Kim Solbong Premieres in Spring Fest

The Seoul Spring Festival of Chamber Music (SSF) opened Thursday at Sejong Chamber Hall, downtown Seoul, its fourth edition with a concert celebrating both continuing traditions and modern innovation.

While popular artists, including pianist Kim Sun-wook and the Jupiter String Quartet from the United States, offered tasteful renditions of Beethoven, Mozart and Schubert, rising South Korean composer Kim Solbong presented something new in his latest chamber piece ``Sundial Chronicles.’’

The festival’s 2009 composer-in-residence offered what he calls ``a rite of spring chronicling the change in time’’ through an eclectic dialogue among Western classical instruments and a couple ``gugak’’ (a traditional Korean music) organs, ``janggu’’ (drum) and ``gayageum’’ (12-string zither).

From left, gayageum and janggu. Photo by moi! During rehearsal

Of course, such a meeting point of East and West isn’t new. One can easily recall Yo Yo Ma’s Silk Road Ensemble which brings together violin, Brazillian shakers and Chinese ``pipa’’ (lute) to create sounds such gadgets weren’t meant to make, or Ahn Eack-tai’s Samulnori Concerto, which features the harmony of Korean traditional percussion art and the Western orchestra.

What is significant in the premiere is the effort of the young composer, who is not yet 28, to deconstruct the concept of chamber music, and the result is spontaneous combustion by what many exclaimed that evening as ``a dream team.’’

Kim himself tackled the piano -- including string plucking with a spoon that John Cage fans would appreciate -- opposite the janggu beats of maestro Kim Duk-soo. The founding father of samulnori brought exhilarating rhythms in solos, but stealthily controlled the volume for other parts in the spirit of true chamber music making.

Photo by moi! During rehearsal. I love it when Mr. Yang exclaimed "eolssu! (얼쑤)!"

They were joined by violinist-SSF artistic director Kang Dong-suk, cellist Yang Sung-won, clarinetist Jerry Jae-il Chae and gayageum artist Kim Ji-hyun. It was something that continues the spirit of shaking up conventions: the Western strings retained their essence but also strived for something more, with some wild lilting and vibrato, that could well have been played by a ``haegeum’’ (Korean fiddle) -- akin to how Isang Yun has the cello croon like ``geomungo’’ (Korean zither) in his Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra.

It would be rash, however, to assume that Yun or the other aforementioned artists influenced Kim. This reporter only mentioned these men’s works in an attempt to illustrate the unique nature of the performance. If a parallel were to be drawn, Chin Unsuk comes to mind -- Kim, like the prolific elder composer, defies categorization and speaks a musical language that is modern yet non-doctrinal.

Born in Korea in 1981, Kim studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in the U.S. He entered the public radar by winning the grand prize of media giant Bertelsmann Group’s 2000 World of Expression Awards and has since premiered diverse works. But ``Sundial Chronicles’’ posed a completely new experimentation, both technical and aesthetic.

``I was in such a zone of discomfort it felt like my first time composing,’’ the musician said about his first time working with Korean instruments, which are percussive and less practical than their Western counterparts.

``It’s a starter,’’ Kim Duk-soo said about the piece. ``Solbong is really talented, and we need more young artists to experiment like he does. I’m looking forward to what he can do next.’’

Indeed, the beauty of ``Sundial Chronicles’’ lies in its innovative power that will, this reporter hopes, propel the creation of something new and named and transcending self and heritage, a struggle every artist faces.

Does this multimedia world, where channels are more open than ever, challenge the creative process? ``It’s only a technical problem. Mediums, expressions will always change, but intentions and ideas of music always come first,’’ he said, citing Rachmaninov as an example of someone was not particularly a pioneer in hs time but whose works have enduring strength. ``As long as you are truthful, art will prevail,’’ he said.

Kim will serve as artistic director of Dumbo Space, a new hall under construction in his current home, New York City, as well as that of the 2009 Atlantic Music Festival, which opens June 22-July 21 in Maine.

Jung’s Musical Promenade Through Paris

Such a lovely man. It was a fun interview; we got carried away talking about Paris, being multilingual (not us but the crazy multilingual people we know), and being fans of the composer Unsuk Chin.

