Djong Victorin YU - Conductor
 The young Korean conductor Djong Victorin Yu studied composition at
the University of Pennsylvania with George Crumb, Jay Reise, and George Rochberg. His
conducting studies commenced with Roger Nierenberg in New York. Yu continued his studies
for nine years with Vakhtang Jordania, a former protégé of Yevgeny Mravinsky, thereby
continuing the great tradition of the "St. Petersburg School" of conducting.
Djong Victorin Yu became the first south Korean conductor to perform in Eastern Europe
prior to the "Velvet Revolution." In February of 1989, he conducted concerts in
Budapest and Seoul in celebration of the diplomatic establishment between Hungary and
Korea. His New Year’s Concerts at the Music Academy and at the Vigado in Budapest
firmly established his name there. With the Hungarian Virtuosi, he undertook international
tours in Asia and Europe to significant acclaim and, in 1991, took the Virtuosi to Japan
where they made an 18-concert tour.
Having first conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1993, Yu gave his London début at
the Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia the following year. Since then, he has
regularly conducted the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall, as well as in summer
festivals in Chichester and Aldeburgh. More recently at the Royal Festival Hall, The
Selfish Giant, a composition by Jay Reise dedicated to Djong Victorin Yu and the
Philharmonia Orchestra, was given its world premiere by the dedicatees.
Yu has made fourteen CD’s with the Philharmonia Orchestra. Bill Newman in CD Review
wrote: "His Mussorgsky Pictures reminds me of the young Karajan of the 1950’s. .
. stunning. . . marvellous." Reviewing Yu’s Saint-Saëns album, Marc Rochester
of Gramophone wrote: "This is a recording which not only deserves repeated listening
but positively demands it." In Tune’s Heuwell Tircuit commented on the
"inspired performance of passionate subtlety second to none. . . Highest possible
recommendation!" Hi-Fi News claimed: "Fabulous. .You can’t get better than
this." Holst’s Planets CD, recently released, received an equally enthusiastic
review in Gramophone Japan:: "For sheer effective concept, sensationally played, you
will not come across a finer version."
Yu’s composition, Tano, a Korean Rhapsody, received its world premiere in the United
States and was given its European premiere at London’s Royal Festival Hall in 1994 by
Yu and the Philharmonia Orchestra with whom it has since been recorded and is awaiting
release. An encore performance of Tano was made in 1997, again at the Royal Festival Hall.
Yu’s other works include chamber music, numerous orchestral arrangements and Olympian
March, written for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Djong Victorin YU on Guild Music
- GMCD 7235 Antonín DVORÁK / Victor HERBERT
- GMCD 7204 Richard Strauss - Also Sprach
Zarathustra & Don Quixote
Page revised 28.11.2001
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