:Im Won-sik
{{Short description|South Korean conductor (1919–2002)}}
{{family name hatnote|Im||lang=Korean}}
{{Infobox person
| native_name = 임원식
| native_name_lang = kor
| name = Im Won-sik
| image = Im Won-sik.jpg
| image_size =
| caption = Publicity photo of Im Won-sik, 1948.
| birth_date = {{birth date|1919|06|24}}
| birth_place =Gishū, Heianhoku Prefecture, Korea, Empire of Japan
| death_date = {{death date and age|2002|08|26|1919|06|24}}
| death_place =Seoul, South Korea
| restingplace =
| othername =
| occupation = conductor, composer, educator
| yearsactive = 1940–2002
| spouse =
| children =
}}
Im Won-sik ({{Korean|임원식|hanja=林元植}}; June 24, 1919 – August 26, 2002) was a Korean conductor, composer, and musical pedagogue. According to his obituary in the Asahi Shimbun, Im was the "father of the Korean classical music world";{{cite web |title=林元植氏が逝去 |url=https://music.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/classical/1030411030/ |website=5channel |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Japanese |archive-date=July 26, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230726133016/https://music.5ch.net/test/read.cgi/classical/1030411030/ |url-status=dead }} he has also been referred to as "Korea's Toscanini."{{cite web |script-title=ko:작곡가ㆍ지휘자 임원식(林元植) |url=https://m.blog.naver.com/PostView.naver?isHttpsRedirect=true&blogId=kwank99&logNo=30170134474 |website=재봉틀의 국어방 |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Korean}}{{Unreliable source?|reason=See unreliable sources list on WP:KO/RS|date=December 2024}}{{cite news |last1=Lyons |first1=James |title=Musician Says Korea Will Go Communist |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81797864/ |access-date=July 19, 2021 |work=Miami Herald |date=May 11, 1948}}
Biography
Im was born in Gishū, Heianhoku Prefecture, Korea, Empire of Japan (today Uiju, North Pyongan Province, North Korea) to a family of devout Christians. When Im was four years old, his family moved to Harbin in Manchuria.{{cite web |last1=Chiba |first1=Jun'ichi |title=朝比奈隆と林元植 |url=http://junichichiba.sblo.jp/article/188256431.html |website=未来を抱きしめる 千葉淳一ブログ |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Japanese}} Im's first exposures to music occurred in church, where he learned to play the organ. During his teenage years, Im supported his family by playing piano at movie theatres and hymns at church. Im graduated from a music school founded by White Russians in 1939. The following year Im enrolled at the Tokyo Academy of Music, where he studied with Moroi Saburō.{{cite web |title=大阪音楽大学について 1966年～1975年 |url=https://www.daion.ac.jp/about/anniversary/1966-1975/ |website=Osaka College of Music |access-date=July 19, 2021 |language=Japanese}} Im made his public debut there as a pianist in 1940. While living in Tokyo, Im earned a living arranging film music.{{cite web |last1=Park |first1=Byung-hee |title=KBS교향악단, 운파 임원식 탄생 100주년 기념 음악회 |url=https://www.asiae.co.kr/article/2019070813552189577 |website=Asia Business Daily |date=8 July 2019 |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Korean}} Upon graduation in 1942, Im moved to Manchukuo where he worked with the Harbin Symphony Orchestra. It was there that Im met Asahina Takashi, whose conducting he admired. Im later became Asahina's only pupil as well as lifelong friend. After the end of the Pacific War, Im sheltered Asahina from Soviet soldiers in his home and helped to arrange his return to Japan.{{cite web |last1=Song |first1=Hyung-min |script-title=ko:임원식 탄생 100주년, 교향악단과 후학의 텃밭을 일군 거장 |url=http://auditorium.kr/2019/06/%EC%9E%84%EC%9B%90%EC%8B%9D-%ED%83%84%EC%83%9D-100%EC%A3%BC%EB%85%84-%EA%B5%90%ED%96%A5%EC%95%85%EB%8B%A8%EA%B3%BC-%ED%9B%84%ED%95%99%EC%9D%98-%ED%85%83%EB%B0%AD%EC%9D%84-%EC%9D%BC%EA%B5%B0-%EA%B1%B0/ |website=객석 |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Korean}}
File:Im Wok Sin Harbin debut 1945.jpg
