Around the Music Festival

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will be appointed Finland’s Osmo Vänskä as principal conductor. The Seoul Symphony Orchestra, established in 1948, is Korea’s oldest orchestra. MyungWhun Chung, who has been the principal conductor and music director since 2005, has been vacant since he retired in 2015. It has been decided that Vänskä will resign from the Minnesota Orchestra in the United States, which has been a music director since 2003, in the 2021/2022 season.

Vanska is a 66-year-old born in Sääminki in southern Finland. After acting as a clarinet player of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, he studied under Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Conservatory and became a conductor. In 1982’s “Besançon International Conductor Competition”, he shared the victory with Yoko Matsuo and began working as a conductor in earnest.

In 1985 he became the principal guest conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra in his own country, and in 1988 he was a music director, raising the orchestra to international level until he retired in 2008. He has also served as chief conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra (1993-1996) and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra (1996-2002).

Photo：Yomiuri Nippon Symphony