Born in Milan, Pietro Borgonovo distinguishes himself in conducting symphonic and operatic productions for prestigious festivals and theatres. Noteworthy is his presence at Salzburger Festpiele in the Progetto Pollini as the conductor of Klangforum Wien and the Arnold Schoenberg Chor as well as his work in the conducting the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentinoat Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, at Ravenna Festival with the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, at Venice Biennale. Moreover he has conducted the Orchestra del Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestra dell’Arena di Verona, the Orchestra del Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico in Cagliari,the Orchestra del Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genova, the Semperoper in Dresden, theOrchestra della Toscana, the Haydn Orchestra in Bolzano, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, the OrchestraCherubini, the Orchestra Verdi in Milano, the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie. and more importants Orchestras of Italy, Europe and USA.
In October 2003 he conducted the world première of “Medea” by Adriano Guarnieri at Teatro La Fenice in Venice. The opera was very successful with both audience and critics, some newspapers saying it was a “triumph”. The Italian Critics Association awarded the “Abbiati 2003” prize for the “refined music and stage performance which rendered the original preciosity of the composing and multimedia concept.”
A versatile musician, he is the Musical and Artistic Director of one of the oldest and most prestigious Italian concert societies, GOG (Giovine Orchestra Genovese) and the Artistic Director of the International Competition G.B. Viotti in Vercelli.
From a very early age he has excelled in the international scene as one of the best known oboe soloists. A pupil of Heinz Holliger, he plays at the major festivals and for international institutions: Salzburger Festpiele, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Venice Biennale, Musica Bayreuth, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Montreux Festival, Donaueschinger Musiktage, New York, Berlin, London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Monte Carlo, Prague, Bonn, Luxembourg, Moscow, Saint Peterbourg, Madrid, Lisbone.
Profoundly interested in contemporary music he also cooperates with many contemporary composers such as George Benjamin, Luciano Berio, Bruno Maderna, Azio Corghi, Franco Donatoni, Ivan Fedele, Adriano Guarnieri, Salvatore Sciarrino, Fabio Vacchi, Carlo Galante, Iannis Xenakis … He has played and conducted their works, also premières, which have often been dedicated to him.
Both as an oboe soloist and as a conductor he has many recordings produced by important international labels such as Denon, Erato, Ricordi, RCA, Col legno, BMG to his credit. He received the Grand Prix du Disque and a classification among the five most appreciated records of symphonic music from Italian critics.
Hailed by the Gramophone magazine as ‘an exceptional talent,’ Graham Scott has performed extensively throughout the world notably in London (Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Barbican Centre,) New York (92nd St. Y), Washington DC (Kennedy Center), Los Angeles (Ambassador Auditorium), Beijing (Beijing Concert Hall and Forbidden City Concert Hall), Paris (Bagatelle) and Tokyo (Suntory Hall),
He has performed as soloist with many of the world’s leading orchestras, notably the London Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Monte Carlo Philharmonic, Belgium National Symphony, Staatsphilharmonie Rheinlandpfalz (standing in for Martha Argerich), South African National Symphony Orchestra, Cape Town Symphony, Singapore Symphony, St Louis Symphony and the New York Chamber Symphony under such conductors as Sir Charles Groves, Marin Alsop, Paul Daniel, Bernhard Klee, Barry Wordsworth and Alexander Lazarev. His numerous chamber music appearances include performances with members of the Australian Chamber Orchestra in the Huntingdon Festival in New South Wales, Australia. He has also collaborated with the Chillingirian, Heath and Vertavo quartets.
Graham’s discography includes CDs of works by Scriabin, Gershwin, Chisholm, Macmillan (with French cellist Henri Demarquette) and a live recital CD from Los Angeles. He has broadcast extensively on BBC Radio and National Public Radio in the USA. He has previously collaborated with actor Sir Ian McKellen in a masterclass situation play for BBC Drama.
Graham studied with Professor Ryszard Bakst at both Chetham’s School of Music and the RNCM. He became the first artist to win both the YCA Inc. auditions in New York and the YCAT auditions in London. He also won the Dudley National Piano Competition and the Jaen International Piano Competition in Spain.
