Jaehyuck Choi
*31 October 1994
Works by Jaehyuck Choi
Biography
Lover of paintings, movies, and cuisines, Jaehyuck Choi is Music Director of ensemble blank. After his initial debut at the Lucerne Festival by replacing Matthias Pintscher and sharing the stage with Sir Simon Rattle on Stockhausen’s Gruppen with London Symphony Orchestra, he has appeared on the podiums of Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Philadelphia Orchestra, Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Verbier Festival Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony, Zagreb Philharmonic, Baltic Sea Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Bucheon Philharmonic orchestra, etc. In December 2024, Choi will appear on BBC Proms Korea with the ensemble blank which is one of the prominent performing groups in Korea that he founded. Recent highlights include conducting at the Pärnu Music Festival, Verbier Festival, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, as well as assisting Zubin Mehta, Paavo Järvi, Daiele Gatti, and Lahav Shani. In the 2023/24 season, Jaehyuck will return to Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, ensemble blank, debut with Ensemble SORI and others with repertoire encompassing Mozart, Haydn, Schumann, Mendelssohn, Tchaikovsky, Elgar, Prokofiev, Ligeti, Adams, and his own works. Jaehyuck Choi is also a composer whose music is represented by the Universal Edition in Wien. He is the 1st Prize Winner of the Concours de Genève (clarinet concerto, 2017) which brought him international recognition. His music has been commissioned and championed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain, L’Orchestre Chambre de Genève, Menuhin International Violin Competition, Parker Quartet, Banff Centre for the Arts, VIVO Music Festival, EstOvest Festival, Gyeonggi Philharmonic, Daejeon Philharmonic, Ensemble SORI, Divertimento Ensemble, etc. Jaehyuck studied at The Juilliard School in New York (BM, MM), and at the Barenboim-Said Akademie (AD) in Berlin. Currently resides in Berlin and Seoul. www.jaehyuckchoi.com | @jaehyuckchoi_official www.ensembleblank.com | @ensembleblank_official
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1994 – born on 31 October in Seoul, Korea.
receives violin lessons; attends Walnut Hill School for the Arts as composer later in Natick, USA.
2011 – Meets Unsuk Chin at the Boston's Symphony Hall. Attends Unsuk Chin's Masterclass series held by the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.
2012 – Meets Peter Eötvös at the Seoul Philharmonic. Since then, Eötvös frequently teaches Choi in his masterclasses of conducting and composition.
2013 – Enters The Juilliard School in composition, meets Samuel Adler. Musical conflicts with Adler matures Choi's thoughts on his music.
2014 – Matthias Pintscher comes to The Juilliard School after Adler retires. Pintscher becomes Choi's life admiring mentor.
2015 – Performs his Self-Portrait VI (2015) for orchestra with the Tonkuenstler Orchester Niederoesterreich in Grafenegg Festival, Ink Still Wet course. / Founds the ensemble blank in Korea.
2016 – Dal Niente Ensemble performs Still Life II (2015) in the US.
2017 – Wins prestigious 1st prize at the 72em Concours de Geneve with Clarinet Concerto (2017).
2018 – Conducts London Symphony Orchestra at the Lucerne Festival, Stockhausen: Gruppen with Sir Simon Rattle and Duncan Ward. / Commissioned Composer and contemporary work performance jury at the Menuhin Competition. / Commissioned Composer at Festival de Perigord Noir.
2019 – Ensemble Intercontemporain, for the very first time, performs his work. Dust of Light (2019).
2020 – Guest Artistic Director and Conductor of the Korean Music Festival at the Konzerthaus Berlin. / Enters Barenboim-Said Akademie, meets Jörg Widmann.
2021 – Guest lecturer and commissioned composer at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, Canada. / Parker Quartet premieres With Winds II (2021).
2022 – Commissioned composer for the VIVO Music Festival and Chamber Music Columbus, US. / Portrait concert of Choi's works at The House Concert, Korea with the ensemble blank.
2023 – Commissioned composer for Ensemble Intercontemporain, Philharmonie de Paris. Straight to Heaven (2023).
2024 – Portrait concert of Choi's works and others who influenced his music at with the Ensemble SORI, Korea.
– 3rd Prize, Bucharest International Conducting Competition
– Conductor & Composer: BBC Proms in Korea with ensemble blank: World Premiere of Clarinet Concerto ensemble version
About the music
Hailed by composer-conductor Matthias Pintscher "[Choi's music has] much sense of expressivity, color, movement, motion, and a beautiful way of how to display energy", Choi says "my interests have evolved and varied from time to time. For a long time, I was fascinated in the aesthetics of fragility and immortality which I tried to paint in my music. From 2017 until now, my interest lies more on the beauty of suffocating struggles. One can directly find an indication in my score marked as "Soffocato". Suffocations catch me with so much beauty that cannot be explained with words but only with sounds. I see myself painting more of this aesthetic in near future, but at the same time finding another aesthetics that will become another of my voice."
Honors / Upcoming Events
Honors
- 1st Prize Winner of the Geneva Competition 2017 in composition with Clarinet Concerto "Nocturne III" (2017).
- 3rd Prize Winner of the Bucharest International Conducting Competition 2024.
- Conducting Debut with the London Symphony Orchestra on Stockhausen's Gruppen in 2018 (Lucerne Festival - Jaehyuck Choi, Sir Simon Rattle, Duncan Ward).
Events Highlights
- December 3 2024: BBC Proms Korea - composer & conductor with ensemble blank. World Premiere of Clarinet Concerto ensemble version.
- March 11 2023: World Premiere of Straight to Heaven with Ensemble Intercontemporain.
- September 5 2022: Portrait Concert - ensemble blank. The House Concert. Artist's house, Seoul, Korea.
- September 4 2022: With Winds III for Clarinet and String Quartet - Siwoo Kim, et al. Chamber Music Columbus Ohio / Vivo Music Festival, Ohio, USA.
