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 and 21/22 under the guidance of Maestro Paavo Järvi.
In September 2020, she made her debut at the Alte Oper Frankfurt with the Ensemble Reflektor and has been reinvited for future projects including a return to Frankfurt and a debut in the Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal in Hamburg this August 2021.
This summer, she will be the Guest Conductor for the DAVOS Festival in Switzerland this summer. Future engagements include concerts with Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, Montenegro Symphony, Orquestra Clássica do Centro, Danubia Orchestra Óbuda, and Orchestre des amateurs des ateliers de la Philharmonie de Paris.
As a guest conductor, she has worked with Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester and has given children's concerts with Musikkollegium Winterthur and Collegium Musicum Basel. She has assisted notable conductors such as Paavo Järvi in Orchestre de Paris, Leonard Slatkin in Orchestre national de Lyon, Simone Young in Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and Karina Canellakis in Gürzenich-Orchester Köln.
Holly has participated in masterclasses with conductors including Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Neeme Järvi, Jaap van Zweden, Simone Young, Marin Alsop, Teodor Currentzis, 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."
She has also given world-premieres of living composers from Switzerland, Greece, Mexico, Sweden, China, France, South Korea, and the USA.
As part of her concern to promote women composers, she has presented award-winning composer Jennifer Higdon, Grazyna Bacewicz, and Jessie Montgomery (upcoming) with the Orchesterverein Wiedikon.
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 supporting research in the integration of music in healthcare.
She holds a conducting fellowship in the German Music Council’s Dirigentenforum, is an Award Recipient of the Taki Alsop Conducting Fellowship (2019-21), and a Conducting Mentee the Peter Eötvös Foundation Mentoring Program (2020-21).
In 2020, Holly received a "Career Assistance Award" from the Solti Foundation in the United States.
Holly was born in Seoul, South Korea, and grew up 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.
