Los Angeles-born conductor Elias Peter Brown began his studies of conducting at age 17 in St. Petersburg, Russia. After graduating with honors from Yale University and the Royal Academy of Music, he became a laureate of the Khachaturian International Conducting Competition in 2021, receiving the Third Prize. He also recently took the Second Prize in the inaugural Lake Como Conducting Competition. Elias has led the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Berliner Symphoniker, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble MusikFabrik, Ensemble Modern, Zafraan Ensemble, Divertimento Ensemble, Yale Symphony Orchestra, Klaipeda Chamber Orchestra, and St. Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic.
As an assistant, he has prepared orchestras for Oliver Knussen, Sir Mark Elder, Edward Gardner, Jac van Steen, and Andreas Stoehr. Fiercely passionate about arts education, Elias has been a regular teaching artist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, worked as a guest conductor at the Junior Royal Academy of Music, and as a mentor for the art and community-building project ‘Gakko’ in Japan and France. Also an accomplished trumpet player, Elias has performed as a soloist at Carnegie Hall, and principal trumpet at Chicago Symphony Hall, The Kennedy Center, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Mariinsky Theatre, and Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall.
His principal teachers are Sian Edwards and Daniel Boico, and he has appeared in masterclasses with Marin Alsop, Mark Stringer, Robert Treviño, Alexander Polishchuk, and Martyn Brabbins, among others. Elias has also received mentorship from Esa-Pekka Salonen and Gerard McBurney. In autumn 2021, he will begin advanced studies at the Universität der Künste Berlin under the tutelage of Steven Sloane and Harry Curtis.
Hangyul Chung studied composition at Seoul Arts High School and orchestral conducting at Seoul National University, College of Music. After graduating from university in Korea, he went to Germany and earned a master’s degree in conducting at the Mannheim University of Music and Performing Arts, where he is currently pursuing a postgraduate degree. In 2019, he was selected as a member of the Conductors’ Forum of the German Music Council. He has conducted several professional orchestras such as the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Heidelberg Philharmonic Orchestra, Württemberg Philharmonic of Reutlingen, Neubrandenburger Philharmonie, Philharmonie Baden-Baden, South-West German Chamber Orchestra Pforzheim, Mannheim Chamber Orchestra, and as well as orchestras in Korea such as Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra and TIMF Ensemble.
Chung conducted opera productions at Seoul National University and the Mannheim University of Music and worked as assistant conductor at Korea National Opera and Seoul Arts Center Opera House. He is also actively involved in contemporary music and has conducted such as the German premiere of Nico Muhly’s “Drones, Variations and Ornaments” and the Korean premiere of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s Oboe Quartet.
He was nominated as a candidate for the German Conductors’ Award in 2021. In 2017 and 2018, he participated in Baden-Württemberg Conductors’ Podium and acquired opportunities to perform with professional orchestras. He has participated in masterclasses with conductors and ensembles including Colin Metters, Lutz Köhler, Ekhart Wycik, Pavel Baleff, Elias Grandy, Roger Epple, Manuel Nawri, Johannes Klumpp, Shi-Yeon Sung, Joongbae Jee, and Ensemble Modern.
Linhan Cui was born in Shenyang, China. Linhan started as a conductor since 2012 when she was the only accepted conducting student at Guangzhou Xinghai Conservatory. Ms. Cui completed her undergraduate studies at Xinghai Conservatory of Music in Guangzhou. She earned her master degree from Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, now she is a Doctor of Musical Arts student in orchestral conducting at Indiana University, College-Conservatory of Music.
Linhan appointed to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, USA as conducting fellow for the 2019-2020 season, where she worked as Marin Alsop’s cover conductor.
Linhan has been instructed by many famous conductors such as Marin Alsop, Arthur Fagen and Ming Liu. Ms. Cui assisted more than 50 concerts during her assistant career, working with many world-renowned maestros such as Leon Fleisher and Xian Zhang.
Linhan has conducted Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Xinghai Symphony Orchestra, Xinghai Chamber Orchestra, Peabody Symphony Orchestra, Peabody Chamber Orchestra, and participated in a masterclass with USA National Symphony Orchestra, etc.
