2025 General Assembly: Meet our Speakers

Dr. Byoung Gug Choung has served as the Chair of Arts Council Korea (ARKO) since 2023. He was formerly Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism and a longtime member of the National Assembly (2000 to 2020).

During his term as minister in 2011, he helped the city of Pyeongchang to win its bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2010, he served as Chairperson of the Standing Committee on Culture, Sports, Tourism, Broadcasting, and Communications of the National Assembly.

Choung holds a doctoral degree in Political Science from Sungkyunkwan University and a master’s degree in Public Administration from Yonsei University. More recently, he was a Senior Researcher of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University (2021-2023).

Katherine Chu is an American pianist, vocal coach, and artistic consultant. She joined The Tianjin Juilliard School administration in 2020 and served as chair of collaborative piano; interim Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs; and resident faculty for collaborative piano in vocal repertoire.

After working as an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera from 1996 to 2006, she took on the role of musical assistant to Seiji Ozawa and chorus master for the Saito Kinen Festival in Japan. 

In China, Chu pioneered and established an international standard and culture in coaching and musical preparation. As Director of Music Administration at the National Centre for Performing Arts in Beijing, she oversaw all musical activities for the opera productions and was a consultant for artistic planning and casting.

Chao Gu - A long-time producer and promoter in the fields of classical and jazz music, Chao Gu is currently working at the music agency KAJIMOTO (Tokyo/Shanghai offices), where his responsibilities include international touring and artist management. Past projects include coordinating China tours for renowned ensembles and artists such as the Münchner Philharmoniker, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Sir András Schiff, and Alexandre Kantorow. Chao Gu is active as a host for various podcasts and frequently publishes music reviews in major newspapers and magazines.

Hao Zhou, co-founder and currently Co-Managing Director of Arcadia Innovative Management, a Shanghai headquartered music agency, is a music agent and curator in China with wide international experience. Active both in artist management and orchestra touring, he currently represents some 30 artists in China, including Leonidas Kavakos, Viktoria Mullova, Emmanuel Pahud, Vassily Sinaisky, as well as Long Yu, Yang Yang, Huang Yi, Shanghai Quartet, Li-Wei Qin, and others. The orchestras he has toured to China during recent years include Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie, BBC orchestra, and Berliner Barock Solisten.

Michael Haefliger is an internationally renowned arts manager and musician as well as the Executive and Artistic Director of Lucerne Festival. Born in Berlin in 1961, Haefliger began learning violin and piano at the age of six and completed his violin studies at The Juilliard School of Music in New York in 1983. He subsequently earned an Executive MBA degree from the University of St. Gallen in 1999, completing its interdisciplinary management program across the schools of Economics, Law, and Social Sciences.

From the beginning of his career, Haefliger has been active at leading European music festivals. As a concert violinist in the early 1980s, he performed at the festivals in Lucerne, Interlaken, and Spoleto, among others. He made his debut at Lucerne Festival in 1985 — which at that time was known as the Internationale Musikfestwochen Luzern — performing alongside his brother Andreas. In 1986, he co-founded the «Young Artists in Concert» Festival in Davos, which he directed until 1998. From 1996 to 1998, he was also Artistic Director of Collegium Novum Zürich.

Christel Hon is the Assistant Head of Music at Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay, Singapore’s national performing arts centre. With a career in the arts spanning since 2005, she plays a key role in shaping Esplanade’s music and dance programming, where she oversees all classical music programming at Esplanade, having presented renowned international orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Dresden. 

Outside of her role at Esplanade, Christel Hon serves on the assessment panels of the National Arts Council and co-lectures the Music Programming & Production module at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, National University of Singapore.

Till Janczukowicz has over 30 years of experience as a producer, artist and education manager, concert promoter, and serial entrepreneur. He has worked with some of the world's most sophisticated artists, like Alfred Brendel, Mitsuko Uchida, Svjatoslav Richter and Krystian Zimerman. Before founding HelloGenius in 2024, Till established the classical music streaming service IDAGIO (2015), the performing arts series Abu Dhabi Classics for the UAE Government (2008), the European office of Columbia Artists Management Inc. (2000), and a youth big band featuring some of the finest jazz musicians (1994).

In 2015, Till founded IDAGIO, the world’s first genre-specific music streaming service. Originally envisioned as a platform to connect artists directly with their fans, IDAGIO evolved into the "Spotify for classical music and today offers video and audio streaming to customers in over 160 countries.

Sngkn Kim is a renown specialist for Korean music, and a professor at Seoul National University as well as a Board member of the Korea Culture Information Service Agency. A founding member of the KBS Symphony Orchestra and co-founder and Managing Director of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, Sngkn Kim has received numerous awards such as the Korean National Composers Prize and the Yumin Prize. He has been commissioned by the National Gugak Center and the Seoul Metropolitan Orchestra of Traditional Music, and is active as director and producer in a multitude of Korean and international arts and culture projects.

Changyong Liao, President of Shanghai Conservatory, is also regarded as China’s most distinguished Baritone. His illustrious career has shone brightly on international opera and concert stages. He has played leading roles in numerous opera classics, including The Barber of Seville, Rigoletto, and A Masked Ball. In recent years, Liao has devoted himself to creating and performing original Chinese operas and art songs. Plácido Domingo once praised him as “a genuine, China-made, world-class singer.”

Tiger Lu was born in Shenyang and studied at the Central Academy of Drama and Goldsmiths, University of London. He previously worked at the Branding Department of the National Centre for the Performing Arts (Beijing), in charge of classical music projects. Later, he co-founded amadeus.tv, where he currently serves as Marketing Director and Chief Officer of MusicToday.

Victoria Tafferner is a digital strategist and cultural manager with extensive experience in classical music communication, storytelling, and audience development. As Head of Social Media at Berlin Phil Media, she is responsible for shaping the public voice of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Digital Concert Hall across global platforms. Drawing on her background as a professional musician and her deep understanding of cultural communication, Victoria plays a key role in driving the strategic integration of digital storytelling and participation into the orchestra’s broader public engagement efforts — continuously shaping its global presence in close collaboration with marketing and artistic teams.

Danwen Wei is hailed as one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation. Performing with major orchestras around the world, the Chinese pianist is a graduate of The Juilliard School and was one of the last pupils of the legendary pianist Vladimir Horowitz. He is now a much sought after teacher in China and a frequent adjudicator in both national and international piano competitions. A faculty member of summer festivals like Musicfest Perugia in Perugia, Italy and Beijing Music Festival and Academy, Wei is currently on the faculty of the Central Conservatory of China in Beijing, where he became chair of the piano department in 2019.

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©WFIMC 2025