Yoon Hankyeol, the winner of this year's Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award, on Aug. 6 competes in the competition's final round at the main auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria. (Screen capture from Salzburg Festival's website)

By Yoon Sojung

Yoon Hankyeol has become the first Korean to win the Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award.

The competition's jury on Aug. 6 named him the winner of the event's final round at the main auditorium of the Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg, Austria, Yonhap News and other Korean media reported.

The judges called Yoon's performance "charismatic, fully prepared and technically outstanding," adding that he made the audience feel that he was "not imitating the music but allowing it to flow from his heart."

In the finals, he conducted four songs including Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 3 "Scottish" A minor op. 56; the overture from Gioachino Rossini's opera "The Barber of Seville"; and Mozart's "Ah se in ciel, benigne stelle aria for soprano and orchestra," K. 538.

Yoon competed with two other two finalists. Vitali Alekseenok of Belarus conducted on Aug. 5 and Tobias Wogerer of Austria on Aug. 6.

Named after the legendary Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan, the prize is considered a gateway for young conductors. Organized by the Salzburg Festival in cooperation with the Herbert von Karajan Institute, the honor was initially launched in 2010 as the Nestle and Salzburg Festival Young Conductors Award and renamed in 2021. 

A combined 323 participants from 54 countries competed in this year's competition.

The winner receives a cash prize of EUR 15,000 and gets the opportunity to conduct at the festival next year.

While a student at Seoul Arts High School, Yoon moved to Germany and graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich. He has since worked as a conductor and composer in the country. 

In 2019, Yoon also became the first Korean to win the Neeme Jarvi Prize, the highest award of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival & Academy in Switzerland, one of the largest music festivals in Europe.  

He worked as an assistant conductor with the theater company Staatstheater Nurnberg in Nuremburg and Grand Theatre de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland, and as conductor with Landestheater (State Theater) Mecklenburg. In November last year, he signed an exclusive contract with Askonas Holt, a London-based management company that represents classical music artists including world renowned maestros Simon Rattle and Chung Myung-whun, pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.

arete@korea.kr