Holly Hyun Choe

Holly Hyun Choe was born in South Korea and grew up in Los Angeles. As the only musician in her family, she began teaching herself playing the clarinet at the age of 13; the first private music lessons followed when she was 19, when she already had taught herself, among others, Mozart’s clarinet concerto. Despite her late start, she was granted a full scholarship for her bachelor’s degree in clarinet performance and music education at the Bob Cole Conservatory in Long Beach, California. She earned her Master of Music in Wind Conductiong at the New England Conservatory in Boston. During her studies, she participated in masterclasses with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Jaap van Zweeden and Péter Eötvös. Since spring semester 2017, Holly Hyun Choe has been persuing a second Master’s at Zürcher Hochschule der Künste in orchestral conducting with a minor in opera conducting with Johannes Schlaefli. As part of her studies, she has conducted various orchestras in masterclasses, such as the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, the Hradec Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, the Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester Mannheim and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival Orchestra. In January 2019, she made her professional conducting European debut as a guest conductor with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester in Denmark and Germany. Aside from various premiers and projects such as film music concerts with composers such as Hans Zimmer and Alan Silvestri, Holly Hyun Choe is also committed to using music beyond concert platforms. She tought in summer music camps for seven years and gave mini-conducting seminars for various audiences ranging from elementary schools to elderly nursing homes. Since the end of March 2018, she is also a scholar of the Dirigentenforum des Deutschen Musikrates. In 2018, Holly Hyun Choe was substitute musical director to the University Orchestra Polyphonia Zurich.

For further information visit Holly’s website!

Last updated: January 2019