HankyeolYoon

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  • Conductor

About Hankyeol

The 2024/25 season sees Korean conductor, Hankyeol Yoon make his debut with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, Nürnberger Symphoniker and Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Winner of the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award at the 2023 Salzburger Festspiele, Hankyeol was subsequently invited to make his festival debut in 2024 conducting ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien. His success also resulted in several high-profile invitations in 2023/24 including from Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino who immediately re-invited Hankyeol to return the same year for a staged production of Mendelssohn’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’.

Hankyeol continues to establish himself in his native Korea having given critically acclaimed performances with Seoul Philharmonic, Korean National Symphony and Hankyung arte Philharmonic, as well as with KBS Symphony for concerts Tokyo.

Other recent highlights include Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Symphoniker, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Kammerorchester Basel and the George Enescu International Festival.

Also a prize-winning composer, Hankyeol opened his Salzburg Festival debut premiering his own composition and in December 2021 his last work, Grande Hipab, was premiered by Ensemble Modern in Frankfurt.

Hankyeol is based in Munich

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Contact

For availability and general enquiries:

Jack Haynes

Jack Haynes

Artist Manager
Jo Fry

Jo Fry

Associate Director
Will Padfield

Will Padfield

Assistant Artist Manager

Representation

Worldwide general management with Askonas Holt

Season Highlights

Sep 2025
Lotte Concert Hall, Seoul
Hankyeol Yoon: Grium Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 27 in B flat major K 595 Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra Kit Armstrong (piano) Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Sep 2025
Bukseoul Dream Forest Park, Seoul
Programme tbc Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra
Sep 2025
Aram Nuri Arts Centre
Mozart: La Clemenza di Tito, Overture Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major 'Emperor' Brahms: Symphony No. 1 in C minor Orchestre National Belgique HaeSun Paik (piano)
Nov 2025
Grand Hall, Pohang Arts Centre
Hankyeol Yoon: Byeol Sin Goot Alexander Scriabin: Piano Concerto in F# minor, Op. 20 Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in D major Pohang Festival Orchestra

Photos

News

Press

  • ORF Vienna Symphony Radio Orchestra Debut

    Salzburg Festival
    Aug 2024
    • South Korean conductor and composer... programmed the world premiere of his “Grium (Longing),” as well as Bruch’s First Violin Concerto (with Maria Dueñas, another brilliant young artist) and Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony. “Grium” unfolds like a musical scrapbook of Yoon’s memories from Seoul and Europe, of his travels as he was educated and came of age. Its harmonic language may be generically modern, but the piece is skillfully crafted, with an intuitive sense for orchestral writing and subtle nods that avoided being cheaply overt. (The clearest reference, to the chime of Big Ben, got a chuckle of recognition that belied how ambivalently and intelligently it was being used.) A piece so personal could, like the Bruch and Tchaikovsky, easily sink into sentimentality; Yoon, though, kept it all moving with unwavering vitality.

    • In 'Grium' Hankyeol Yoon made the most of all the instrumental sounds and made them shine with effervescence - an intense stirring orchestral piece.

      • Salzburger Nachrichten
      • 12 August 2024
    • Hankyeon Yoon shaped the adagio and allegro of this first movement [Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6] with fervour, even intensity, extending the pain of an unhappy man between curse and bliss throughout the entire movement. With sweeping arm movements, he reflected the rebellion of a hero, setting a quiet melancholy until the movement faded away in resignation. Yoon's evocative emotional gestures were excellently followed by the excellent orchestra. This brilliant young talent is one to keep an eye on!

    • Dueñas gently allowed the prelude to blossom, which Hankyeol Yoon matched with accentuated drama in the full sound of the orchestra, before both gave in to the extended vocal lyricism of the Adagio. Yoon let the musicians play to their heart's content, starting with the opening bassoon solo and the waltz, which leads to absurdity with its weightless 5/4 time signature. Then, in the lament that ends everything, he allowed a correspondingly internalized calm to resonate, conveying a farewell. A performance worthy of Karajan!

      • drehpunktkultur.at
      • 11 August 2024
    • In Tchaikovsky's "Pathetique" the composers deepest despair and world-weariness, who died a few days after the premier, were palpable. All emotional climates were swept through, stirring large dynamic arcs of tension. Lyricism was savored and the music was played in a precise balanced manner.

      • Kurier
      • 11 August 2024
  • Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Debut

    Florence, Italy
    Feb 2024
    • In the first part of the evening, the programme unfolded through an entirely Brahmsian repertoire, inaugurated with the 'Overture for an Academic Feast', rendered by Yoon particularly effectively in its more triumphalist tones; this was followed by two pieces with the additional contribution of the choir, the 'Lament op. 82' and the 'Song of Destiny op. 54'. While in the first piece, the conductor's ability to recreate the soberly solemn atmosphere emerged, in the second, Yoon outlined its meditative atmosphere with intensity, thanks to the excellent performance of the Maggio choir and an orchestra that was well shaped in terms of dynamics and timbre. There is no doubt, however, that Yoon's talents were fully manifested in Dvorak's Eighth Symphony, tackled by the young Korean conductor with passionate enthusiasm and, at the same time, with firm control of the orchestral masses; we recall, above all, the Adagio, splendidly designed in its expressive country stillness (the woodwinds were excellent here), interrupted by moments of greater dynamic force, and the Allegro finale, in which Dvorak's vitalistic spirit in Yoon's baton exploded in all its intensity, unleashing the enthusiasm of an audience (unfortunately not a large one) present in the Metha hall.

    • Moving but appropriate gestures, he holds the Orchestra and Chorus of the Maggio firmly in place: the former responds to him with polish, fine solo sorties, enthusiasm; the latter with compactness and adhesion. Yoon is finally a conductor who knows how to make the music breathe, not throttle it, and shapes it with a flexibility of accents and dynamics that goes well with the generosity of the resulting sound. As for the results, the evening is a crescendo

      • Corriere Fiorentino
      • 13 February 2024
  • Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award

    Salzburg, Austria
    Aug 2023
    • "Yoon Han-kyeol's conducting has charisma, is well-prepared and excellent in skill," said the jury at the main auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation after Sunday's final round of the competition. "Watching him conduct, we could feel music was flowing out of his heart instead of looking like he was just pretending to conduct music."