orchestral conducting
Professor in the Practice of Conducting and Music Director of the Yale Philharmonia. A sought-after guest conductor, Professor Hahm has led major North American, South American, European, and Far Eastern orchestras. Recent appearances include debuts in Geneva, Switzerland, and Besançon, France; at Bolshoi Hall in St. Petersburg, Russia, with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra; and reengagement with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at Disney Hall.
In 2006 Maestro Hahm completed his tenure as artistic director/principal conductor of Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra (DPO) in Korea, which he led in major concert halls on tour in the United States and Japan. He served concurrently as music director of the Abilene Philharmonic Orchestra (1993–2003) and the Green Bay Symphony Orchestra (1995–2000). During his tenure he successfully elevated these community orchestras to professional regional orchestra status. Professor Hahm served as music director of Yale Symphony Orchestra from 1995 to 2004.
As a guest conductor, he has led the orchestras of Atlanta, Los Angeles, Warsaw, Prague, Bilbao, New York, Bangkok, Fort Worth, Louisville, Toronto, Omaha, Hartford, Alabama, Boulder, and Colorado Springs and other orchestras in the United States, France, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria, Spain, Japan, and Mexico. The Korean National Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra has engaged him every year since 1992, and he directed its 1995 North American tour in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Korean independence.
He is also an active opera conductor and has led numerous productions with the Silesian National Opera in Poland, has collaborated with prominent musicians including Salvatore Accardo, Emanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Yefim Bronfman, and Sarah Chang, to name a few, and has recorded with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra for Vision and Britstar. Shinik Hahm studied conducting at Rice University and the Eastman School of Music.
His honors include the Fourth Gregor Fitelberg International Competition, the Walter Hagen Conducting Prize from the Eastman School of Music, and the Shepherd Society Award from Rice University. In 1995 he was decorated by the Korean government with the Arts & Culture Medal at a ceremony in honor of the fiftieth anniversary of Korean independence.