Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Director Jaap van Zweden of HK and NY Philharmonics to conduct KBS Orchestra on Oct. 29
Conductor Jaap van Zweden / Courtesy of Wong Kin Chung
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
The poster for KBS Symphony Orchestra's “Be Your Light” concert / Courtesy of KBS Symphony Orchestra
Jaap van Zweden, the Dutch music director of both the Hong Kong Philharmonic and the New York Philharmonic orchestras, will conduct the KBS Symphony Orchestra to play Beethoven's famous “Symphony of Fate” and Prokofiev's “Symphony No.5 in B flat major.” Titled, “Be Your Light,” the concert is part of the orchestra's regular concert series.
Van Zweden was named the 26th director of the New York Philharmonic, one of the world's most famous orchestras, in 2018. In September, he conducted the New York Philharmonic's live concerts at Lincoln Center for the first time since the pandemic and has announced that he will resign beginning in 2024. He will lead the KBS's orchestra's performance of Beethoven's “Symphony No.5 in C minor” and S. Prokofiev's “Symphony No.5 in B flat major” on Oct. 29 at the Seoul Arts Center.
The KBS Symphony Orchestra said in a press release, “Last year, Jaap van Zweden was planning to perform with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra in February and November, respectively. But these events were canceled due to the pandemic … The program will be the same as that which had been planned to be performed with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.”
The orchestra added that the conductor, who focuses on detailed and strict rehearsals, is planning to present hidden aspects of the two pieces.
S. Prokofiev's “Symphony No.5 in B flat major” is not widely known here, but it aims to describe the nobility and power of the human spirit, featuring a large orchestra with a harp and piano.
The KBS Symphony Orchestra will play these symphonies without guest performers for the first time in the orchestra's regular 2021 concerts.
The first time that van Zweden, who is both a conductor and violinist, led the Korean orchestra, was in playing Richard Wagner's “The Master Singers of Nuremberg” and Bruckner's “Symphony No.8 in C minor” in February 2019.
Born in Amsterdam, before pursuing his career as a conductor, at nineteen, van Zweden was appointed the concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, its youngest ever. He then began his conducting career in 1996.