Singer-songwriter Jung Jae-hyung has released a new album, ``Promenade,’’ under the Sony Classical label, and some may be surprised to realize that this is actually the soundtrack for the currently showing ``What Brings You to My House.’’

The former pop star has written scores for several movies including ``Addicted’’ (2002) and ``Love Now’’ (2007), but Promenade involved a different creative process. The tracks may have been inspired by the quirky love story starring Kang Hye-jung, but the movie’s postponed release gave Jung a good year to work on the music as if it were a solo project.

``It functions as a film soundtrack but I wanted it to have a life on its own,’’ the 37-year-old told The Korea Times in a recent interview in Seoul.

Creating music for Promenade was ``like a picnic,’’ he said, and ``happened piece by piece,’’ and this is reflected in the meandering ambiance of the tracks. Piano, cello, flute, oboe, horn and viola tunes conjure up images of warm sunbeams on a lazy afternoon and the sight of light spring rain outside the window of a quiet café.

Singer-songwriter Jung Jae-hyung. (Courtesy of SonyBMG)

The classical instruments, however, take on a more contemporary and edgy -- and at times slurred and discordant -- texture through Jung’s electronic sound designs. There’s also a touch of pop featuring vocals by Lucid Paul and actress-singer Uhm Jung-hwa. Uhm, Jung’s good friend of over 15 years and who has starred in three of the movies he composed scores for, stopped by the venue to say hello.

His music is ultimately modern in language but is simple, poetic and unimposing. Despite the electronic mixing, the result is something whimsical and natural, perhaps similar to the Ahn Trio’s ``Lullaby for My Favorite Insomniac.’’

``Electronic music often feels cold and mechanic, but I tried to draw out warmth,’’ he said. The artist intentionally added glitches to the melody by squishing together some of the rhythm even though it may not be immediately detectable by the naked ear -- perhaps like adding small rips to create fake vintage jeans? ``Yes,’’ he said.

It’s only natural that the album is impressionistic in color; like Impressionist painters who took the easel outside of the studio, the Paris-based artist went on an actual promenade through the city. He would settle down in an outdoor cafe and be inspired by the noise of passing breezes and pedestrians and the clinking of coffee cups.

Like the honored composer Chin Unsuk, of whom he is a big fan, Jung is a classically-trained pianist who speaks in electronic music. ``The beauty of electronic music is that it enables you to directly translate your intentions, to enliven the original ingredients and keep your color,’’ he said. ``Arranging sounds created with classical instruments is rather limited. Electronic sound design is actually easier for me.’’

Is it like working with a sharp pencil for drawing? ``Yes,’’ he smiled. ``Electronic sound mixing enables you to, if it were a drawing, draw a perfectly straight line using a fine-point pencil.’’ Electronic music, he said, is just a convenient tool that allows the artist more versatility in this multimedia age.

``What used to be one-way sourcing is now all open,’’ he said about today’s merging of genres. Jung, a prolific singer-songwriter, also writes prose and draws images such as the watercolor sketches featured in his album.

``It’s not that I’m multitalented or anything. They’re just different forms of self-expression, and these days I don’t think artists need to classify themselves. Ryuichi Sakamoto started out as an electronic musician but now writes music for movies,’’ he said. ``But at the same time, I’m scared. You can go so many ways, with video art and performance, etc,’’ he said.

When asked about his future plans, he already had the next two years mapped out, with a new film score and solo piano album, as well as publishing a book and getting involved with a musical.
``My dream is to simply live toward my dream, and to cherish it. I started out with the simple premise of wanting to do my own music and that’s the most important thing. I wish to become a good-hearted egoist,’’ he smiled.

Chin Unsuk Goes to Hell and Back for Music

Elle est hyper-cool et m'inspire enormement. She's really got "neugryeok" -- her hubbie is the handsome Finnish pianist Maris Gothoni (she's the Demi Moore of the classical musc world -- he's 18 years younger :) and their son, eight-year-old 리윤, is so adorable.

