Strings Across Cultures! Koto and Kayageum lecture/concert
Date: Mar 23,2012
Time: 08:00 PM - 10:00 PM
Hyunyoung Choi, a Kayageum (Korean zither) player has moved from Korea to San Francisco Bay Area recently and Shoko Hikage, a Koto (Japanese zither) player will perform works by Hyo-shin Na, Walter Zimmermann and more. Hyo-shin Na (composer) will give a lecture about two musical instruments and music including her new composition for Koto and Kayageum. The traditional music of both instruments will also be introduced.
Hyunyoung Choi began playing Kayageum at Gukak National Middle School, Seoul, Korea, and received her B.M. degree from the Department of Korean Traditional Music, Seoul National University and the M.M. degree from Sookmyung Women's University, Seoul, Korea. She worked as a head performer of the Sookmyung Kayageum Orchestra, the recipient of the Grand Prize of the Korean Traditional Music and the first orchestra in Korea that consists of instruments of one kind. She also taught Kayageum at Hankuk Academy of Foreign Studies. Hyunyoung performed at Musee du Qual Branly in Paris, France in 2008 and at Tiangiao Theater, Beiging, China, where Wen Jiabao attended, in 2007. Hyunyoung has also been playing in music festivals in various countries around the world including Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, and Japan.
Shoko Hikage began studying the koto at the age of three with Chizuga Kimura, a grand master of the Ikuta School "Sokyoku Seigen Kai" in Akita Prefecture, Japan. Beginning in 1985 she received special training from Grand Masters Seiga Adachi II and III. She received her bachelor's degree in koto music from Takasaki College in 1988 and became a uchideshi (a high disciple) of Tadao and Kazue Sawai, completing a one-year intensive seminar at the Sawai Koto Institute. In 1992, she began teaching at the Sawai Koto Institute Hawaii, as well as the University of Hawaii. In 1997 she moved to San Francisco where she has augmented her concert and teaching activities with improvisational dance. Hikage premiered Hyo-shin Na's “Crazy Horse" for Korean traditional orchestra and koto solo with the National Orchestra of Traditional Instruments in Seoul, Korea in November, 2011. Recently, she has presented the first performances of several works of Hyo-shin Na including " Night Procession of the Hundred Demons", "Koto Music" and "Koto Ninano" and, in the spring of 2012, will premiere Walter Zimmermann's "Irrgarten".
After studying piano and composition in her native Korea, Hyo-shin Na came to the U.S. in 1983 to do graduate work at the Manhattan School of Music and the University of Colorado, where she received her doctorate. After moving to San Francisco in 1988, she met Cage, Rzewski, Wolff and Takahashi, and encountered the music of Nancarrow. At the same time, she made return trips to Korea to hear and study traditional Korean music while also taking a broad interest in the music of other regions of Asia.
Hyo-shin Na has written for western instruments, for traditional Korean instruments and has written music that combines western and Asian (Korean and Japanese) instruments and ways of playing. Her music for traditional Korean instruments is recognized by both composers and performers in Korea (particularly by the younger generation) as being uniquely innovative. Her writing for combinations of western and eastern instruments is unusual in its refusal to compromise the integrity of differing sounds and ideas; she prefers to let them interact, coexist and conflict in the music.
In Korea, she has twice been awarded the Korean National Composers Prize, and in the west she has been commissioned by the Fromm and Koussevitzky Foundations among many others. Her music has been played worldwide by ensembles as varied as the Barton Workshop, the San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, the Kronos Quartet, and the Korean Traditional Orchestra of the National Theatre. Portrait concerts, consisting solely of her music, have been presented in Amsterdam by the Barton Workshop (2006), in Seoul by JeonGaAkHoe (2009) and Buam Arts (2009), and at Texas A&M University (2007). New Music Works of Santa Cruz will present a portrait concert of Hyo-shin Na on April 28 in Santa Cruz and April 29 in San Francisco, 2012. Koto Ensemble Lantana will also present a portrait concert of her music on February 10, 2012. She is currently working on a piece for Southwest Chamber Music in Los Angeles.
She is the author of the bilingual book Conversations with Kayageum Master Byung-ki Hwang (Pulbit Press, 2001). Her music has been recorded on the Fontec (Japan), Top Arts (Korea),Seoul (Korea) and New World Records (US) labels and has been published in Korea and Australia. Since 2006 her music has been published exclusively by Lantro Music (Belgium).
Exhibition
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years “The Silence Becomes the Painting”
Patrick Graham: Thirty Years “The Silence Becomes the Painting” Curated by Peter Selz. Organized by Meridian Gallery with assistance from Culture Ireland.
