Jaap van Zweden, conductor

Over the past decade, Jaap van Zweden has been an international presence on three continents. Currently, he is Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, a post he began in 2018, and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic since 2012.

Van Zweden has appeared as guest conductor with many other leading orchestras around the globe, among them the Orchestre de Paris, Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,   Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, and the London Symphony Orchestra.

Jaap van Zweden has made numerous acclaimed recordings, the most recent of which are a 2020 release with the New York Philharmonic  of the World Premiere of David Lang’s prisoner of the state, and the 2019 release of the World Premiere of Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth, continuing the Philharmonic’s partnership with Decca Gold. In 2018 with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, he completed a four-year project conducting the first-ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, which have been recorded and released on Naxos Records as individual recordings as well as a complete set.  His highly praised performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal, the latter of which earned Jaap van Zweden the prestigious Edison Award for Best Opera Recording in 2012, are available on CD/DVD.

Born in Amsterdam, Jaap van Zweden was appointed at age nineteen as the youngest-ever concertmaster of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.  He began his conducting career nearly twenty years later in 1996. He remains Honorary Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic where he served as Chief Conductor from 2005-2013, served as Chief Conductor of the Royal Flanders Orchestra from 2008-11, and was Music Director from 2008-2018 of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra where he currently holds the title Conductor Laureate.  Van Zweden was named Musical America's 2012 Conductor of the Year and was the subject of an October 2018 CBS 60 Minutes profile. Recently, he was awarded the prestigious 2020 Concertgebouw Prize, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic under Jaap van Zweden’s leadership was named Gramophone’s 2019 Orchestra of the Year.

In 1997, Jaap van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation, the objective being to support families of children with autism. Now, over 20 years later, the Foundation has grown into a multi-faceted organization which, through various initiatives and activities, focuses on the development of children and young adults with autism.  The Foundation provides in-home music therapy to children through a national network of qualified music therapists in the Netherlands; opened the Papageno House in August 2015 (with Her Majesty Queen Maxima in attendance) for young adults with autism to live, work and  participate in the community; created a  research  center at the Papageno House for early diagnosis and treatment of autism and for analyzing  the effects of music therapy on autism; develops funding opportunities to support autism programs; and launched the app, TEAMPapageno, which allows children with autism to communicate with each other through music composition.

Bomsori Kim, violin

In February 2021, Bomsori Kim signed in Berlin the exclusive contract with the Deutsche Grammophon label. 

Bomsori was the Focus Artist of the Rheingau Musik Festival 2021. The residency included nine concerts, presenting Bomsori’s entire artistic skills together with various musical partners. 

She performed all five Mozart violin concertos with the Camerata Salzburg, Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto with Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko and with Tenebrae Choir, Bomsori performed Bach's Partita in d minor for solo violin merging with his chorales.

In Summer 2021, Bomsori returned to Gstaad Menuhin Festival performing twice, as the “Menuhin’s Heritage Artist, staritng her 5- years residency at the legendary festival.

Bomsori makes her debuts at the Philharmonie Essen, Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and the Philharmonie in Cologne. She will perform with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra (Fabio Luisi), the NDR Radiophilharmonie (Andrew Manze), the Singapore Symphony, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra amongst others. 

Bomsori will return to New York Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Bruch Violin Concerto under the baton of Jaap van Zweden in 2022 and will be on tour with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra New York with Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. 

The 2019/20 season featured Bomsori’s debuts at Lucerne Festival, Rheingau Music Festival, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, Heidelberger Frühling Festival.

Bomsori made her New York Philharmonic debut in February 2019, performing the US Premiere of Tan Dun's Violin Concerto, Fire Ritual.

Bomsori has had the privilege of performing under the direction of multiple conductors, including Fabio Luisi, Jaap van Zweden, Andrey Boreyko, Jacek Kaspszyk, Marin Alsop, Pablo Heras-Casado, Hannu Lintu, Sakari Oramo, John Storgårds, Giancarlo Guerrero with numerous leading orchestras, such as Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Moscow Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Camerata Salzburg, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, amongst others. She joined the Wrocław Philharmonic as soloist in a tour through USA, performing the Szymanowski Violin Concerto. 

As a soloist, Bomsori has appeared at numerous venues worldwide, such as Musikverein Golden Hall in Vienna, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg, Finlandia Hall in Helsinki, the Herkulessaal and the Prinzregententheater in Munich, Berlin Philharmonic, Rudolfinum and Smetana Hall in Prague, Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York.

In addition to winning the 62nd ARD International Music Competition, Bomsori is a prize winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition, Queen Elisabeth Competition, International Jean Sibelius Violin Competition, Joseph Joachim International Violin Competition Hannover, Montreal International Musical Competition, Sendai International Music Competition and the 15th International Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. Bomsori received the 2018 Young Artist Award from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and the Korean Music Association’s 2019 Young Artist Award. In 2020, she was presented with the 4th G.rium Artists Award by the Foundation Academia Platonica.

