Holly Hyun Choe is the Music Director of the Orchesterverein Wiedikon and the University of St. Gallen Alumni Symphony Orchestra (HSG ASO).
She will be the new Assistant Conductor in the Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich Season 20/21 under the guidance of Maestro Paavo Järvi.
Additionally, she holds a conducting fellowship in the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum, is an Award Recipient of the Marin Alsop Taki Concordia Conducting Fellowship, and a Conducting Mentee the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Program.
Recently in September 2020, she made her debut at the Alte Oper Frankfurt with the Ensemble Reflektor featuring Beethoven's Coriolan Overture, Eroica Symphony, and Thomas Tallis - If Ye Love Me.
In April 2020, she was awarded a Career Assistance Award from the Solti Foundation U.S., who have been supporting young American conductors for the past 20 years and the largest grant-giving organization in the States.
Professionally, she has debuted as a guest conductor with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester in Denmark and Germany, Ensemble Reflektor in Hamburg, and giving children’s concerts with the Collegium Musicum Basel. With a mission to promote female composers, she has featured the award-winning composer, Jennifer Higdon, and Grazyna Bacewicz with the Orchesterverein Wiedikon.
Holly has participated in masterclasses with conductors including Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Marin Alsop, Teodor Currentzis, Larry Rachleff, Donald Schleicher, Sian Edwards, and Jessica Cottis.
While studying at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHdK), she conducted several professional orchestras such as the Trondheim Symphony, Heidelberg Symphony, Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Brandenburg Symphoniker, Picardie Orchestra, Hradec Kralove Filharmonie, Pilsen Opera House, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, and Hofer Symphony.
Going beyond the standard canon of classical music, she was involved in projects such as performing with a 3D printer as a part of the live performance in a piece written by Stefan Bachmann - "Black Wire Concertina #1-5." In the 2018-19 season, she premiered three new works by Swiss composers — Cedric Ziegler’s “Neon Diaries”, Marylène Müller’s “Pages d’écriture” and Jacqueline Gemperli’s “Artikel einunddressig.” She has also given world-premieres of living composers from Greece, Mexico, Sweden, China, France, South Korea, and the USA.
In hopes to bond different cultures, she directed for three years a 250+ member Samulnori ensemble presenting Korean traditional percussion music in the form of an American parade band performing in several major USA national parades.
Her passion for music extends also to education and healthcare; she currently teaches beginning conducting courses at ZHdK as well as the PreCollege conducting students. She has also presented conducting seminars in elementary schools, elderly nursing homes, a center for adults with disabilities, Immigrant Family Services Institute for Haitian Immigrants, and as a guest artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Arts Museum in Boston, MA (USA). With an interest in neuroscience, she envisions to support research in the integration of music in healthcare.
Holly was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up mostly in California, USA. She began her musical journey as a self-taught clarinetist aged thirteen and received her first private music lesson at age nineteen. She received a full-tuition scholarship toward her Bachelor's Degree in Clarinet Performance and Music Education at the Bob Cole Conservatory in Long Beach, CA. Her first Master's Degree in Wind Conducting was completed at the New England Conservatory with Charles Peltz and her orchestral conducting Master's Degree at the Zurich University of the Arts with Johannes Schlaefli.
