Across Korea’s major concert halls and cultural institutions, the arrival of 2026 is being marked by a wide-ranging slate of New Year’s concerts that blend tradition, star power and forward-looking programming. Spanning government-hosted galas, the launch of yearlong institutional series, high-profile orchestral appearances and artist-led recitalj concepts, January offers a snapshot of how Korea’s classical music landscape is opening the year.
On Jan. 7, a broader national vision comes into focus at the government-hosted 2026 New Year Concert at Seoul Arts Center, where the KBS Symphony Orchestra performs under conductor Hong Seok-won.
The evening blends newly commissioned Korean works with canonical repertoire, alongside orchestral reimaginings of music from K-dramas and K-animation. The program opens with Sujecheon Resounds by composer Choi Woo-jung, winner of the 2025 Culture and Arts Award, performed as a symbolic overture welcoming the New Year.
Acclaimed soloists follow, including violinist Im Ji-young, winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and pianist brothers Lee Hyuk and Lee Hyo, who perform Bach’s Concerto for Two Keyboards.
Music from K-dramas and K-animation is also reimagined for the classical stage, featuring “Golden” and “Soda Pop,” the signature tracks from the animated film “KPop Demon Hunters.” The program concludes with Korean art songs and choral works performed by the National Chorus of Korea.
On the same day, the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts kicks off its yearlong “Classics for All” series with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor and pianist Kim Sun-wook, featuring pianist Sunwoo Ye-kwon, who became the first Korean to win the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2017, as soloist.
Throughout the year, the program spotlights eight leading national and public symphony orchestras from across Korea, alongside performers active on the international stage.
The 2026 edition of “Classics for All” has been curated around audience preference surveys. It focuses on works that received the strongest response and centers on cornerstone repertoire by composers such as Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, with the goal of offering an approachable entry point for newcomers.
The concert presents Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor, Op. 18, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67.
On Jan. 10, the Gyeonggi Philharmonic meets audiences again in its home province with a concert at the Gyeonggi Arts Center in Suwon. The Jan. 10 concert moves from Bach chorale preludes in Ottorino Respighi’s orchestration to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, before culminating in Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.
Seoul Philharmonic and Korea National Symphony
On Jan. 9, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra welcomes 2026 at Lotte Concert Hall under music director Jaap van Zweden, with Austrian pianist Rudolf Buchbinder making his first appearance with the orchestra.
The concert opens with George Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F, a three-movement work that reimagines the classical concerto through the idiom of jazz. Lasting about 30 minutes, the piece is rich in jazz rhythms and harmonies, and, unlike “Rhapsody in Blue,” represents Gershwin’s first major orchestral score that he orchestrated entirely himself.
The second half of the program features Symphony No. 8 “Unfinished” by Franz Schubert, followed by “Pines of Rome” by Ottorino Respighi.
The Korean National Symphony Orchestra will mark the New Year on Jan. 11 at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall with an inaugural concert led by its newly appointed music director, Roberto Abbado. Framed less as a festive gala than a statement of artistic direction, the program centers on Italian repertoire — Rossini, Respighi and Verdi — highlighting Abbado’s operatic sensibility and signaling the orchestra’s programming vision for the seasons ahead.
The music director said, “The orchestra already demonstrates an exceptional level of preparation and openness, and I look forward to sharing a wide range of music with Korean audiences over the long term.”
The Daewon Cultural Foundation will present its signature New Year Concert on Jan. 29 at the Seoul Arts Center Concert Hall, spotlighting two rising figures shaping the future of classical music: conductor Yoon Han-kyeol and violinist Kim Seo-hyun.
Conductor and composer Yoon, 31, the winner of the 2023 Herbert von Karajan Young Conductors Award, and Kim, the youngest winner of the Tibor Varga International Violin Competition in Switzerland in 2023, are two of the most sought-after young musicians.
Titled “A Night of Tchaikovsky,” the concert features the KBS Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and Symphony No. 4 — works demanding both lyrical depth and explosive energy.
At the Kumho Art Hall, baritone Kim Tae-han, the winner of the 2023 Queen Elisabeth Competition and the first classical vocalist to be named as the hall’s artist-in-residence, offers his first program on Jan. 8, marking the hall’s New Year Concert. Titled “Persona,” the concert weaves together solo arias from operas by eight composers, presented as introspective confessions.
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