Germany-based composer Chin Unsuk talks to The Korea Times about how she strives to bring her creations to fans. The 47-year-old composer-in-residence at Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra believes that music should be ``communicative’’ not autistic. /Courtesy of Kim Moon-jung

The relativity of human existence, how it is sandwiched between heaven and hell, is central to many people’s thoughts. South Korean composer Chin Unsuk may produce unearthly sounds, but she’s only human, and the creative process inevitably involves descending into the depths of hell.

``I visit hell several times when I write a composition,’’ the 47-year-old told The Korea Times, Thursday, with one of her hearty, boisterous laughs. ``My gray hair multiplies in relation to how long it takes to write a piece,’’ she said, despite her signature long hair hanging jet black and silky.

The musician said she is first and foremost a mother who spends a great deal of time on domestic affairs. She pours the rest of her time into her art to create one to one-and-a-half pieces per year. The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra’s composer-in-residence thus deals with high demands through co-commissions.

The orchestral piece ``Rocana,’’ which makes its Korean debut Friday as part of the ``Ars Nova’’ program at the LG Arts Center, southern Seoul, was jointly commissioned by the Seoul Philharmonic, Montreal Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian State Opera and Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation. Meaning ``room of light'' in Sanskrit, ``Rocana'' depicts Chin's observation of the behavior of beams of light, ``their distortion, reflections, and undulations.’’

``This is my unique composition for the orchestra,’’ said Chin. Writing ``Rocana’’ was difficult to start writing since, unlike concertos, it lacks a protagonist (soloist) and she had to conceive the interaction of multiple instruments. What inspired her? ``It’s difficult to say. The human brain has a complex formation and multiple networks. Something external triggers me, becomes a seed of thought and grows into multiple branches, like a tree,’’ she said.

Chin is praised for her ``formidable ear for sonority and for mining the expressive potential of the slightest nuances of pitch and pulse’’ (The Guardian). Born in Seoul in 1961, Chin learned piano and music theory on her own at an early age and pursued composition under Kang Sukhi at Seoul National University. A scholarship took her to Hamburg in the late 1980s, where she studied with the esteemed Gyorgy Ligeti. She won the 2004 Grawemeyer Award _ the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in the music world _ among other honors, for her Violin Concerto.

For Koreans, Chin is the exotic expatriate, and without a close look into her work, one may easily assume that her music would be markedly ``German.’’ Modern classical music here is heavily associated with the avant-garde of the 1950s and ‘60s, which is defined by the late Korean-German composer Isang Yun, among others. But moving to avant-garde ``headquarters,’’ said Chin, enabled her to look past established aesthetics. ``Ironically, living in Germany for 24 years now has disillusioned my obsession and fantasy of the avant-garde,’’ she said.

While some contemporary classical music composers insist on the traditional symphony or sonata format, Chin said she feels forms have long gone out of fashion. Others insist on an idiosyncratic, recognizable language, but this composer resists categorization. ``It’d be easier if I had a definable style, but I’m not interested in establishing my name. That’s why I’m pretty much an outsider in Germany,’’ she said, laughing.

Chin reminds you of a gust of wind _ difficult to grasp and transcending boundaries yet exuding a presence that is inevitably felt.

Chin said she plays a Bach fugue whenever she has composer's block. /Courtesy of Kim Moon-jung

Her work reflects her affinity for non-European traditions as well as her background in electronic music. She may be a classical pianist who worships Chopin and plays a Bach fugue whenever she has composer’s block, but she loves pop songs from the 1970s and ‘80s and prefers working with instruments such as the Balinese gamelan. Her music is modern in language but poetic and ``multilingual'' in communicatve power.

``Music should be communicative rather than autistic,’’ said the artist, who seeks to converse with as many channels as possible. ``The word `audience’ is difficult to define. If you play a Bach suite to a gamelan player, he or she may think it sounds bizarre and foreign.’’

But she also writes something more accessible to the general public, such as ``Alice in Wonderland.’’ The opera in eight acts, with libretto by American playwright David Henry Hwang, was staged in 2007 at Munich’s Bavarian State Opera and was ranked in the ``Best of 2007'' list of the Los Angeles Times and was named ``World Premiere of the Year'' by European critics for Opernwelt magazine.

