) founded the Bach Solisten Seoul (2005) and Collegium Vocal Seoul (2007), specialized in Baroque repertoires. Besides conductors mentioned above, there are numerous choral conductors who are leading professional, amateur, adult and children’s choirs with their souls and hearts. Some of them formed the Society for Survey of Choral Music, consisting of conductors in their 30s and 40s. Recently, there are also many students pursuing degrees in choral conducting in the U.S. or Europe. We look forward to the next steps of this generation of conductors, following the spirit and musicianship of their predecessors. Dr. HyunJin Cho is currently assistant conductor at the Anyang Civic Chorale and a teaching lecturer at the Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea, where she studied voice and choral conducting (B.M.). She also earned a master’s degree in choral conducting from the Westminster Choir College (New Jersey, USA), and a doctorate degree in choral conducting from the University of Arizona (Arizona, USA). Email: faithfulerin@gmail. com Edited by Catherine G. Hamel, South Korea
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