Since 2007 he has held the position of Head of Keyboard Studies at the RNCM and is Artistic Director of the RNCM James Mottram International Piano Competition. He was previously Chair of the Keyboard department at the Chicago College of Performing Arts from 2003-2007. As a committed teacher many of his students have gone on to win top prizes in celebrated competitions including the ‘Top of the World’ competition in Norway, Rina Salo Gallo Competition in Monza, Hastings International Concerto Competition and the Harbin International Piano Competition in China to name a few. As an artistic director he has directed 12 piano festivals at the RNCM including the complete works of Frederic Chopin in his anniversary year with 153 pianists taking part.
Graham has previously been a member of the jury of the Horowitz Competition in Kiev, the Gilels Competition in Odessa, the Alessandro Casagrande Competition in Terni Italy, the Rina Salo Gallo Competition in Monza Italy, the Jaen International Piano Competition in Spain and the YCAT auditions in London. Graham has performed and taught at many summer schools most notably Musicfest Perugia in Italy, the Colburn Festival Academy in Los Angeles, Alion Baltic International Festival in Riga, Kei Arts (Taiwan), Chetham’s International Piano Summer School in Manchester and the Beijing International Music Festival and Academy.
The concert pianist Sunghoon Simon Hwang is one of the most prominent pianists of his generation. He has appeared internationally with major orchestras such as the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Montbeliard, the Janáček Philharmonic, the San Remo Symphony Orchestra, the Duisburg Symphony, the Orquestra Granada, the Orquestra Nacional do Porto, the Filarmonica Marchigiana, the Filarmonica Banatul, the Orchestra Sinfonica Sicilliana, the Vina del Mar Orchestra, the Bacau Symphony, the Taiwan National Symphony Orchestra, the Orquestra Sinfonica Perfecto Garcia Chornet, the Seoul Academy Symphony Orchestra and the Busan Metropolitan Orchestra.
His performances as soloist with orchestra, as a chamber musician and piano recitals received worldwide recognition from the audience and the music press, specially after his Debut at the Carnegie Hall in New York (USA) Mr. Hwang received a great critic at the New York Concert Review Inc.
Sunghoon Simon won more than 40 international awards and 9 special interpretation prizes at prestigious piano competitions like Epinal, Jaen, Porto, Senigallia, Maria Canals, Luis Sigall, Glenn Gould, Serge Prokofiev, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Anton Rubinstein, Johannes Brahms and Bellini. He got numerous concert invitations from European and Asian music festivals like the Ferrucio Busoni festival, the Alfredo Speranza Festival, the Grosseto international piano festival, the “Klassik in der Altstadt” festival, the Chateau de Lourmarin festival, Niestetal international piano festival, Busan Maru International Music Festival(BMIMF), the Wennigsen music festival and many others.
Sunghoon Simon Hwang studied at the Korean National University of Arts in Seoul with Prof. J.P. Lim, at the Santa Cecilia Academia in Roma with Prof. Sergio Perticaroli, at the École Normal de Musique in Paris with Prof. Youngshin An, at the Hannover Musikhoschule in the classes of Prof. Einar Steen-Nökleberg and Prof. Mi-Kyung Kim.
Sunghoon Simon Hwang has taught worldwide master classes for piano and got many invitations from universities, conservatories and music summer schools, as for example at the Otto-von-Guericke University in Magdeburg, at the Kloster Michaelstein in Blankenburg with an invitation of the “Landesmusikakademie Sachsen-Anhalt” in Germany.
From 2009 to 2013 he taught piano at the Hildesheim University in Germany.
Mr. Hwang is currently the Artistic Director of the Sviatoslav Richter international piano online competition and the G-Clef international music online competition in South Korea. Furthermore, he was invited as a member of Jury by numerous piano competitions such as the Maria Canals in Barcelona, the Claude Bonneton in Sete, the Rina Sala Gallo in Monza, the Tokyo international music competition, the Roma international music competition, the G.Raciti international music competition, the Terra degli Imperiali international music competition, the Euterpe international music competition.
Known as the brilliant high note, beautiful volume and the wide spectrum of range, Sungwon Jin is a Korean tenor who performs both as an opera singer and concert artist. In 2003, he made his operatic debut as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at the Arts Center Opera Theater (Seoul, Korea), as well as international debut as the soloist in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem at the Metropolitan Theater (Tokyo, Japan).