Despite such accomplishments, Chin constantly teased herself throughout the interview, saying that she is a loner and her works are almost never played in her European home. Germany, the birthplace of Beethoven and Bach, is strongly rooted in tradition and is not always open to new things, she said. This is similar to the situation in Korea.

``In Korea, there’s `music’ and then there’s `contemporary music,’’’ she said, meaning that Western classical music has become the blind norm for what music is supposed to be, while other genres are considered inferior. More important than introducing the works of contemporary composers such as those of her former teacher, Kang, however, is inspiring new attitude about art, said Chin.

``Here, culture is synonymous with entertainment, and someone more `cultured’ may associate it with Beethoven, but the concept or value of art and creativity is rather unrecognized,’’ she said, adding many subtitled variety programs in Korea give no room for individual thought, which disgusts and worries her. Creativity rarely flourishes in a place where people are prone to mindless, monotonous consumption, she suggested.

Chin regularly gives master classes as part of Seoul Philharmonic’s ``Ars Nova’’ program, and said that there are talented young students participating. But the social climate worries her. ``I’ve seen many of my talented elders (composers) perish from neglect,’’ she said.

``The degree of national obsession with standard classical music is bizarre, as is how classical music serves as a symbol of elitism and vanity,’’ she said. Her own works, such as ``Alice in Wonderland,’’ have yet to premiere because organizers want a world premiere instead of utilizing what exists.

``Ironically, if Koreans had been oblivious to Western classical music and continued with `gugak’ (traditional Korean music), they may have been more receptive to contemporary classical music,’’ said Chin, explaining that 21st-century Korea may be obsessed with Beethoven but is vastly different from 19th-century Europe.

Chin is busy these days studying gugak. She had been a longtime fan of the mouth organ ``saenghwang’’ and wrote her first concerto for it. Her love for the instrument came like a dream: One stormy night, she was at a camp when she heard someone playing the instrument outside by a cliff. ``It was like the sound of the universe,’’ she said.

``Gugak is boring but sophisticated in its abstract structure and beauty. But I hate the overuse of vibrato, so I pursue a very flat sound,’’ she said. Studying the Korean art also made her feel extremely baffled and concerned. ``It’s a mess, there’s no professionalism in the current gugak world. There’s much work to be done to preserve the folk art,’’ she said. She was able to write the Saenghwang Concerto only recently because she never met anyone who played it here, pointing back to her concern with the modern Korean manner toward art. ``It’s about attitude toward art, and ultimately, attitude toward life,’’ she said. What lies ahead in her own life? Just the same old battle with composing, she said.

Chin’s ``Rocana’’ may be her unique orchestral work but it is certainly not her first. Her first orchestra piece, ``Santika Ekatala’’ (1993), won her the first prize in a Japanese competition, but she was unhappy with it and deleted it from her composition listing and barred its performance. But this is an exception. Chin is no Bruckner, and she usually doesn’t turn back to make corrections or publish second editions. Yet this doesn’t mean she’s ever satisfied with her music _ ``As an artist, it helps to be a narcissist but I despair whenever I finish a piece. My hope of writing something better the next time keeps me going,’’ she said.

Composer Chin Unsuk, center, poses with members of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. The orchestra will feature her unique orchestral piece ``Rocana’’ as part of its ``Ars Nova’’ series at LG Arts Center in southern Seoul, Friday. /Courtesy of Cho Nam-ryoung

Chin mentioned how she once marvelled at Chopin’s gravestone in Paris. ``It simply said Frederic Chopin, without any fancy engravings like `compositeur’ (composer),’’ she said. It’s not hard to imagine a world where the name Chin Unsuk could forgo such superfluous titles as ``South Korean composer’’ or ``award-winning musician.’’

Chin’s concerto, featuring the saenghwang, will make its world debut in Japan in August and then in October in the United States with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Another work, a new cello concerto written specially for Alban Gerhardt, will premiere August 13 at BBC Proms, one of the most exciting classical music events of the season.

In addition to Chin’s ``Rocana,’’ Friday’s ``Ars Nova’’ concert features other orchestral pieces including that of her former teacher Ligeti, ``San Francisco Polyphony.’’ At 7:20 p.m., 40 minutes prior to the concert, Chin will give a lecture about the program. Tickets for the concert cost from 5,000 won to 30,000 won. Call (02) 2005-0114.

