JEHI BAHK

Jehi Bahk is a violinist, conductor, and educator whose work brings together chamber music, orchestral leadership, conducting, and music education.

For more than a decade, Bahk was first violinist of the Hugo Wolf Quartet, performing internationally at major concert venues and festivals. As an ECHO (European Concert Hall Organisation) Rising Stars ensemble, the quartet appeared at leading concert halls including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Palais des Beaux Arts Brussels, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Philharmonie Cologne, Megaron Athens, and the Musikverein in Vienna. Its wider international concert activity included appearances at the Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall in London, Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Tonhalle Zurich, the Vienna Konzerthaus, and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, as well as at festivals including Edinburgh, Colmar, Schwetzingen, Styriarte, Schubertiade Feldkirch, the Carinthian Summer, and the Isang Yun Festival in Tongyeong. Its international career also included extensive touring, recordings, broadcasts, and collaborations with distinguished musicians and composers.

Alongside his chamber-music career, Bahk worked extensively as an orchestral musician and concertmaster. After relocating to South Korea, he served as Associate Concertmaster of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and frequently appeared as Acting Concertmaster. He later held concertmaster positions with Philharmonia Corea and the Gunpo Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, and appeared as guest concertmaster or principal with orchestras including the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, Busan Philharmonic Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Tongyeong International Festival Orchestra. His long experience inside professional orchestras has remained central to his musical identity and continues to inform his work as a conductor.

Bahk’s musical education began at an unusually early age. At five, he was admitted to the preparatory program of what is now the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, and his musical activities as a child already attracted press attention in Austria and South Korea. He later studied violin with Walter Barylli, Michael Frischenschlager, and Dora Schwarzberg, completing his degree in Violin Performance at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with distinction. After many years as a chamber musician and orchestral leader, he expanded his formal training into conducting, completing graduate studies in orchestral conducting at the Korea National University of Arts in Seoul and earning a Master of Music.

Bahk has since worked as a conductor in orchestral, operatic, and broadcast projects. His conducting has included engagements with the Seongnam, Wonju, and Yangju Philharmonic Orchestras, the Seoripul Orchestra, and the KBS television production Opera Gala Land. His development as a conductor has been shaped by formal studies as well as work with leading conductors including Jorma Panula, Kurt Masur, and Riccardo Muti.

Teaching has been a continuous part of Bahk’s professional life for more than twenty-five years. He taught violin at the Franz Schubert Conservatory and the Vienna/Prayner Conservatory before joining the German School of Music Weimar at Kangnam University, a joint program of the Hochschule für Musik FRANZ LISZT Weimar and Kangnam University supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD). From 2015 to 2023, he served as Professor of Violin at the University of Suwon. His international masterclass and educational work has included Tokyo University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai), the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, masterclasses in Beijing in cooperation with the Beijing Youth Symphony Orchestra, and conducting work with students at Seoul Arts High School.