Holly Hyun Choe is a Korean-American conductor and the Music Director of the Universitätsorchester Polyphonia Zürich (polyphonia.ch) and Orchesterverein Wiedikon. (orchesterwiedikon.ch)



She has participated in masterclasses with conductors such as Bernard Haitink, Jorma Panula, Péter Eötvös, Simone Young, Sylvia Caduff, Larry Rachleff, Don Schleicher, Paul Nadler, Diane Wittry, and Nicholas Pasquet. While living in Boston to attend New England Conservatory, she took private lessons with Joseph Gifford and Ken David Masur. For the past two summers, she was an active conducting student at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival under the guidance of Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli. In January 2019, Ms. Choe will make her professional debut as a guest conductor with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester.



She began her musical journey as a self-taught clarinetist at age 13 and received her first private music lesson at age 19, which led her to pursue a bachelor's degree in clarinet performance and music education from the Bob Cole Conservatory of California State University Long Beach. Her first master's degree was obtained in wind/instrumental conducting from the New England Conservatory with Charles Peltz and is finishing a second master's degree in orchestral conducting at the Zürcher Hochschule der Künste with Johannes Schlaefli and Olaf Storbeck. As part of her current degree program, she has conducted concerts with many professional orchestras around the world such as the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz, Filharmonie Hradec Králové, Kurpfälzisches Kammerorchester, Karlovy Vary Symphony, St. Christofer Chamber Orchestra, Pilsen Opera, and the Pazardjik Philharmonic Orchestra.



Ms. Choe has worked in diverse mediums and genres of music: a substitute rehearsal conductor for Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra, the main conductor of 2016 ALEA III International Composition Competition, Associate Conductor of the Four Seasons Youth Orchestra, Assistant Conductor of the Shoreline Symphonic Winds, Music Director of The Troupe’s production of Stephen Sondheim’s Into The Woods, and an Artistic Director Intern with Golden State Pops Orchestra where she worked behind the scenes on concerts with top film composers such as Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Michael Giacchino, Alan Silvestri, John Powell, Brian Tyler, Lee Holdridge, John Debney, and more. As an avid supporter of new music and living composers, she has conducted world-premieres of living composers from Greece, Mexico, Sweden, China, South Korea, and the USA.

Ms. Choe also holds a strong passion for utilizing music beyond concert platforms. She has worked seven years in summer music camps teaching thousands of high school students, also gave mini-conducting seminars for various audiences ranging from elementary schools, a center for adults with physical/mental disabilities, elderly nursing homes, Immigrant Family Services Institute for Haitian Immigrants, and as a guest artist at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Arts Museum in Boston. In the future, she also hopes to support research in the integration of music in healthcare and with her career use the power of music to make a meaningful difference in the world.


She is a recipient of the Hirschmann Stiftung Scholarship, Elsie Myer Stipendium and a conducting fellow of the Deutscher Musikrat Dirigentenforum in Germany.