Around the Music Festival

The Korean National Symphony Orchestra has announced that Roberto Abbado will be its next artistic director and chief conductor.

He will succeed Belgian conductor David Reiland, who has held the position since 2022, and will serve a three-year term beginning in January 2026.

The National Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1985 as an independently operated Korean symphony orchestra.

Since 2001, it has been the resident orchestra of the Seoul Arts Center, performing in opera and ballet productions, and has grown to become one of Korea’s leading orchestras.

In 2022, it was renamed to its current name and welcomed its new music director, Reiland.

Roberto is a 70-year-old native of Milan. His uncle was the world-renowned conductor Claudio Abbado, who passed away in 2014.

He studied at the Verdi Conservatory in Milan, worked under Franco Ferrara at the Venice Fenice Theater, and later honed his skills by participating in Hans Swarowsky’s final summer masterclass in Vienna.

He made his debut at La Scala in Milan in 1984, at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich in 1989, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1994, and at the Vienna State Opera in 1998.

During this time, he served as Music Director of the Munich Radio Symphony Orchestra from 1991 to 1998 and has been Chief Conductor of the Bologna Municipal Opera Philharmonic Orchestra since 2022.

PHOTO：Filarmonica del Teatro Comunale di Bologna