Donghoon Shin's Waltz-Inspired Dance Card Debuts in Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Philharmonic, led by Elim Chan, performs the world premiere of Dance Card by Donghoon Shin in October.
Donghoon Shin's new orchestral work Dance Card is unveiled with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Elim Chan on October 16-18 at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The 10-minute waltz-inspired concert opener was commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra with financial support from the Concertgebouw Foundation at the Royal Concertgebouw, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. Following the world premiere, Dance Card is performed by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Delyana Lazarova, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam in April 2027.
Dance Card is Shin’s second commissioned work from the LA Phil, following Upon His Ghostly Solitude (2023), his W.B. Yeats–inspired orchestral showpiece that premiered to acclaim and receives its Singapore premiere in January 2027 with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Hannu Lintu.
The composer describes his longstanding fascination with the waltz:
“Dance Card is an homage to this singular genre. Across some of my earlier works, I have woven in fragments of the waltz—some my own, some borrowed—as an expression of my unending love for this music. But the disturbing news of these recent years gave me a different kind of longing—to write something like Ravel’s La valse, a waltz that might hold up a mirror to our own time.”
The piece begins with a focus on gesture and rhythm, from which pitch, melody, and harmony gradually emerge. From there, Shin introduces an eclectic range of contemporary musical influences, from house music and Shibuya-kei—a Japanese pop genre known for its eclectic, collage-like approach to musical styles—which he listened to as a child, to the rap-metal of Rage Against the Machine. He describes this layering of influences as “a complete dismantling and reassembly of the genre itself, alongside a tug-of-war between duple and triple time.”
The title Dance Card takes its inspiration from the eponymous short story by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño, described by Shin as a “literary round-dance” and an autobiographical tribute to the many partners Bolaño encountered throughout his life.
This season also sees the German premiere of Shin's recent Piano Concerto, performed by soloist Seong-Jin Cho and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and conductor Daniel Harding (Dec 17–18). The concerto was written for acclaimed soloist Seong-Jin Cho, who gave the world premiere at the Barbican with the London Symphony Orchestra and Maxime Pascal in November 2025.
Concert Information
Friday, October 16 at 8pm PDT
Saturday, October 17 at 8pm PDT
Sunday, October 18 at 2pm PDT
Walt Disney Concert Hall | Los Angeles
More info
Los Angeles Philharmonic
Elim Chan, conductor
Yefim Bronfman, piano
DONGHOON SHIN Dance Card (World Premiere)
FRANZ LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2
PYOTR ILYICH TCHAIKOVSKY Suite from Swan Lake
> Further information on Work: Dance Card
Photo: Lee Tae Kyung the Chosunilbo