In 2021, Linhan won the second prize in Malko International Conducting Competition.
Xiaobo Hu has served as assistant conductor to Ari Rasilainen, the chief conductor of Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra since 2019.
Before his appearance as assistant conductor at the renowned Mozart Festival in Germany in June 2021, he has already conducted many professional orchestras, including Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Finnish Chamber Orchestra, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Romanian Chamber Orchestra, Mainfranken Theater Würzburg, Jyväskylä Sinfonia, Hofer Symphoniker as well as plenty of ensembles in Europe and Asia.
Born in Dandong, China, Xiaobo's musical journey began at the age of seven. He has learned saxophone, trombone, euphonium, piano, and has won several national instrumental competitions as a soloist. After completing his undergraduate study in trombone at Shenyang Conservatory of Music, China, he was inspired by conducting educator Prof. Taicheng Quan and determined to be a conductor.
In 2018, Xiaobo moved to Germany to further his conducting studies. Besides the master degree in conducting at the University of Music Wuerzburg in Germany, he has also studied with Neeme Järvi, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Sakari Oramo, Jorma Panula, Cristian Măcelaru, Benjamin Zander, Yip Wing-sie, and Christoph Poppen. In 2020 he was chosen into Lead! Foundation’s mentorship program by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, who provides Xiaobo consistent guidance and chances to follow his musical events closely in Europe till now.
Yoona Jeong is a conductor, musicologist, and violinist. This year, she won the Best Interpretation Prize at the 17th Khachaturian International Competition and performed with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra successfully. She was a music director of the University of Texas University Orchestra and an assistant conductor of the University of Texas Symphony Orchestra. She also worked as an assistant conductor of the Austin Symphony and the Sarah and Ernest Butler Opera Center. She has assisted several operas including Tchaikovsky’s "Eugene Onegin" and has performed Jonathan Dove’s Contemporary Opera, "Mansfield Park." She conducted the world premiere of "Audition Fever" from the Butler Opera Center in 2021. She earned a doctorate degree in Orchestral Conducting at the University of Texas at Austin this May.
Yoona graduated with honors from Busan Arts School as a violin performance major. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Musicology at Seoul National University in South Korea where she graduated summa cum laude and received the Chancellor’s Award. In 2014, she matriculated at the University of Southern California and earned a Master’s degree in Choral Music at the Thornton School of Music. In 2018, she earned a second Master’s Degree in Orchestral Conducting at Baylor University.
In 2020, she was a finalist at the Arthur Nikisch Competition. She has been invited to the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Princeton Festival, Medomak Music Festival, and the Pierre Monteux School and Music Festival. She has participated in masterclasses with Cristian Măcelaru, Kenneth Kiesler, James Conlon, Carl St. Clair, Ludovic Morlot, Neil Varon, David Itkin, Michael Jinbo, and Jan Harrington. Her principal teachers include Farkhad Khudyev, Carl St. Clair, Stephen Heyde, Douglas Frost, Kelly Kuo, and Ryan Kelly.
Dr. Mirian Khukhunaishvili is a co-founder, artistic director and chief conductor of the Tbilisi Youth Orchestra. He is a founder and artistic director of the Alter Orchestra.
Mirian earned his doctoral and master's degrees in orchestral conducting at the Academy of Music in Krakow under the supervision of prof. Stanislaw Krawczyński. He also got a master’s degree from the Tbilisi State Conservatoire in choral conducting in the class of prof. Liana Chonishvili.
Mirian’s collaborations have included conducting with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Macedonian Philharmonic Orchestra, Podkarpacka Philharmonic Orchestra, Beethoven Academy Orchestra, Tbilisi Opera and Ballet State Theatre’s Orchestra, Georgian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Tbilisi State Orchestra, Tbilisi State Chamber Orchestra – Georgian Sinfonietta, and others.
His future engagements include the concerts at the Musikverein in Vienna with the Wiener Concert-Verein Orchestra; at the Konzerthaus in Berlin with the Tbilisi Youth Orchestra; at the Harpa in Reykjavik with the Reykjavík Chamber Orchestra.
