Tongyeong International Music Festival


Tongyeong International Music Festival, abbreviated TIMF, is an annual music festival held in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, South Korea. Considering the classification between ethnic and artistic categories, TIMF may be classified into one of Korea's leading arts and music festivals which is specialized in western music, i.e. with a variety of style and genre, such as contemporary, early, classical, romantic, traditional, symphonic, chamber or ensemble, operatic or music theater. In spite of its various appetite for genre, TIMF is usually known as being strong in contemporary program of western style music.

History

The origin of this festival results from the spirit to commemorate Isang Yun, a world-renowned composer who was born in Sancheong near Tongyeong and lived the latter part of life in Berlin, Germany. Yun settled down in Tongyeong and took the first job of teaching at high schools. At 39, Yun moved to Europe to study at Berlin University of the Arts, Germany. As a full-time professor, he educated many young artists whether they are composers or players, and many of his disciples were Koreans or from Korea.
Isang Yun's Korean disciples were the ones that led TIMF project to be feasible. They first sought for sponsorship from the municipal government in order to present an introductory concert titled as 'Night of Isang Yun's Music'. This singular concert was held in 1999 and found itself to be successful thanks to hails of so many Korean artists.
The disciples were encouraged by this success, and they tried to develop it into Tongyeong Contemporary Music Festival. This festival is now recognized as an archetype of TIMF's current format, and on its threshold, it was a reformatory challenge to extend a singular concert to a form of a three-days festival.
This festival is very similar to 'the present' TIMF in the following features.
a. It was organized in a perfect form of a festival, as being held for three consecutive days.
b. Each different concert presented each different content in program, style and instrumentation.
c. Consistency was met in content programming, as the festival set its own theme.
2 years of experiments in the form of festival made it clear that the content of western music could be cooperatively coexistent with Tongyeong's environments. The opinions arose among the populace that the festival should be developed into an international format.
But the initiators did not make haste. Their next step was to establish an independent entity of a foundation. This action was necessary because the activity of hosting a festival should be politically neutral and cannot be disturbed by politicians or governments. The initiators formed the Board of Directors being helped by the provincial and the municipal governments, and the Board determined the initiative proposals to constitute a foundation and elect Seong-Yawng Park as the first Chairman of TIMF Foundation. The Foundation was established and registered in February 2002.
TIMF 2002, the first edition of a new 'international' format, was presented by this new legal entity through organizational forces caused by the Board, the Managing Committee and the Administration Office. Based upon the past 2 years' experiences, the programmers of the Secretariat constituted Tongyeong International Music Festival 2002, for 8 consecutive days in March.
The programmers kept deciding a new theme for each year. The theme was always derived from a subtitle of Isang Yun's works. Although there always arose a need to construct a new concert hall, Tongyeong Arts Center with Main Hall and Small Hall, was always the official venue. The following is the prospectus of Tongyeong International Music Festival since its first edition up to now.

Editions

Programs

The uniqueness in contemporary programming results from its spiritual motto that encourages programmers to commemorate and inherit creative minds of Isang Yun, a Korean composer born in Tongyeong. As Isang Yun was helped and discovered by European sponsors when in the past he endeavored to research abroad, TIMF finds it as an organizational mission to discover many other young composers who may succeed to Isang Yun's legacy. From this reason, TIMF's programmers do make it usual commission new works to young composers with brilliant creativity.
Since Asia is still regarded upon as the periphery of music society, TIMF's discoveries are mainly focused on Asian composers. The following is the selected list of Asian composers whom TIMF has proudly found over the last decade by setting their own repertoire on stage.
Toru Takemitsu

