The 2024/25 season sees Korean conductor, Hankyeol Yoon make his debut with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks conducting the ARD competition, as well as with Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Nürnberger Symphoniker and Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Winner of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award at the 2023 Salzburger Festspiele, Hankyeol was subsequently invited to make his festival debut in 2024 conducting ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. His success also resulted in several high-profile invitations in 2023/24 including from Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino who immediately re-invited Hankyeol to return the same year for a staged production of Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.
Hankyeol continues to establish himself in his native Korea having given critically acclaimed performances with Seoul Philharmonic, Korean National Symphony and Hankyung arte Philharmonic, as well as with KBS Symphony for concerts in Tokyo. Hankyeol recently made his Taiwanese debut conducting Ensemble TIMF and this season includes Hankyeol’s Pohang International Festival debut. Other recent highlights include Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Symphoniker, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel and the George Enescu International Festival.
Hankyeol was the youngest ever recipient of the Neeme Järvi Prize at the 2019 Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy and in 2021 he won both the 2nd and audience prizes at the inaugural KSO International Conducting Competition in Seoul. Hankyeol was also a finalist at the 2020 Georg Solti Competition and 2021 Deutscher Dirigentenpreis respectively. In 2021 Hankyeol stepped down as 2nd Kapellmeister of Theater und Orchester Neubrandenburg Neustrelitz. During his two-year tenure Hankyeol conducted several symphonic concerts as well as performances of Pariser Leben and il Barbiere di Siviglia. He also led a production of V. Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis.
Also a prize-winning composer, Hankyeol opened his Salzburg Festival debut premiering his own composition and in December 2021 his last work, Grande Hipab, was premiered by Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt. Hankyeol has been recognised at the Luciano Berio International Composition Competition Rome in 2020, TonaLi Composition Competition Hamburg in 2018, Vareler Composition Competition in 2016 and Concours de Geneve in 2015. In 2019 Hankyeol was one of two composers mentored by the Peter Eötvös Foundation in Budapest where his compositions were conducted by Peter Eötvös and he received mentorship from Sir George Benjamin. Under Unsuk Chin, Hankyeol made his debut as conductor and composer in South Korea at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. 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.
As of October 2024