“Broke the 155-year-old gender barrier”: Vienna Philharmonic women’s ensemble La Philharmonica to make Korea debut, with actor Lee Young-ae making a surprise appearance as “storyteller”

[Financial News] La Philharmonica, the Vienna Philharmonic’s women-centered ensemble that broke through a 155-year-old gender barrier, is coming to Korea for the first time. Actor Lee Young-ae is making a surprise appearance on stage as a storyteller for a special performance blending music and narrative.
La Philharmonica’s Korea debut concert will take place at 5 p.m. on the 15th of next month at the Seoul Arts Center’s Music Hall Concert Hall.
Founded in 1842, the Vienna Philharmonic operated with male members only for 155 years, admitting its first female member in 1997. Even now, women make up only about 20 of its roughly 140 members. La Philharmonica, a women-centered ensemble that made its debut with its inaugural concert on January 1, 2025, marking a milestone in Vienna’s musical history, boasts a wide-ranging repertoire from traditional Viennese classical music to film scores and pop.
The most distinctive feature of this Korea debut performance is its musical-theater format, featuring the voice of actor Lee Young-ae. Lee readily volunteered her talents after hearing about the ensemble’s first visit to Korea, and will narrate the story of “Hosu,” an old ginkgo tree that has been hurt and lost the music in its heart. Playwright and director Go Seon-ung, known for the original opera “1945” and other works, served as a directing adviser, while Moon Ha-yeon, author of “Classics in the Attic,” wrote the script, enhancing the production.

Lee Young-ae said, “As an actor, I want to be a guide who connects music and the audience,” adding, “Through my voice, I will help you, the audience, feel the music a little more deeply and warmly.”
The first half of the concert will feature the overture to Johann Strauss II’s operetta “Die Fledermaus,” Jean Françaix’s “Divertissement,” and Rossini’s opera fantasies, among other works. In the second half, pieces from a range of genres—including Leonard Bernstein’s “Symphonic Dances from West Side Story” and John Williams’s suite from “Memoirs of a Geisha”—will unfold like a film, interwoven with Lee Young-ae’s narration.
Performers on the program include Sophie Dervaux, currently principal bassoonist of the Vienna Philharmonic, and Adela Frasineanu-Morrison, principal second violinist, as well as Lara Kusztrich (violin), Barbara Rodi (viola), Ursula Wex (cello), Andrea Göcze (clarinet), and Anna Gruchmann (double bass). 

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