Anu Tali has her first concert in S. Korea

Anu Tali, who drew much attention as one of “the brave twin sisters” in the 1990s, will have her first concert in South Korea with the Korean Symphony Orchestra at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday at the Concert Hall of Seoul Arts Center.

Tali started her musical training as a pianist and began conducting studies at the Estonian Music Academy. She then studied with Ilya Musin who also taught Mariss Jansons and Valery Gergiev at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory and later with Jorma Panula at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.

She made her debut in the international music scene by launching the “Estonian-Finnish Symphony Orchestra” with her twin sister as a manager in 1997 at the age of 25. The mission was to bring together international musicians based on the friendship between the two nations that share similar languages and cultures. The orchestra later took on the name of the “Nordic Orchestra” and now has musicians from 15 countries.

She served as a music director at the Sarasota Orchestra in the United States for six years until 2019 and guest-conducted various orchestras across the globe including the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra. She received the Young Artist of the Year award at the 2003 Echo Klassic Awards, and German-French channel Arte, NHK and Finnish state media produced documentaries on her life.

The Korean Symphony Orchestra, one of South Korea’s national art organizations, has cancelled or replaced its offline concerts with virtual events. The concert with Anu Tali would be the first offline concert in eight months since “Beethoven 1,” a chamber music series held on February 6, if the concert takes place according to plan. The concert will be shared on Naver TV and V LIVE on November 24. The same program will be performed with the same artists on Saturday as part of “World Orchestra Series” at Daegu Concert House.


gustav@donga.com