Conductor Ho Jae Bok
During the Japanese imperialist colonial rule he was born in a foreign country and called a wonder boy in music from his childhood. At the age of 12, he played a violin solo in a musical contest held in Jilin Province of China, taking the first place.
After Korea was liberated, he came back home and studied at the National Music School (today's Pyongyang Kim Won Gyun University of Music and Dance). At the university he studied conduct while improving his violin execution.
He was active as a violinist and conductor at the then Ministry of the Interior Song and Dance Ensemble during the past Fatherland Liberation War. Valuing his talents, the great leader
While studying abroad, Ho Jae Bok came first at the All-Union Contest of Conductors held in that country and his excellent conducting ability was well-known to the whole of Europe beyond the bounds of the university.
Returning home, he worked as a conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra and at the same time, carried out different tasks including the creation of opera and the job of extraofficial lecturer at the Conduct Department of the then University of Music and Dance.
His artistic talents further developed under the great trust and love of the great leader
Under the direct guidance of
He devoted all his wisdom and enthusiasm to creating a lot of new musical pieces of Korean style such as the music and dance tale "Song of Paradise" and made a great contribution to improving the musical ensemble and its representation.
He gave performances in different countries including China, Britain, France and Italy, making a great contribution to fully displaying the might of the Korean art. While working as the Head of the Mansudae Art Troupe in the last period of his life, he endeavoured to develop the art of the country.
His conducting was characterized by the organic combination of musical artistic logic and sensibility and the correct tempo, posture and conducting technique.
Ho Jae Bok fully showed his special ability as a talented and experienced conductor and as a fine and mature organizer of representation in the whole period of creating the musical art. He is still remembered by people as a talented conductor.