Chin Unsuk's "Alice in Wonderland" on DVD

In the meantime, local fans will finally be able to appreciate an original opera at home. South Korea's feted composer Chin Unsuk's ``Alice in Wonderland'' is now available on DVD (Eklasse).

Lewis Carroll's classic story is brought to life with Chin's dreamy music, Chinese-American playwright David Henry Hwang's poignant libretto and Kent Nagano's fine-tempoed interpretation. It debuted last year at Munich's Bayerische Staatspoer (Bavarian State Opera) with maestro Nagano at the baton, and now everyone can experience the performance. The opera was listed in the Los Angeles Times' ``Best of 2007'' and named ``World Premiere of the Year'' by European critics in Opernwelt magazine.

Deliciously surreal and hypnotizing, Alice's adventure is thoroughly deconstructed through multimedia creations inspired by pantomime, theater and musical. It is at once fascinating and thought-provoking as our protagonist asks the undying question: ``Who in the world am I?'' Soprano Sally Mathews delivers arias with restrained drama and deep tones while she speaks the lines with a childish purr.

Particularly striking is the scene with the smoking Caterpillar, brought to life by a bass clarinet soloist. The opera production seems to be an audiovisual materialization of the composer's musicality ― her greatest muses being dreams, light and color.

In English with Korean, French, German and Italian subtitles. Chin herself spent six months translating the libretto into her native tongue. On sale at major record shops and bookstores. Call (031) 911-5613.

Chin Unsuk's "Rocana" Premieres in Montreal

Composer Chin Unsuk, 46, celebrated the world premiere of her new orchestral piece ``Rocana'' Monday in Montreal. She will also receive its U.S. premiere Saturday at New York's Carnegie Hall before its debut in other parts of the world.

Under the baton of conductor Kent Nagano, the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal (Montreal Symphony Orchestra) performed ``Rocana'' as part of its ``Grand Concerto'' series alongside masterworks by Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky. The same group will give the New York premiere, and Nagano will helm ``Rocana's'' Chicago debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, April 24-29. The Asia premiere will take place in the near future with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, where Chin is composer-in-residence.

Meaning ``room of light'' in Sanskrit, ``Rocana'' reflects Chin's observation of ``the behavior of beams of light _ their distortion, reflections, and undulations.'' ``The overall picture and the overall structure are one entity, one `tonal sculpture.' However, one can look at it from various angles, since the inner structures are constantly changing. Even if the music at times gives the impression of stasis, subtle impulses, interactions and reactions are continually present,'' the composer wrote about her piece in a statement

``Rocana'' was jointly commissioned by the Seoul Philharmonic, the Montreal Symphony, Bavarian State Opera and Beijing Music Festival Arts Foundation. This is the Seoul Philharmonic's first project with foreign partners and is expected to be a turning point for the domestic music scene, according to the orchestra.

This is Chin's latest premiere since her critically acclaimed opera ``Alice in Wonderland,'' which debuted last year at Munich's Bayerische Staatspoer (Bavarian State Opera). The modern opera was ranked in the ``Best of 2007'' list in the Los Angeles Times and was named ``World Premiere of the Year'' by European critics for Opernwelt magazine.

Born in Seoul, Chin is a trained pianist. She learned musical composition at Seoul National University before a German state scholarship took her to Hamburg, where she studied with the great Gyorgy Ligeti.

Chin has been praised for her ``formidable ear for sonority and for mining the expressive potential of the slightest nuances of pitch and pulse'' (The Guardian, United Kingdom). In 2004, her devilishly challenging Violin Concerto won her the prestigious Grawemeyer Award, the world's richest prize for composers. Proclaimed ``the first truly great work of this millennium'' by the Los Angeles Weekly, the concerto has been performed in more than 10 countries across Europe, Asia and North America.

Last fall, the composer led a series of creative premiere concerts with the Seoul Philharmonic titled ``Ars Nova.'' She also received the Composition Prize at the 2007 Daewon Music Awards, one of Korea's prime music events.

Chin currently lives in Berlin with her husband, pianist Maris Gothoni, and their young son.