Booking Busan Concert Hall Admission Age: Elementary school students and above

ARTISTS

Conductor Samuel Lee gained international attention in 2024 by becoming the first Korean to win the Malko Competition in Denmark, one of the world's top three international conducting competitions. This milestone led to performance opportunities with leading global orchestras including the Oslo Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and Dallas Symphony Orchestra, as well as signing an exclusive contract with the global artist management agency HarrisonParrott. Starting in 2022, he served as Assistant Conductor and then Associate Conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra in the United States. In the 2025/26 season, he will make his debuts with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Malmö Symphony Orchestra, and Kansas City Symphony, and in the 2026/27 season, he is scheduled to conduct the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, among others. He has also won first prizes at the BMI International Conducting Competition in Romania and the Taipei International Conducting Competition, and has conducted world-renowned orchestras such as the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Bamberg Symphony, and Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra at prestigious venues including the Berliner Philharmonie, Gewandhaus Leipzig, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Furthermore, he actively performs with major Korean ensembles such as the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, and National Symphony Orchestra of Korea. As a violist, he has won top honors at numerous international competitions, including first prizes at the Anton Rubinstein International Competition in Germany and the Michał Spisak International Music Competition in Poland, and received second prize at the ARD International Music Competition as a member of the Novus String Quartet. He graduated with the highest distinction from the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hamburg, and previously served as a viola professor at the University of Music and Theatre Leipzig in Germany and conductor of the C.P.E. Bach Musikgymnasium Orchestra in Berlin.

Viola Nils Mönkemeyer

VIOLA NILS MÖNKEMEYER

Violist Nils Mönkemeyer has established himself as one of the world's leading violists through his exceptional artistry and creative programming, playing a pivotal role in raising the international profile of the viola. His repertoire spans widely from discovering and premiering 18th-century original works for the viola to contemporary compositions and his own unique arrangements. His albums released on Sony Classical have won numerous awards and received acclaim from the global music community and press. In 2023, his album 'Dance for Two', released with Dorothee Oberlinger, attracted significant attention by presenting music spanning over a millennium in fresh arrangements. In the 2026/27 season, he will perform with the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, and Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz Orchestra, and will perform Bartók's Viola Concerto with the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Samuel Lee. He also actively continues his chamber music activities at Wigmore Hall in London and major European music festivals, including Beethovenfest Bonn, Classic Ascona, and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. He has collaborated with world-renowned conductors such as Andrey Boreyko, Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, and Simone Young, and has performed on stage with leading global orchestras including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently a professor at the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and was named 'University Teacher of the Year' by the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers in 2025, becoming the first musician to receive this honor.

Busan Philharmonic Orchestra

BUSAN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Founded in 1962, the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra is a public orchestra directly under Busan Metropolitan City and the third oldest orchestra in South Korea. It established its foundation as a professional orchestra through the Busan Citizens' Hall in 1974 and the Busan Cultural Center in 1988, and has established itself as a representative cultural and arts organization of Busan. Starting with its first conductor Oh Tae-kyun, the orchestra has continued its musical development alongside prominent Korean and international conductors including Mark Gorenstein, Alexander Anissimov, Li Xincao, Choi Soo-yeoul, and Hong Seok-won. With a quad-wind orchestration, the Busan Philharmonic Orchestra contributes to expanding the base of classical music and enriching citizens' cultural enjoyment through various planned performances, including regular concerts, educational concerts, chamber music series, outreach concerts, and late-night concerts. In South Korea, it participates annually in the Seoul Arts Center Orchestra Festival and has successfully conducted overseas tours in various countries worldwide, including the United States, Germany, China, Japan, and Singapore. Notably, in 1997, it became the first South Korean orchestra to perform at Carnegie Hall in New York, and in 2025, it was recorded as the first Asian orchestra invited to perform at the closing concert of Musikfest Berlin. In addition, it completed South Korea's first full cycles of Richard Strauss's tone poems from 2017 to 2019 and Ravel's orchestral works from 2020 to 2022. Since 2024, it has continued its Mahler cycle, presenting world-class performances through artistic perfection and innovative planning.