:ko:강석희|Sukhi Kang

:ko:김정길|Chung-Gil Kim

:ko:백병동|Byung-dong Paik

:ko:박영희|Younghi Pagh-Paan

Qigang Chen

Qu Xiao-Song

:ko:이강율|Ih Kangyul

Toshio Hosokawa

Tan Dun

:ko:임준희|June Hee Lim

Unsuk Chin

:ko:최우정|Uzong Choe

:ko:김남국|Nam-kuk Kim

Sungji Hong
Let alone Asian composers, TIMF has also presented many outstanding contemporary works written by 20th century's composers. If the concept 'contemporary' may be defined as a reformative attempt towards new forms, a variety of works and composers can be introduced. TIMF has set up its own programming policy to honor contemporary era by finding the beauty of the works and introducing it to new and young audiences. The following is the result of the efforts made to do the finding.
Leoš Janáček

Edward Elgar

Isaac Albéniz

Gustav Mahler

Claude Debussy

Richard Strauss

Alexander Scriabin

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Sergei Rachmaninoff

Arnold Schoenberg

Charles Ives

Maurice Ravel

Manuel de Falla

Béla Bartók

Karol Szymanowski

Zoltán Kodály

Anton Webern

Edgard Varèse

Alban Berg

Heitor Villa-Lobos

Bohuslav Martinu

Sergei Prokofiev

Darius Milhaud

Paul Hindemith

Francis Poulenc

Luigi Dallapiccola

Andre Jolivet

Giacinto Scelsi

Dmitri Shostakovich

Olivier Messiaen

Elliott Carter

Samuel Barber

John Cage

Benjamin Britten

Witold Lutosławski

Alberto Ginastera

Henri Dutilleux

Ástor Piazzolla

Iannis Xenakis

György Ligeti

Luigi Nono

Luciano Berio

Pierre Boulez

György Kurtág

Karlheinz Stockhausen

Mauricio Kagel

Sofia Gubaidulina

Krzysztof Penderecki

Alfred Schnittke

Arvo Pärt

Steve Reich

Heinz Holliger

Franghiz Ali-Zadeh

Salvatore Sciarrino

Wolfgang Rihm

Artists

As well as composers, TIMF has also presented outstanding musicians and performers. Its programming policy is concentratively set on presenting 2 categories of classical musicians; famed top stars or gifted top rookies. For this reason, TIMF's concert model is structured in a symmetrical compatibility between experimental performances to introduce young players and big-scale projects run by globally recognized orchestras, chamber ensembles, soloists or operatic productions. The following shows the artists staged in TIMF's history complying with these 2 categories.

Young players introduced

, Cello

:ko:강윤지|Yunji Kang, Viola

Asian Festival Ensemble

:ko:KNUA 스트링 앙상블|KNUA String Ensemble with :fr:Solenne Paidassi|Solenne Paidassi, Violin

:ru:Narek Hakhnazaryan|Narek Hakhnazaryan, Cello

Parker String Quartet

:ko:나상아|Sangah Nah, Flute

:ko:최예은|Ye-Eun Choi, Violin

:ko:양준모|Jun Mo Yang, Baritone

Julie Albers, Cello

Erin Keefe, Violin and :ko:제갈소망|So-Mang Jeagal, Piano

:ko:탁영아|Young-Ah Tak, Piano

:ko:윤지윤|Jane Yoon, Harp

:ko:이동규|David DQ Lee, Countertenor

:ko:이보경|Bo-Kyoung Lee, Violin

:ja:Norie Takahashi|Norie Takahashi, Piano

:ko:김선욱|Sun-Wook Kim, Piano

:zh:Lin Yue|Lin Yue, Violin

:ko:가야금 앙상블 사계|Kayagum Ensemble SAGYE

:ru:Boris Andrianov|Boris Andrianov, Cello and :ru:Dimitri Illarionov|Dimitri Illarionov, Guitar

:ko:백나영|Na-Young Baek, Cello

Matt Haimovitz, Cello

Globally recognized performing artists

with Thomas Zehetmair, Conducting & Violin

Roby Lakatos, Gypsy Violin

Munich Chamber Orchestra with :de:Alexander Liebreich|Alexander Liebreich, Conducting

