Gum Nanse

Early life

Gum was born in Busan, is the son of Suhyun Gum who was a composer and music educator. He studied music at Seoul Arts High School and studied musical composition at Seoul National University. He also studied conducting at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under Prof. Hans-Martin Rabenstein.

Career

In 1977, Gum was one of the prize winners (4th prize) at the ‘Herbert von Karajan Conductor's Competition and was the first Korean conductor to be given an opportunity to conduct Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Since returning home in 1980, he was appointed as the conductor of KBS Symphony Orchestra for 12 years.

In 1992, he moved to Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra. At that time Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra was a struggling ensemble and had difficulties attracting audiences to their concerts. Gum concentrated on improving the quality of the performance and on refreshing orchestra's image.

While he was in Suwon, Gum organized a series of special concerts with Suwon Philharmonic such as ‘7-hour Marathon Concert' and 'New Year's Eve Concert at Seoul Arts Center'. Also, Gum began a new educative concert series for young students in collaboration with Seoul Arts Center in 1994 titled, 'Young People's Concerts with Gum Nanse'. The concerts were particularly popular among young students and the concerts remained sold-out for six consecutive years from 1994 to 1999.

During Gum's appointment as artistic director, Suwon Philharmonic's number of concerts increased from about 10 concerts per year to more than 60 concerts per year. Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra’s turnaround soon gathered media’s attention and in 1995, Samsung Electronics(headquartered in Suwon) built a new outdoor concert hall and rehearsal facilities for Suwon City and Suwon Philharmonic. Samsung Electronics also sponsored Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra for five years and its overseas tours in US, Canada, UK, Spain, Thailand (for 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok) for three years.

Since 1997, Gum has been primarily engaged in the activities of Euro-Asian Philharmonic Orchestra (now, New World Philharmonic Orchestra) which he founded. Apart from New World Philharmonic, he served as the Artistic Director of Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra (2006-10) and Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra (2010-14) consecutively.

In interviews, Gum often stresses that classical musicians should be "proactive and extend their talents to the audience regardless of venues". As an example, Gum gave a series of symphonic concerts in the lobby of POSCO Center(POSCO’s main headquarters building in Seoul) since 1999. In the lobby of POSCO Center, Gum and Euro-Asian Philharmonic gave concerts with programs that included complete Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Brahms Symphonies.

In recent years, Gum has been active as a festival director. Notably he founded the 'Music Isle Festival in Jeju’ (since 2005) and the 'Manhattan Chamber Music Festival’ (since 2012). The 'Music Isle Festival in Jeju’ joined the European Festivals Association(EFA) in 2010.

Gum is Principal of Seoul Arts High School (Seoul Yego) and regularly conducts Korea United College Orchestra (KUCO) which consists of non-music major students from 25 universities nationwide. He also conducts Korea Young Dream Orchestra (KYDO) which consists of young, amateur music-loving adolescents from 25 small provincial towns once a year.

Currently, Gum is artistic director of Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra and Hankyung Philharmonic Orchestra. In September 2015, Gum was also appointed as the Principal Guest Conductor of Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra.

As of now, Maestro Gum Nanse holds the positions of below

Awards and honors

TV Appearances

Publications