Born in South Korea, Subin Kim began learning piano at the age of five from her mother and took up violin around the same time as a hobby. She studied choral conducting under Hongsoo Kim at Korea National University of Arts and earned her first bachelor’s degree. After graduation she moved to Germany and changed the major to orchestral conducting. At Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin she studied symphony conducting with Christian Ehwald, and opera conducting with Alexander Vitlin and Mihhail Gerts.
In Europe, Subin Kim conducted Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, MDR Orchestra in Leipzig, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, Magdeburgische Philharmnoie, Staatstheater Cottbus, and Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. In Korea, she conducted Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra and Gangnam Symphony Orchestra. She advanced to the semi-final round in Bucharest International Conducting Competition in 2018. She has also participated in a variety of prestigious masterclasses such as Korea Conductors Association masterclass, Paavo Järvi Academy, Weimar Festival, Mendelssohn Festival, Péter Eötvös Contemporary Music masterclass, Kristisches Orchester, studying with Chi-Yong Chung, Paavo Järvi, Johannes Schlaefli, Nicolas Pasquet and Tadaaki Otaka. In 2019 she assisted Robin Ticciati in Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin’s
Subin Kim is currently working vigorously as a conductor based in Berlin, and from the winter semester 2021 she begins the master’s program under Ulrich Windfuhr at Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg.
After graduating from Ewha Womans University with a composition major, Yeojin Kim moved to Vienna and entered the University for Music and Performing Arts, thereby seriously beginning to study to become a conductor.
Yeojin earned Magister studium in conducting by successfully leading the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the golden hall of Musikverein in Vienna in June 2019, which was her graduation performance as well. The next year saw her earn another Magister studium in choral conducting with the perfect score from unanimous juries.
Yeojin, who had ranked in the first place at the audition for the assistant conductor of Vienna Symphony Orchestra in February 2020, has been working as the assistant conductor to the chief conductor of the same orchestra, Andrés Orozco-Estrada. Also she participated in the recording at Synchron Stage Studio in Vienna as orchestral conductor and field music director.
In addition, she conducted a variety of European orchestras such as Polish Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra, Banatul Philharmonic of Timișoara in Romania, and Ensemble Kontrapunkte, establishing herself as a competent conductor.
Daniel Gyuseo Lee studied conducting in Seoul and is currently living in Vienna and expanding his career in Europe. He has worked with major European orchestras such as the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and has been invited to many significant Korean stages since his overwhelming debut at the Seoul Arts Center at the age of 20.
Lee organized the Orchestral Ensemble Seoul(OES) in 2014 and has solidified its presence on the national stage. Lee and his orchestra are working on the Complete Beethoven Symphonies at the Seoul Arts Center for the first as a private orchestra in the Korean music history. An exclusive recording artist for NCM Klassik since 2017, recent releases include Mozart Symphony No. 29 & String Serenade (2018) and Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (2021), all with the OES.
With a keen interest in new music, he has worked with the Ensemble TIMF and the Contemporary Music Orchestra of National Center for Music Korea. He is also conscious of social issues, arranging charity concerts to support children in need around the world. Recently Steinway & Sons Seoul invited him for the first time as a conductor to hold masterclass and all donations will be used to relieve inequality in music education.
Lee received Bachelors and Masters degrees from the Seoul National University under Prof. Hun-Joung Lim and Prof. Yunsung Chang. Currently he is studying for his PGD at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with Prof. Simeon Pironkoff. He has been also mentored by numerous Maestri such as Marin Alsop, Riccardo Muti, Philippe Auguin, David Robertson and Andrés Orozco-Estrada. In 2019, Korean historical arts magazine GAEKSUK(Auditorium) chose him as the conductor who will lead the future podium. He was also named the Rising Star representing the Korean classical music by magazine Noblesse in 2020. He is the recipient of the Award for the Remarkable Artist of the Year 2018 awarded by the Committee of Korean Arts Critics.
Nikita Sorokin was born in Leningrad in 1990. He graduated from the Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory in 2012 as a musicologist. He worked on Mahler’s symphonies analysis in collaboration with world-renowned Mahler authority H-L de La Grange. Then he began conducting studies in Conservatoire de Paris with Alain Altinoglu.