:ko:손열음|Yeol-Eum Son, Piano

London Chamber Orchestra with Han-na Chang, Cello

Europa Galante with Fabio Biondi, Violin

Freiburg Baroque Orchestra

John Holloway, Violin

:ko:백혜선|HaeSun Paik, Piano

Jacques Loussier, Jazz Piano

BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with Gianandrea Noseda, Conducting

Hilary Hahn, Violin

English Chamber Orchestra with Ralf Gothóni, Conducting

Jordi Savall, Viola da gamba

Kazuhito Yamashita, Guitar

Claude Bolling, Jazz Piano

:ko:임동민|Dong-Min Lim, Piano

Kronos Quartet with Wu Man, Pipa

St.Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov, Conducting

Vladimir Feltsman, Piano

Richard Yongjae O'Neill, Viola

Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Simonov, Conducting

:de:Stuttgarter Kammerorchester|Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra with :de:Peter von Wienhardt|Peter von Wienhardt, Piano

Arditti Quartet

Dong-Suk Kang, Violin

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conducting with Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists

Chung Trio

Mischa Maisky, Cello

Tan Dun, Conducting

Silesian String Quartet

The State Symphony Capella of Russia with Valeri Polyansky, Conducting

Rachel Lee, Violin

Natalie Clein, Cello

Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra with Zubin Mehta, Conducting

Sarah Chang, Violin

Sejong Soloists with Cho-Liang Lin, Violin

Heinz Holliger, Conducting & Oboe

Myung-whun Chung, Conducting with Philharmonique Orchestra de Radio France

Dong-Hyek Lim, Piano

Xenakis Ensemble

Vision: artistic director

On the verge of opening TIMF 2009, the Festival embraced a revolutionary brand-new phase of its history. TIMF Foundation, the managing body of the Festival and other related business branches, announced that TIMF would appoint a new artistic director, the position that had been left unfilled since the birth of the Festival. :de:Alexander Liebreich|Alexander Liebreich, the primary conductor and artistic director of Munich Chamber Orchestra, was the main character of this new era. It is said that Alexander Liebreich will officially take office from TIMF 2011 but his researching activity towards a new way of TIMF programming has already begun.
Why would the Foundation need a new artistic director although they have managed to do without one for the last decade? - Three reasons have been found. First, long after the benchmarking research on other reputed festivals, the Foundation has realized that no reformation of planning inevitably leads any Festival to discourage itself into maintaining bargaining power in performing arts market and finally to be forgotten, lose sponsorship and disappear in the market. For an arts festival, the core competence in programming is said to work like the investment of seed money in manufacturing industry.
Second, although, within only a decade, TIMF has set its own positioning as a leading festival in Asia to present new trends of western music, it is truly certain that the necessity to prosper further abroad arises. As exemplified in the previous paragraph, TIMF has discovered so many young artists. However, a Korean or even Asian market is so narrow that the market capacity cannot technically hold all the discoveries. Considering that Asia is still the periphery of western music business, European and American markets should be conquered to allow young discoveries to expand their own possibilities. The programming dogma restricted in domestic market will soon find it so difficult to assume the mission to enlarge a scale of the market pie.
Third, Alexander Liebreich is such an active figure to make all the possibilities feasible. It is said that TIMF Foundation discovered Liebreich in 2007 when he came to Tongyeong to perform with Munich Chamber Orchestra. Liebreich was regarded on as one of the most aspiring conductors armed with visions and eagerness. In spite of his German-based musical career, Liebreich's aesthetic has long directed to depth of Asian culture. His career also reveals his fondness towards the Korean peninsula, as he joined several projects to perform with and educate both North and South Koreans. Munich Chamber Orchestra is one of the most frequent groups to perform Asian music, on which Liebreich played a significant role. Thus TIMF's need to prosper and Liebreich's aesthetic can successfully be matched.
For a couple of decades following, TIMF is expected to gain a bigger reputation coming across Alexander Liebreich. For a young music festival at only an age of ten, it must be truly fantastic to grow up with another 'growing-up' figure.