Vakhtang Jordania, the newly appointed Artistic Director of South Korea's Daegu City Symphony orchestra, will make his conducting debut with that orchestra on Friday, January 18 at the Daegu Culture and Arts Center.

The repertoire for this concert will be Verdi's Overture to "La Forza del destino", Hummel's Oboe Variations, op. 102, with soloist Hee Sun Lee, Professor at Kyung Hee University and Shostakovich's colossal Symphony No. 5.

This appointment requires Maestro Jordania to be in Korea for 15 weeks and do 10 concerts with the orchestra in 2002. This will be the first of that series.

Maestro Jordania, who currently lives just outside of Washington DC, was born in the Republic of Georgia, where he studied piano from the age of five. After graduating from the Tbilisi Conservatory, he studied symphonic and operatic conducting at the Leningrad Conservatory, graduating with honors. A top prize at the 1971 Herbert von Karajan Competition catapulted him to the highest circle of Soviet artistry. From his assistantship with the legendary Yevgeny Mravinsky until his defection to the United States in 1983, Mr. Jordania held positions as music director of the Leningrad Radio Orchestra, the Saratov Philharmonic, and the Kharkov Philharmonic. The Tchaikovsky Competition was under his baton twice. Conducting for more than one hundred concerts a year, he regularly toured the USSR, collaborating with musicians such as David and Igor Oistrakh, Leonid Kogan, Dmitri Shostakovich, Kiril Kondrashin, and Emil Gilels.

Immediately after his defection, he made his Carnegie Hall debut, which was hailed by the New York Times as "a confident and spirited performanceÉthe full house leaped to its feet." Success quickly followed in France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Japan, Korea, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia and South America. In the United States, his appearances in New York, Los Angeles, Salt Lake City, Minneapolis, Rochester, Denver and Fort Worth brought more critical acclaim. Since his defection, he has held music director and/or principal guest conductor positions with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, the Spokane Symphony, the Korean Broadcasting System Symphony Orchestra in Seoul, and currently with the Russian Federal Orchestra of Moscow and Kharkov Philharmonic of Ukraine, with whom he is appointed for life.

Mr. Jordania has regularly conducted at many prestigious opera houses, including Russia's Bolshoi and Kirov theaters and, in the United States, with the Minnesota Opera, where he conducted the North American premiere of Dvo ák's Rusalka. He is currently the artistic advisor of the Kharkov Opera. His webpage is at http://www.jamesarts.com/vakjo2.htm.

His recordings began in the Soviet Union, where he recorded extensively for the Melodiya label. He recorded many soundtracks, including the award-winning film Dersu Uzala, directed by Akira Kurosawa. He has also recorded for Koch International Classics, Soundset Summit, Helicon, Trained Ear, Cantabile, and Angelok 1 and been nominated for Grammy Awards. For more about his recordings, visit the Angelok1 website at http://www.jamesarts.com/Angelok1.htm.

Daegu is the third largest city in South Korea. Located 200 miles south of Seoul, Daegu illustrates the balance between tradition life and global thinking. A river city surrounded by mountains and farmland, it has a rich cultural life and tradition as well as being a hub of traditional markets and the center of textile and steel industries. You can find much more about Daegu at their city website — http://www.metro.taegu.kr/engcityhall/.

Fore more information about Maestro Vakhtang Jordania, please contact Jeffrey James Arts Consulting at 516-586-3433 or jamesarts@worldnet.att.net.