KB News Desk
Seoul’s classical calendar for the second half of the year begins in earnest with the 2026 Seoul Arts Center’s International Music Festival, which runs Aug. 18 to 23 at the Seoul Arts Center under the theme “Pack Your Summer with Classics.”
Conductor Lee Seungwon and the SAC Festival Orchestra bookend the six-day event, opening with an all-Ravel program alongside pianist Kevin Chen — who drew wide attention at the 2025 Chopin Competition — and closing with an all-Shostakovich night featuring cellist Anastasia Kobekina. Pianist Behzod Abduraimov and the rare male soprano Samuel Marino are among the other headliners across the week.
Taking over from the SAC International Music Festival is Hic et Nunc!, the Sejong Soloists’ chamber music festival. Running from Aug. 25 to Sept. 3, its ninth edition features 10 programs and 44 artists, with a focus on new works and fresh interpretations of classical music.
Its first concert, on Aug. 26 at the Seoul Arts Center, features tenor Ian Bostridge in Mahler songs under conductor Yoon Han-kyeol, winner of the 2023 Karajan Young Conductors Award in Salzburg, followed the next night by a program marking the centennial of Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag.
The season’s recital stages belong to soloists old and new. Legendary pianist Rudolf Buchbinder marks his 80th birthday with a Mozart Piano Concerto Project, directing the Lucerne Festival Strings from the keyboard on Sept. 17 and 20. Violinist Augustin Hadelich, meanwhile, offers an unaccompanied recital anchored by Bach’s Partita No. 2 at Lotte Concert Hall.
Two of Korea’s leading pianists anchor the season with ambitious single-composer recitals. Park Jaehong, the 2021 Busoni Competition winner, devotes an entire evening to Rachmaninoff’s 24 Preludes on Sept. 6 at the Seoul Arts Center. On Oct. 27, Sohn Minsoo returns to the same hall with Bach’s complete Well-Tempered Clavier, Book I, marking a new recording and a national tour.
September brings a wave of international guests. Gustavo Gimeno leads the Luxembourg Philharmonic back to Korea on Sept. 11 at the Seoul Arts Center, pairing Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7 with the Korean debut of violinist Maria Duenas in the Brahms concerto.
Also in September, the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra makes its first visit to Korea, marking its centennial and 35 years of Estonia-Korea diplomatic ties. Led by music director Olari Elts with pianist Sunwoo Yekwon, the 2017 Van Cliburn gold medalist, it plays the Seoul Arts Center on Sept. 22, framing Schumann’s Piano Concerto — a Korean first for Sunwoo — with Tonu Korvits’ “Hymns to the Aurora” and Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony. A Sept. 20 date in Bucheon substitutes Beethoven’s “Emperor” Concerto.
A month later, Paavo Jarvi brings his Estonian Festival Orchestra to the Seoul Arts Center on Oct. 20, joined by violinist Clara-Jumi Kang, balancing Estonian composer Erkki-Sven Tuur against Brahms and Sibelius, following an Oct. 18 date in Incheon.
The season peaks in November. Pianist Lim Yunchan reunites with conductor Marin Alsop and the Philadelphia Orchestra on Nov. 8 at the Seoul Arts Center, reprising the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 that won him the 2022 Van Cliburn Competition.
Days later, Sir Simon Rattle brings the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra to the center for two nights, Nov. 12 and 13: the first pairs Schubert’s “Great” C-major Symphony with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, the second scaling Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” with soprano Lucy Crowe and mezzo Karen Cargill.
On Nov. 17 and 18, Teodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra play Shostakovich at Lotte Concert Hall with violinist Daniel Lozakovich. Pianist Víkingur Olafsson opens the month with a Nov. 1 recital at the Sejong Center.
The BBC Philharmonic rounds out the year with its first visit to Korea in 11 years, performing at the Sejong Center on Dec. 12. Led by chief conductor John Storgards, the Finnish maestro acclaimed for his interpretations of Nordic repertoire and adventurous contemporary programming, the orchestra brings one of Britain’s most distinctive musical voices to Seoul.