After departing from Manchuria, Im returned to his homeland. In January 1948, Im led a performance of La traviata in Seoul, the first ever complete operatic production in Korea. Financial difficulties in Korea's nascent orchestral infrastructure led him to embark to the United States for studies at the Juilliard School. While in the United States, Im took private lessons with Arnold Schoenberg and conducting lessons from Serge Koussevitzky. In 1949, Im became the first Asian conductor to lead the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Im returned to Korea in 1949. On September 23, 1950, Im was arrested and detained by South Korean police on charges of having collaborated with North Korea during its brief occupation of Seoul earlier that year.{{cite news |title=Musician Held as Red Collaborator |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/81797093/ |access-date=July 19, 2021 |agency=Associated Press |work=Oakland Tribune |date=November 3, 1950}} In 1953, Im was a co-founder and later principal of the Seoul Arts High School. Later, he was also a dean and professor at Kyung Hee University and at the Chugye University for the Arts. Three years later Im was appointed the first music director of the KBS Symphony Orchestra, a position he held until 1970.{{cite web |last1=Kim |first1=Yong-un |script-title=ko:[사람들] 발자취/ 한국음악 발전에 헌신한 林元植 |url=https://www.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2002/08/26/2002082670326.html |website=The Chosun Ilbo |date=13 August 2020 |access-date=24 July 2021 |language=Korean}}
When composer Yun Isang was arrested in the East Berlin Affair espionage scandal in 1967, Im testified on his behalf, petitioned for his release, and continued to perform his music.{{cite web |last1=Chang |first1=Hyun Kyong Hannah |title=Yun Isang, Media, and the State: Forgetting and Remembering a Dissident Composer in Cold-War South Korea |url=https://apjjf.org/2020/19/Chang.html |website=The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus |date=October 2020 |access-date=July 19, 2021}} Im led the Korean premieres of Yun's Symphony No. 3 and Violin Concerto.
In 1984, Im was appointed music director of the {{ill|Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra|ko|인천시립교향악단}}. He stepped down from the position in 1990; two years later he was appointed the orchestra's honorary permanent conductor. Im was also appointed honorary permanent conductor of the KBS Symphony. Im marked the golden jubilee of his career debut by conducting a cycle of all nine Beethoven symphonies.
When in 1971 the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra came to Seoul to perform its first concert outside of Japan, its then music director Asahina invited Im to share the conducting duties. Decades later they planned a joint concert to commemorate the 2002 FIFA World Cup, but it could not be realized on account of Asahina's death in December 2001. Im—along with Wakasugi Hiroshi, Toyama Yūzō, and Iwaki Hiroyuki—conducted at Asahina's memorial concert on February 7, 2002. The World Cup concert with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, which he had originally envisioned to be shared with Asahina, was led by Im alone on June 1, 2002. The performance would be his last. Shortly thereafter, Im was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer. He died weeks later on August 26 in Seoul.
Im was a polyglot, being fluent in Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and English, as well as in his native Korean.{{cite web |last1=Nakamaru |first1=Yoshie |title=林元植先生 |url=https://blog.goo.ne.jp/nakamaru5555/e/3e0d1bd5c530f12f78711a3cdb6eff0d |website=中丸美繪ブログ |access-date=July 18, 2021 |language=Japanese}}
References
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{{succession box | title=Principal Conductor, KBS Symphony Orchestra | before=none | years=1956–1971 | after=Hong Yeon-Taek}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Im, Won-Sik}}
Category:20th-century classical pianists
Category:20th-century South Korean composers
Category:20th-century conductors (music)
Category:20th-century Korean people
Category:Korean classical pianists
Category:Korean conductors (music)
Category:South Korean music educators
Category:Tokyo University of the Arts alumni