South Korea has a new concert hall
After three years of construction, the futuristic-looking Tongyeong Concert Hall on the south coast of Korea was completed last year. It will be officially opened at the end of March. Among the first guests will be the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and Sir Roger Norrington.
On March 28, the acoustically perfect new hall, which can accommodate 1,300 listeners, and a chamber music hall with 300 seats will be officially opened as part of the Tongyeong International Music Festival 2014.
The artistic director of the festival and its international festival orchestra is Alexander Liebreich. Vesselina Kasarova, Yeol Eum Son, the Novus Quartet and the composers Salvatore Sciarrino and Tigran Mansurian are among this year's guests at the festival, which is now over ten years old.
The Tongyeong Concert Hall will offer events all year round after the festival. Guest performances by the Seoul Philharmonic (under Myung Whun Chung), the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (under Sir Roger Norrington) and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra (Yuri Temirkanov) are planned for 2014; musical guests also include Martin Grubinger, Eldar Djangirov, Igudesman & Joo, Günter Pichler, Hyeyoon Park, the Chorakademie Lübeck, The King's Singers and many others.
Munich-based cultural manager Florian Riem has been the overall director of the Tongyeong Music Foundation since January 2014. Tongyeong is the birthplace of the composer Isang Yun.
