Summer edition of Music in PyeongChang festival to open on July 26

Cellist Yang Sung-won, the newly appointed artistic director of the Music in PyeongChang festival speaks during the press conference on June 7 at the Press Center in central Seoul. [YONHAP]

The Music in PyeongChang, Korea’s biannual classical music festival that is held every summer and winter in Gangwon’s PyeongChang, will kick off its summer edition from July 26 under newly appointed artistic director Yang Sung-won.

During a press conference held last week in central Seoul, Yang, a renowned cellist, said he will make sure the festival roots itself as a representative classical music festival in Korea.

The festival was created 20 years ago to help PyeongChang to win the bid to host the Winter Games in 2018. It served its purpose well, but the festival was such a success that Gangwon and Gangwon Cultural Foundation decided to continue funding the event.

Yang is no stranger to organizing festivals. He started Trio Owon with violinist Olivier Charlier and pianist Emmanuel Strosser and established Festival Owon in 2011. Since 2018, he’s also been organizing a chamber music festival in Bonn, France.

The opening performance for this year’s Music in PyeongChang will take place on July 26 at the outdoor Daegwallyeong Music Tent of the Alpensia Resort in Gangwon. Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra will perform during the concert, signaling the start of the festival with “Peer Gynt suites” No. 1 to 4. Yang, together with violinist Yang In-mo and pianist Youn William will perform Beethoven’s “Triple Concerto.” The program also includes Richard Strauss’ “An Alpine Symphony.” The program, according to Yang, has been drawn up with this year’s theme in mind, which is “Nature.”

For the closing performance on Aug. 5, the Music in PyeongChang Orchestra will play Mendelssohn’s “The Hebrides Overture (Fingal’s Cave)” and Beethoven’s “Symphony No.4.” After the intermission, Yang will conduct junior cellists, who will perform Dvořák’s Cello Concertos. Choi Ha-young, the winner of last year’s Queen Elisabeth Competition for Cello will perform No. 2 and Michiaki Ueno, winner of the 2021 Geneva Competition, will perform the second and third movements.

“I will make it a festival where the audience can receive new stimulation,” said Yang, adding that he will make sure the classical music that they may have regarded as boring or hard to approach is perceived differently in PyeongChang.

BY RYU TAE-HYUNG [kjdculture@joongang.co.kr]