Hans Abrahamsen is this year’s composer-in-residence at the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, taking place from March 28 to April 6. Curated by Unsuk Chin, the 2025 festival offers a nuanced portrait of Abrahamsen’s music across three concerts, featuring chamber music, concertos, and distinctive orchestrations of music by other composers.

The residency opens on Thursday April 3 with Six Pieces for horn, violin and piano (1984) performed by Ilya Gringolts, Haeree Yoo, and Yekwon Sunwoo in a late-night chamber concert. The piece reworks and expands material from Abrahamsen’s Studies for Piano (1983/1984-1998), one of his central early works.

On Friday April 4, Ilan Volkov conducts the KBS Symphony Orchestra in two orchestral works. First, Abrahamsen’s orchestration of Debussy’s Children’s Corner (2011), a delicately coloured re-imagining of the piano suite. Then Left, alone (2015), his large-scale piano concerto for left hand only—written not for a one-handed pianist, but by a composer born with limited use of his right hand. The piece reflects a lifelong fascination with left-hand piano repertoire and is structured in two parts of three interconnected movements each. Yekwon Sunwoo performs the solo part.

The final concert on Saturday 5 April features both Abrahamsen's orchestration of Arnold Schönberg's Lieder, opus 2 and the sinfonietta work Märchenbilder (1984), performed by the K’Arts Sinfonietta conducted by Hankyeol Yoon. Inspired by Schumann’s title, the work unfolds as six fairy-tale pictures.

All, except for Märchenbilder, are Country Premieres, as well as Asian Premieres.

Discover the full festival programme at Tongyeung International Music Festival 2025.

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