Composer Donghoon Shin, countertenor Iestyn Davies team up for Seoul concert

A leading Korean composer and an internationally acclaimed countertenor will share a stage in Seoul next month, bringing two contemporary works to Korean audiences alongside classical compositions in a program designed to bridge musical traditions across centuries. Sejong Soloists will present the concert at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 28 at Consolation Hall in Seosomun Shrine History Museum, featuring countertenor Iestyn Davies, violinist Kim Chee-yun, composer Donghoon Shin and other musicians. The concert will include the Asian premieres of Shin’s “Sonnets to Orpheus” (2026) and “Winter Sonata” (2025), offering audiences an opportunity to hear recent works by a composer whose music has attracted international attention. “Sonnets to Orpheus,” commissioned by Sejong Soloists, Wigmore Hall in London, Istanbul Music Festival and Chamber Music Northwest in the United States, received its world premiere in Istanbul in June with Davies and members of the Berlin Philharmonic. The five-movement work draws on poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, tracing emotions surrounding death, from grief and anger