In 2016, he was an assistant conductor of Leonard Slatkin and Orchestre National de Lyon during Tchaikovsky’s symphonies cycle. In 2019, he participated in a master class with Tugan Sokhiev and the Toulouse National Capitol Orchestra. In the summer of 2019, he was invited to be an assistant conductor at Bregenz Opera Festival (Austria), where he worked on the staging of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin together with V. Uryupin. He also had several occasions to participate in workshops organized by Ensemble Intercontemporain. In 2020, he worked together with Paul Daniel on Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 3 with the Bordeaux National Orchestra.
Nikita won All-Russian Conducting Competition which took place in 2019 in Moscow with the Moscow Philharmonic orchestra.
In 2021, he was invited to participate in the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition with London Symphony Orchestra. In the summer of 2021, Nikita was a semi-finalist of the International Conducting Competition Rotterdam.
Nikita Sorokin has composed several pieces of chamber music, and currently he works on a ballet.
Toby Thatcher is a British/Australian conductor. He is artistic director of digital contemporary sonic-arts startup ‘Zeitgeist’, founder and artistic director of the ‘Nineteenth Circle’ (a group of 19th-century-specialist performers), co-founder and conductor of London based new-music group ‘Ensemble x.y’.
Between 2020-21, he was assistant conductor to the Orchestre National de France. Between 2018-19, Toby was mentored by Peter Eötvös. In 2019, he was awarded the Second Prize at the International Competition of Young Conductors Lovro von Matačić, Zagreb, and was conducting fellow at the Cabrillo Festival, under Cristian Măcelaru. Between 2015-17, Toby was assistant conductor to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as well as being invited by the London Philharmonic Orchestra as guest assistant to Vladimir Jurowski. In 2015, Toby was a finalist and prizewinner at the Georg Solti International Conducting Competition Frankfurt and Neeme Jarvi Prize winner at the 2015 Menuhin Festival Gstaad.
Toby has worked with ensembles internationally including Orchestre National de France, Ensemble Modern, Slovenian Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonieorchester Basel, Panon Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Queensland Symphony Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.
Toby graduated from the Royal Academy of Music with an MA in Music Performance where he studied oboe. As an orchestral musician he performed with the London Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Sinfonietta.
Toby has been invited as guest speaker by the Royal Academy of Music, University of the Arts London and the British Association of Romantic Studies. He has appeared on BBC Radio 3.
Born in Daegu, South Korea in 1994, Hankyeol Yoon worked as a Kapellmeister at the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra from 2019 to 2021. Previously he worked as an assistant conductor at Staatstheater Nürnberg, Grand Théâtre de Genève and at Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra/Heidenheim Opera Festival. He is currently a scholarship holder of Dirigentenforum.
In 2019 Hankyeol Yoon, at the age of 25, became the youngest winner of the Neeme Järvi Prize (the first prize of the conducting competition) from the Gstaad Menuhin Festival in Switzerland. As the prizewinner, he is invited to conduct the Basel Symphony Orchestra and the Bern Symphony Orchestra.
Hankyeol Yoon is currently one of the finalists at the German Conductors’ Award 2021. Previously he was a finalist(4th place) at the Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition in 2020, received the third prize at the Hans von Bülow Conducting Competition 2021, and third prize at the German Music Competition “CAMPUS Conducting” 2018 in Nürnberg.
He recently conducted such orchestras as Basel Chamber Orchestra, Munich Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock, Staatskapelle Weimar, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, and Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra.
From 2011 to 2021, he studied conducting (Marcus Bosch, Georg Fritzsch and Alexander Liebreich), composition(Isabel Mundry) and piano (Yuka Imamine) at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in München, and completed bachelor’s and master’s program there.
As composer Hankyeol Yoon won the second prize at the Luciano Berio International Composition Competition in 2020, the second prize at the TonaLi composition competition in Hamburg in 2018, the third prize and the audience prize at the Geneva International Music Competition in 2017, the second prize at the Varel Composition Competition in 2016, the second place at the Geneva International Music Competition in 2015, and the third prize at the Günter Bialas Composition Competition in 2015. He is one of the comissioned composers at the Peter Eötvös Foundation in Budapest since 2019.
※ Listed in alphabetical order