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| Belgian conductor David Reiland, the newly appointed artistic director of the Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) / Courtesy of KSO |
By Park Ji-won
The Korean Symphony Orchestra (KSO) appointed Belgian conductor David Reiland as its seventh artistic director, replacing outgoing Chung Chi-yong and serving starting from January 2022 for the next three years, the orchestra said.
Born in Belgium, the new director majored in conducting and composing at the Royal Academy of Music in Brussels, the Ecole Normale de Musique de Paris and the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Austria. He served as associate conductor for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment of London.
Since 2018, he has been serving as music director of the Orchestre National de Metz and the Sinfonietta Lausanne while serving as principal guest conductor at the Munich Symphony Orchestra and leading the Dusseldorf Symphony Orchestra as a guest conductor with the title "Schumann Guest."
Reiland worked with the Korean Symphony Orchestra for the opera "Cosi Fan Tutte" in 2018, for the opera "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny" premiered in Korea in 2019 and for the Korean Orchestra Festival in 2021.
The artistic director considered the possibility of the Korean Symphony Orchestra being open to collaborations with other musicians.
"From my very first moments alongside the musicians of the Korean Symphony Orchestra, I felt this was home. There was an unusual feeling of open collaboration across so many facets of the orchestra ― a real sense of professional alchemy. I'm deeply honored to be joining the Korean Symphony Orchestra family and helping to carry this incredible lineage forward," Reiland in a press release upon his appointment at the orchestra.
"During every performance with the Korean Symphony Orchestra, be it an opera or a symphony concert, I felt the same caring, passionate and generous vibrations coming from the audience."
He is planning to present traditional orchestral works while introducing music of composers with contrasting universes such as Berlioz, R. Strauss, Ravel, Mozart and Haydn, the orchestra said. Also, he will be focusing on promoting Korean composers by having their works performed through a composer resident program.
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