He has appeared in about twenty leading operatic roles such as Tamino in “Die Zauberflöte”, Ferrando in “Cosi fan tutte”, Alfredo in “La traviata”, Duca in “Rigoletto”, Rodolfo in “La Bohéme”, Rinuccio in “Gianni Schicchi”, Hüon in “Oberon”, Bacchus in “Ariadne auf Naxos”, Nemorino in “L’elisir d’amore”, Ernesto in “Don Pasquale” in the foremost opera houses including Frankfurt-oder, Brandenburg, Neu Brandenburg, Braunschweig, Hildesheim, Majorca, Schloss Reinsberg Festival, Weikersheim Festival and Seoul Metropolitan Opera Company.
He has been featured as a soloist in over thirty works including Händel’s “Messia”, Bach’s “Magnificat”, “Matthäus Passion”, Haydn’s “Die Schöpfung”, Mozart’s “Requiem”, Mendelssohn’s “Elias”, Verdi’s “Messa da Requiem”, Dvorak’s “Requiem”, “Stabat Mater”, Gounod’s “St. Cecilien Messe”, Beethoven’s “9. Symphony”, Rossini’s “Stabat Mater”, “Petite mess solennele” and Orff’s “Carmina Burana” over the world such as Berlin Philharmonie, Frankfurt Alteoper, Tokyo National Theater and Seoul Arts Center.
He has worked with renowned conductors including Thomas Sanderring, Myung-hoon Chung, Shao-Chia Lü, Otgar Maga, Ondrej Lenard, Erwin Atzel, Jakob Kreizberg, Jonas Alba, Rolf Reuter, Joel Levi.
He earned a Bachelor of Music from Seoul National University in Korea, a Diplom from University of Hanns-Eisler in Germany, Konzert-Examen from University of Hamburg in Germany, and Meister from University of Würzburg in Germany where he studied with Cheryl Studer, one of the world's famous sopranos.
Since 2014, he has been a full-time faculty as Chairman of the Voice Department at Gachon University in Korea. He is currently secretary-general of the Korean Classical Singers Association, KCSA.
(currently.. Adjunct professor of Suwon University and Seoul National University)
-Graduated from Seoul National University and the Master's degree in Manhattan College of Music.
-During a Ph.D.program in art management at Suwan University
-Devued in Opera orfeo ed euridice at New York, Invited to Aspen music festival,
a leading role in lucia di lammermoor Carmen
-A leading role in The Uijeongbu Opera Company, Seoul City Opera Company, Siheung Opera Group, and La Pace Opera Group.
-Collaboration with Seoul City Symphony Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic, Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, Gyeonggi Provincial Orchestra, Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Christian Orchestra, MCM Orchestra
-International Competition 1st Prize, Monthly Music, Music Journal, Bae-Jae University Competition, etc.
Jintak Moon who is a concert and opera conductor at Jakyoung Kim Opera Company and Suwon Opera Company, studied piano and conducting in Europe such as France, Austria, and Italy.
He conducted many of orchestra both at home ans abroad; Bucheon Philharmonic orchestra, Gumcheon Symphony Orchestra, Florence Sinfoniatta, Orchestra Giovanile della Saccisica which is in Italy and so on.
Nay more, He is also a passion Pianist as not only a soloist but also a chamber musician. He gave lots of recital at Seoul Art Center.
Moreover, He is active as an arranger in the fields of creative opera, concerts, and movie music.
As a judge of various domestic and foreign competitions, including the Antaldorati Conducting Competition, he served as a full-time professor at International Theological University and an adjunct professor at Sejong University, and is still attending several universities to foster younger people in Korea.
Violinist Dong-Uck Kim began violin studies when he was five years old in korea.
Among early honors as a performer he won the music association of korea competition and KBS broadcasting young musician competition.
2000,Mr.kim became concertmaster of Busan Philharmony Orchestra at his age 27 and that time Dong-uck kim was also invited to be a professor at Dong-A university.
2009, he founded Busan chamber music society.he played chamber music with James Buswell, Masuko Ushioda, Jerome Lowenthal, Borromeo quartet and Koichiro Harada. His violin training includes completing the Korea university of art, where he studied with Nam-Yun kim while completing the masters degree in violin. After that, he studied in the united states at the Manhattan School of Music completing the masters degree in orchestra performance studied with Glenn Dicterow(concertmaster of new york philharmony), Sheryl Staples, and Yoko Takebe.
In addition to his leadership of Busan philharmony, Mr.kim performed internationally as a violin soloist and chamber musician with recent tours of the US, Japan, China, Indonesia, Finland.and Taiwon.
He is currently a Professor of violin at Pusan National University in Korea and a Music director of Busan Chamber Festival.
