Photo｜Tat-Keng, TEY

Jun Märkl is a highly respected interpreter of the core German repertory, and has become known for his refined and idiomatic explorations of the French Impressionists. He currently serves as Music Director of the Taiwan Philharmonic (the National Symphony Orchestra), he has been appointed Music Director of the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and is the newly appointed Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest Den Hague, Netherlands. He serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the Oregon Symphony.

Märkl's expertise in the world of opera and long historical relationships with the state operas of Vienna, Berlin, Munich, the Semperoper Dresden, the Metropolitan Opera of New York, San Francisco Opera and New National Theatre in Tokyo have been complemented over the past many decades by his orchestral music directorships of the Orchestre National de Lyon, the MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Basque National Orchestra, and the Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra.

Märkl regularly guest conducts the leading orchestras of North America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe and has conducted many of the world's most prestigious orchestras including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony, the Bavarian Radio Symphony, the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, NHK Tokyo, and many others. Mr. Märkl also has an extensive discography of more than 60 recordings.

In recognition of his achievements in France, he was honored in 2012 with the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

He studied in Munich with Sergiu Celibidache, at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa.

Mr. Märkl is highly dedicated to work with young musicians: for many years he worked as Principal Conductor at the Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo and the Aspen Music Festival in Colorado. He teaches as a Guest Professor at the Kunitachi College of Music Tokyo and he recently founded the National Youth Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan.

Piano／Makoto Ozone

Makoto Ozone is a unique force in both jazz and classical music, blending sound worlds and a host of influences into his performances. He first came to public attention when he gave his solo recital at Carnegie Hall in 1983, following his graduation from Berklee College of Music. Ozone then became the first Japanese artist to sign an exclusive contract with CBS and released his first album, Ozone, a year after his Carnegie debut.

His stellar career in jazz, which earned him a Grammy nomination in 2003, has brought him regularly to the forefront of the international jazz scene, recording and touring with musicians such as Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Paquito D'Rivera, Anna Maria Jopek, Branford Marsalis, and others. In more recent years, Ozone has expanded into classical repertoire, alongside his jazz engagements. Having first performed Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue in 1996, he now performs concertos by Mozart, Bernstein, Prokoev, Shostakovich, and Rachmaninov with major orchestras.

Makoto Ozone has an extensive discography, releasing over 30 albums under his name and as a composer in solo, duo, and trio settings, as well as performing as a collaborator on many others. His many awards include the Kinokuniya Theatre Award (2000), Kobe City Culture Award (2005), Fumio Nanri Prize (2007), Hyogo Prefecture Culture Award (2009), Art Encouragement of Education, Culture, Sports, Science Minister's Prize (2014)

Piano／Hyung-Ki Joo

Hyung-ki Joo was born. He is British, but looks Korean, or the other way around, or both. He showed his first signs of a sense of comedy whilst nappy-changing and shortly thereafter, showed his love for music when his parents would find him at the record store listening for hours to everything from Mozart to Bee Gees. (Although the two are never to be confused, Hyung-ki is often heard singing “Don Giovanni” in the style of Barry Gibb).

He started piano lessons at the age of eight and a half and two years later won a place at the Yehudi Menuhin School. There, he discovered that he was among geniuses and child prodi-gies and was convinced he would be kicked out of school, year after year. In fact, he was not kicked “out” but kicked “around” by teachers and fellow students, such as Aleksey Igudesman. After these painful experiences, Joo invented a new type of piano playing known as “Karate Piano”. No matter how difficult his years at the school may have been, it only strengthened his love of music, and he also realised that the world of classical music had little to do with the spirit in which the music was created and began dreaming of a way to bring this great music to a wider and newer audience– a dream which has recently been realised through his show: “A Little Nightmare Music”.

Hyung-ki, spelt R-I-C-H-A-R-D, and pronounced “Dick”, is the only Korean Jew, (spelt J-O-O) in the world. Hyung-ki has small hands, (but only hands small), and therefore finds some piano repertoire quite difficult to play, such as the music of Rachmaninov, who had Big Hands. Anyway, even with this small hindrance, he happily performs chamber music, recitals, concertos, his own compositions, and anything else that includes a piano part.

Besides performing, composing, laughing, brushing his teeth at mercurial speed, and writing comedy with his long time friend and duo partner, Aleksey Igudesman, Joo’s passion for teaching has led him to develop a personal style of workshop, entitled “The Inner and Outer ***** for a Musician”, which aims to encourage and inspire young musicians to experience music and life as a musician, from different perspectives.

Faculty

Concerts

2026/07/24 (Fri) 19:30｜Miaobei Art Center Performance Hall

2026/07/25 (Sat) 19:30｜National Concert Hall

2026/07/26 (Sun) 19:30｜National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (Weiwuying) Concert Hall

2026/08/01 (Sat) 15:00｜ACROS Fukuoka Symphony Hall

2026/08/04 (Tue) 19:30｜Busan Concert Hall