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.
Elias Brown wins 1st KSO conducting competition
Elias Brown conducts the Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) on Sunday during the first KSO International Conducting Competition held at the Seoul Arts Center from Nov. 10 to Sunday. Courtesy of KSO
By Park Ji-won
By Park Ji-won
Poster for the KSO International Conducting Competition / Courtesy of KSO
Conductor Elias Brown of the United States has won first prize at the first KSO International Conducting Competition, co-hosted by the Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) and the Seoul Arts Center held at the art complex from Nov. 10 to Sunday.
He finished first in the competition among 166 applicants from 42 countries competing for the title. In the first round on Wednesday, 12 conductors advanced, and in the second round held Friday, five of them were eliminated. Germany-based Korean conductor Yoon Han-kyeol and U.S.-based Linhan Cui from China came in second and third, respectively.
Park Sun-hee, CEO of the KSO, told The Korea Times that one of the most important criteria in selecting the winners was how well they can communicate with the orchestra members.
Brown, who commenced his studies at Universitat der Kunste in Berlin last month, was given random classical and contemporary pieces in every stage; he conducted Paul Dukas's “The Sorcerer's Apprentice” in the first round on Wednesday and Korean composer Kim Texu's “Dub-sanjo” and Jean Sibelius' “Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47” in the second round on Friday and Debussy's “La Mer” in the final round on Sunday.
“This is an amazing springboard or trampoline into another phase as a young conductor,” Brown said during a press conference held right after the award ceremony, Sunday.
After graduating with honors from Yale University and the Royal Academy of Music, he started to build a versatile and steady career as a conductor, winning a series of international competitions. He finished third at the Khachaturian International Conducting Competition and second in the inaugural Lake Como Conducting Competition this year and led orchestras such as the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Berliner Symphoniker while serving as an assistant for leading conductors such as Oliver Knussen, Marin Alsop, Robert Trevino and Sir Mark Elder.
Elias Brown conducts the Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) Sunday during the first KSO International Conducting Competition held at the Seoul Arts Center from Nov. 10 to Sunday. Courtesy of KSO
Even for the promising young conductor, the competition was tough due to the fact that competitors are called on randomly to conduct a number of rare and original pieces from a group of eight works, and as such they had to prepare for all of them. Chung Chi-yong, chairman of the jury, said the pieces were selected to display how well the conductors can handle romantic and expressive pieces.
“So this was a very difficult competition to prepare for. With the exception of Sibelius, Debussy and Strauss, most of the repertoire at least for me was very unfamiliar. It seems like it was maybe an intention to give us all a challenge of new things to learn; we were doing things that we really had to kind of dive in and discover for the first time,” Brown said. “I have this sort of insane method of creating massive charts for every piece, breaking down the sections of every piece on big sheets of paper. That sort of allows me to think about structure. As a conductor I need to grasp, to be able to get into a piece, to understand the structure. … It was just a lot of time spent looking at scores and trying to digest. I eat it and it needs to like sit for a while.”
It was not obligatory to memorize the works, but the conductor memorized the final piece to challenge himself.
“It was a huge boost of confidence in recognizing that I'm capable of doing that,” he said.
He will receive prize money of $42,446. The three winners will be given chances to become an associate conductor of the KSO under the newly appointed Belgian conductor David Reiland as well as chances to lead orchestras such as the KSO and orchestras at the Seoul Arts Center, Arts Center Incheon, Tongyeong International Music Foundation.
“We are very privileged as conductors to get to have very long careers. You get to grow with this music into your 60s and 70s. This is an amazing long path and I'm excited for the journey.”
The competition will be held every three years.