A South Korean television documentary series about an orchestra led by the accomplished Korean-American violist Richard Yongjae O'Neill has been nominated for an International Emmy Award, a local distributor of the program's movie version said Friday.

The MBC TV documentary titled "Hello?! Orchestra" is one of four nominees for the arts programming section of the awards,

Jinjin Pictures said. Winners will be selected in the final round scheduled for Nov. 26 in New York City.

"Hello?! Orchestra" is a documentary about an orchestra that the famed violist organized with 24 children from multicultural families in Ansan, about 40 kilometers south of Seoul.

The violist, the winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, has held numerous solo recitals and collaborative chamber music concerts with many other world-renowned artists. His mother, who is mentally disabled, was a Korean War orphan adopted by an American family.

"Hello?! Orchestra" received positive media reviews after being aired in a series of four installments in September last year. It was recently made into an 80-minute movie version for release in local theaters next month.

It is the first time a Korean program has been nominated for the arts programming category of the International Emmy Awards.

Presented by the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, the international awards event is one of the world's three largest for the television industry, along with Canada's Banff World Media Festival and the Monte-Carlo Television Festival.

International Emmy Awards are given for excellence in TV programming produced and initially aired outside of the United States, while Emmy Awards pertain to the American television industry.

An MBC TV documentary won in the documentary category at the International Emmys in 2010. (Yonhap News)