In June 2021 Bomsori released her first Deutsche Grammophon solo Album, Violin on Stage, with NFM Wroclaw Philharmonic and Giancarlo Guerrero.

The duo album with pianist Rafał Blechacz, featuring works by Fauré, Debussy, Szymanowski and Chopin, was released in February 2019 by Deutsche Grammophon. The album won the Fryderyk Music Award for “Best Polish Album Abroad” for their DG recording of French and Polish repertoire.

In 2017, Warner Classics released Bomsori’s debut album with maestro Jacek Kaspszyk and the Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra, featuring Wieniawski Violin Concerto No. 2 and Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1.

Born in South Korea, Bomsori received a Bachelor degree at Seoul National University, where she studied with Young Uck Kim. She also earned her Master of Music Degree and Artist Diploma at The Juilliard School where she studied with Sylvia Rosenberg and Ronald Copes. 

With the support of Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, she currently plays on a 1774 violin by Joannes Baptista Guadagnini.

Carlos Simon, composer

Carlos Simon is a native of Atlanta, Georgia whose music ranges from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism. Simon is the Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.  

Simon was named as one of the recipients for the 2021 Sphinx Medal of Excellence. The Sphinx Medal of Excellence is the highest honor bestowed by the Sphinx Organization, recognizing extraordinary classical Black and Latinx musicians. Along with a $50,000 career grant, Sphinx annually awards the Medals of Excellence to three artists who, early in their career, demonstrate artistic excellence, outstanding work ethic, a spirit of determination, and an ongoing commitment to leadership and their communities. Simon’s latest album, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT, was released on the Navona Records label in April 2018. Described as an “overall driving force” (Review Graveyard) and featured on Apple Music’s “Albums to Watch”, MY ANCESTOR’S GIFT incorporates spoken word and historic recordings to craft a multifaceted program of musical works that are inspired as much by the past as they are the present. 

With his music being described as ‘perfectly engaging and propulsive’ (The Philadelphia Enquirer), recent commissions have come from the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Los Angles Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, Washington National Opera, Reno Philharmonic, the American Composers Orchestra, Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra, Irving Klein String Competition, Morehouse College celebrating its 150th founding anniversary, the University of Michigan Symphony Band celebrating the university’s 200th anniversary, Albany Symphony’s Dogs of Desire (American Music Festival) as well as serving as the young composer-in-residence with the the Detroit Chamber String and Winds in 2016. Simon’s music has been performed by Tony Arnold, the Third Angle New Music Ensemble, Hub New Music Ensemble, the Asian/American New Music Institute, the Flint Symphony, the Color of Music Festival, University of North Texas Symphony Band, University of Miami Symphony Band, Georgia State University Wind Ensemble and many other professional performance organizations. His piece, Let America Be America Again (text by Langston Hughes) is scheduled to be featured in an upcoming PBS documentary chronicling the inaugural Gabriela Lena Frank Academy of Music. He has served as a member of the music faculty at Spelman College and Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia and now serves as Assistant Professor at Georgetown University. 

As a part of the Sundance Institute, Simon was named as a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow in 2018, which was held at the historic Skywalker Ranch. His string quartet, Elegy, honoring the lives of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner was recently performed at the Kennedy Center for the Mason Bates JFK Jukebox Series. With support from the US Embassy in Tokyo and US/Japan Foundation, Simon traveled with the Asia/America New Music Institute (AANMI) on a two-week tour of Japan in 2018 performing concerts in some of the most sacred temples and concert spaces in Japan including Suntory Hall in Tokyo,  Japan.  Other recent accolades include being a Composer Fellow at the Cabrillo Festival for Contemporary Music, winning the Underwood Emerging Composer Commission from the American Composers Orchestra in 2016, the prestigious Marvin Hamlisch Film Scoring Award in 2015, and the Presser Award from the Theodore Presser Foundation in 2015. He has also served as a contributing arranger for Rachel Barton Pine Foundation's Music by Black Composers series for violin.

Acting as music director and keyboardist for GRAMMY Award winner Jennifer Holliday, Simon has performed with the Boston Pops Symphony, Jackson Symphony, and St. Louis Symphony. He has toured internationally with soul GRAMMY-nominated artist, Angie Stone, and performed throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia. 

Simon earned his doctorate degree at the University of Michigan, where he studied with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. He has also received degrees from Georgia State University and Morehouse College. Additionally, he studied in Baden, Austria at the Hollywood Music Workshop with Conrad Pope and at New York University’s Film Scoring Summer Workshop. 

Carlos Simon, Jr. is a member of many music organizations including ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), where he was honored as one of the "Composers to Watch" in 2015 and will take part in the ASCAP Film Music Workshop in Los Angeles, California in 2019. He is also an honorary member of Phi Mu Alpha Music Sinfonia Fraternity and a member of the National Association of Negro Musicians, Society of Composers International, and Pi Kappa Lambda Music Honor Society. His compositions have been published by the Gregorian Institute of America (GIA) Publications and Hal Leonard Publications.