"In this passage you have to give a clear downbeat with the baton — a firm downward stroke. Otherwise the instruments will fall out of time and stay tangled through to the end."
It was the afternoon of the 15th at the N Studio rehearsal room of the Seoul Arts Center. Roberto Abbado, music director of the Korean National Symphony Orchestra, offered his advice to Jung Sun-woo, 24, right down to the angle of the baton, after Jung finished conducting the first movement of Brahms' Symphony No. 1. It was day two of the 2026 KNSO Conductors Workshop, organized by the national orchestra. Beethoven's Symphony No. 3, the "Eroica," occupied the morning, and in the afternoon the young conductors pressed on with intensive rehearsals of the Brahms.
Four young conductors took part: Jung, along with Kwon Su-jeong, 37, Oh Sung-bin, 30, and Choi Jae-hyuk, 33. Selected from an applicant pool of 9.25 to one, they took turns conducting Beethoven's Third and Brahms' First over three days from the 14th to the 16th. Each time one of them finished, Abbado worked through the music phrase by phrase, and the same passages were repeated again and again. After the playing was done, the participants reviewed video recordings, analyzing their own conducting and trading advice.
Abbado's mentoring focused less on supplying answers than on drawing out each conductor's own musical ideas. "There is no right or wrong in music. What matters is expressing your own musical idea," he stressed repeatedly. Even during breaks he kept talking with the conductors, recounting his own experiences as a young musician in an effort to pass along whatever he could. Abbado is a nephew of Claudio Abbado, regarded as one of the greatest conductors of the 20th century, and has built his reputation in European music circles as an authority on bel canto opera aesthetics.
Oh Sung-bin, currently second Kapellmeister at the Osnabrück City Theater in Germany, said he was struck by Abbado's advice to imagine music as images. "Even on the flight to Korea I kept agonizing over how to set the beat at the opening of the second movement of the 'Eroica,'" Oh said. "Rather than technical methods, Maestro Abbado told me to picture a grieving crowd dragging their feet in a funeral procession. It was a moment of real revelation." Kwon Su-jeong, who is studying at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, said: "Maestro Abbado advised me to trust the orchestra and conduct boldly. I also learned a great deal from the orchestra's players."
Kim Noltemy, president and chief executive of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, also took part as a mentor. Noltemy stressed that artistic capability and a clear perspective on music are what count for a conductor. "When choosing a music director, artistic level and vision always matter more than sociability or personality," she said. "Beyond simply conducting well, what matters is how you see music and how you will lead it."
The playing was handled by members of the KNSO Academy Orchestra. Made up of young players aged 34 and under who have completed undergraduate studies, the KNSO Academy is a program through which the national orchestra provides mentoring and real performance experience to develop musicians. Abbado was generous with praise not only for the conductors but also for the young players who worked alongside them. About 200 members of the public who had registered in advance attended the open mentoring session, watching the process by which conductors and orchestra build music together.
On the final day, the 16th, Choi Jae-hyuk was named the outstanding participant and received a 2.5 million won scholarship from the Seah Unhyung Cultural Foundation. "Just being able to conduct the entire Brahms Symphony No. 1 with a real orchestra was a major experience in itself," Choi said. "I will study music harder and more humbly going forward."
The Korean National Symphony Orchestra runs conductor development programs every year to find and nurture young conductors. It holds an international conducting competition once every three years and stages conductors workshops in the intervening years. Among those who have come through the program and gone on to broaden their careers are Park Keun-tae, resident conductor of the Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, and Kim Ji-soo, associate conductor of the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra.
