Orchestra festival celebrates Shostakovich

Violinist Baek Ju-young will perform on April 19.

Pianist Paik Hae-sun will open the festival on April 1.

Cellist Yang Sung-won is scheduled to perform on April 3.

By Yun Suh-young

The 2016 Orchestra Festival will make April special for classical music fans, with the KBS Orchestra opening the 19-day event on April 1, the Seoul Arts Center reported Monday.

A total of 19 orchestras will be featured during the festival this year, with each day dedicated to one orchestra's performance. The festival has been held annually for 28 years.

This year, the festival will offer music reflecting everything an orchestra can express ― from musical tone and the time period, to the characteristics of the composer. The pieces that will be performed during the festival range from modern-day compositions to those composed 300 years ago, from Haydn, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff to Shostakovich. Especially with this year celebrating Shostakovich's 110th birthday, the program includes many of his compositions in the lineup.

For the first time, the Seoul Arts Center added innovation to the 28-year tradition by offering online live broadcasting for some of the performances throughout the festival. Performances on April 1, 8, 15 and 22 will be broadcast live on KBS's online website and mobile application "My K." The opening and closing performances on April 1 and 22 by the KBS Orchestra and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra respectively will be broadcast live on Naver, the nation’s largest online portal site.

The lineup of musicians that will be collaborating with orchestras this year is particularly topnotch, with pianist Paik Hae-sun opening the first day and noted musicians such as pianists Cho Jae-hyuck, Park Jong-hwa, Han Sang-il, and Lee Hyo-joo, violinist Kwun Hyuk-joo, violist Lee Hanna, cellist Yang Sung-won and Kim Doo-min also scheduled.

New and rising musicians who have won awards overseas are also participating in the festival for the first time.

Lim Ji-young, the first Korean winner of Belgium’s Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition, will be participating, as well as Moon Ji-young who was the first Korean to clinch first place at the Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition in Italy. Kim Yu-been, flutist winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, and Abel Quartet, joint first place winner of the International Joseph Haydn Chamber Music Competition in Austria, will also be performing.

The conductors are younger this season. Conductors in their 30s and 40s have taken up the baton to lead the orchestras from Seoul, Gwacheon and Gyeonggi Philharmonics to Wonju, Jeonju and Gunsan Philharmonic Orchestras.

Ticket prices range from 10,000 won to 40,000 won. For more information, visit the Seoul Arts Center website (www.sac.or.kr) or call 1544-1555.