衛武營國家藝術文化中心 National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying)

Opera excerpts, art songs, program music, and absolute music are four distinct genres that, in essence, do not intersect. When curating a concert repertoire, one can opt to emphasize a single genre or incorporate a combination of two. While it's fairly common for a repertoire to encompass three of these categories, including all four genres is a rarity. Ensemble TIMF Music of Love and Longing showcases a remarkable blend of these four music categories: SCHREKER Chamber Symphony is absolute music, The Poet's Love is a German art song, Trittico Botticelliano is program music, and the three opera arias originate from two Italian operas and one French opera. Such a diverse and abundant selection of compositions adeptly demonstrates the wide-ranging and exceptional talents of these young South Korean musicians! It's worth noting that these pieces, spanning nearly a century in composition, share a common thread of romanticism. Each art song and aria exudes a profound sense of romance. RESPIGHI skillfully breathes life into Botticelli's renowned paintings through vivid and beautiful music, while Franz SCHREKER unmistakably demonstrates his "timbre magician" craftsmanship and weaves a poignant musical tapestry full of images!

  Pre-talk  

2024/4/13(Sat)19:00 Concert Hall 3F Lobby

  Program  

F. SCHREKER: Chamber Symphony (Taiwan Premiere)

R. SCHUMANN, Recomposed by Christian JOST: Excerpts from Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) (Taiwan Premiere)

O. RESPIGHI: Trittico Botticelliano (Taiwan Premiere)

Opera Arias, Arranged by Jongin MOON
　－G. PUCCINI: "Signore, ascolta" (My lord, listen!)  from Turandot, SC 91
　－G. PUCCINI: "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" (Yes. They call me Mimi) from La Bohème, SC 67
　－C. GOUNOD: "Ah, Je veux vivre" from Roméo et Juliette, CG 9 

  Creative and Production Team  

Conductor｜Hankyeol YOON

Soprano｜Sumi HWANG

Ensemble TIMF

  Artists Introduction  

Conductor｜Hankyeol YOON

Korean Conductor Hankyeol YOON is the winner of the 2023 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award. As a result, Hankyeol will make his official debut at the Salzburger Festspiele in August 2024 conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. He will also debut with Mozarteumorchester, Fondazione Teatro del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and at the George Enescu International Festival, and will return to the Korean National Symphony.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include debuts with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Sudwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, and Busan Philharmonic Orchestra and a return to KBS Symphony Orchestra for concerts in Tokyo. In February, Hankyeol assisted Sir Simon RATTLE for a tour of Siegfried with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, returning again in July to assist Christian THIELEMANN.

Hankyeol was the youngest ever recipient of the Neeme Järvi Prize at the 2019 Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy, and was also a finalist at the 2020 Georg Solti Competition and 2021 Deutscher Dirigentenpreis respectively. As a composer, Hankyeol has been recognized at several European competitions.

Born in Daegu, South Korea but calling Munich his home since 2011, Hankyeol studied conducting, composing, and piano performance at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Soprano｜Sumi HWANG 

Following her studies in Seoul and Munich, South Korean soprano Sumi HWANG has garnered acclaim through her successes at the International Grandi Voci Competition in Salzburg, the Anneliese Rothenberger Competition in Konstanz and the Emmerich Smola Förderpreis awarded by SWR.

After winning the Concours Reine Elisabeth competition in Brussels in 2014, she joined the ensemble of the Theater Bonn for four years, performing roles such as Almirena (Rinaldo), Cleopatra (Giulio Cesare in Egitto), Fiordiligi (Così fan tutte), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Marzelline (Fidelio), Leïla (Les pêcheurs de perles) and Mimì (La Bohème).

Notable guest appearances have taken the soprano to the Grand Théâtre de Genève, Prinzregententheater in Munich, Korean National Opera in Seoul and the Daegu Opera House. In the 2021/22 season, she became a permanent ensemble member of the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden, subsequently appearing there as Donna Anna (Don Giovanni), Fiordiligi, Ilia (Idomeneo) and Pamina among others.

As a lied singer, Sumi HWANG regularly collaborates internationally with pianist Helmut DEUTSCH, with whom she made her debut at London's Wigmore Hall in 2015 and has since released her first solo album with songs by STRAUSS, BRITTEN and LISZT in 2019.

Among the soprano's concert highlights are BRAHMS' Ein deutsches Requiem with the Oslo Philharmonic and Munich Symphony orchestras, selected MOZART arias with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sakari ORAMO, and MOZART's Requiem with the Netherlands Radio Orchestra under Markus STENZ. Further international appearances include the Tongyeong International Music Festival, and performances with the KBS Symphony and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras. In her debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra she sang Unsuk CHIN's "Puzzles and Games" from Alice in Wonderland, while with the Copenhagen Philharmonic and Sebastian Weigle she performed STRAUSS' Four Last Songs.

Sumi HWANG has been working as a professor of singing at Kyunghee University in Seoul since September 2022.

Ensemble TIMF

Ensemble TIMF was founded in 2001 with the goal of incepting a major performance ensemble as a key representative of Korea and an ambassador of the Tongyeong International Music Festival. It has been engaged in intense activities in and outside of Korea and comprised of excellent young musicians. Its first performance began with the "D-100 Concert of TIMF 2002". Since then, it has continuously expanded the range of repertoires and performances to date and established itself as a professional ensemble. With a variety of programs and high-quality performances, it gives fruitful and satisfactory pleasures to audiences of classic and contemporary music. It has concertized with some of the most renowned composers and pianists around the world, including Unsuk CHIN, TAN Dun, Heiner GOEBBELS, Heinz HOLLIGER, Toshio HOSOKAWA, Steve REICH, the Ensemble Modern, Martha ARGERICH, Sergei NAKARIAKOV, Gautier CAPUCON, Kazuhito YAMASHITA, and Schola HEIDELBERG. The ensemble's intense activities reach markets not only in Korea but also in foreign countries, and their excellence has been recognized internationally. They have performed in European concert stages, such as the Bacau Contemporary Music Festival in Romania, the Darmstadt International Contemporary Music Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the Venice Biennale, KlaraFestival in Belgium, Festival Presences. With "Ensemble TIMF Academy", which began in 2005, it has spearheaded a movement in providing superior education programs to post-generation of musicians. Ensemble TIMF's expansion of the performance fields will continue. With its freshly creative project planning and its wide range of repertoires from the classical to contemporary periods, it will continue to advance as one of the leading ensembles for the future of Korean music.

  Cultural Development Partner