LIVING SOUNDS: MUSIC OF JIN HI KIM
March 16, 7:00 p.m.
Studio Z: 275 East Fourth Street, Suite 200, Saint Paul, MN $20 / $15 students & seniors |
|
With Living Sounds, Zeitgeist reunites with komungo virtuoso and esteemed composer Jin Hi Kim to present a concert of chamber pieces, improvisations, and ritual music.
Kim's work, always poised on the frontier of possibility, is grounded in her native Korean roots, drawing upon court music, Buddhist aesthetics and Shamanistic folk traditions. Featured works by Kim include NORI II for clarinet, saxophone, and two percussionists (saxophonist David Milne as guest artist), and Ritual for the Earth featuring Zeitgeist, Kim, Samul nori ensemble Shinparam, and a host of adventurous musicians. Rounding out the program, Zeitgeist and Kim will join forces in an improvisation. Also featured on the program will be the premiere of a newly created work, World Sanjo, by Zeitgeist member Pat O'Keefe performed by O'Keefe on clarinet and guest artist Peter O'Gorman on drumset. About Jin Hi Kim
Jin Hi Kim, innovative komungo virtuoso, Guggenheim Fellow composer, and United States Artist Fellow, has performed as a soloist in her own compositions at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, Asia Society, Metropolitan Museum of Art and around the world. The New York Times wrote, “…virtuoso, Jin Hi Kim promises thoughtful, shimmering East-West amalgams in combinations that are both new and unlikely to be repeated.” In 2021 GRAMMY.com wrote "A Musical Philosopher And Radiator Of Electricity:Jin Hi Kim." She received the New England Foundation for the Arts' Rebecca Blunk Fund Award to create her A Ritual for Covid-19 in memory of the deceased worldwide during the pandemic. This performance is in the spirit of healing of the apocalyptic years of 2020-21. She is known as a pioneer for introducing komungo (geomungo) into the American contemporary music scene and for extensive solo performances on the world’s only electric komungo with live interactive computer programs in her large-scale multimedia performance pieces such as Ghost Komungobot, Digital Buddha, and Touching The Moons. The Washington Post wrote, "Her unique vision blends science fiction images, state-of-the-art technology, ancient mythology and timeless music and dance traditions. No other artist is doing work quite like this, and she does it with superb style." Kim’s 'Living Tones' compositions have been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, American Composers Orchestra, Festival Nieuwe Muziek for Xenakis Ensemble (The Netherlands), Tan Dun's New Generation East program for Chamber Music Society for the Lincoln Center, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Meet The Composer US Commission, National Endowment for the Arts and many others. The New York Times wrote, "A gorgeously tactile piece that moved easily between an earthy folksiness and meditative refinement." Kim won the Wolff Ebermann Prize at the International Theater Institute (Germany), New England Foundation for the Art' Rebecca Blunk Fund Award, and received Artist Award from the Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, which was created by John Cage and Jasper Johns. She received the artist residence fellowships for the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center, Italy, Asian Cultural Council to Japan and Indonesia, Freeman Artist-In-Residence at Cornell University, Composer-to-Composer Residency with John Cage and international composers in Telluride Institute, Fulbright Specialist Program to Vietnam, Composers Now Creative Residencies at the Pocantico Center of Rockefeller Brothers Fund, McKnight Visiting Composer with the American Composers Forum, and Music Alive Composer in Residency with New Haven Symphony. Kim’s autobiography Komungo Tango, a 25 years journey of creative collaborations with master musicians in the USA and around the world, was published in Seoul, Korea. A retrospective interview about Kim's major works was recorded and archived in Oral History of American Music at Yale University Library. Interview about her electric komungo was featured on MBC-TV in conjunction with Korean Traditional Craft Exhibition 2007 at United Nation. In 2001 Korean National Broadcasting System (KBS-TV) produced an hour documentary film on Kim's musical contribution. Read more About the works
NORI II (2008) By Jin Hi Kim For the NewEar Ensemble The word NORI means fun play in Korean and originated in the traditional “farmer’s percussion band”‚ in the 3rd century. This music was performed when country folks celebrated the lunar calendar festival and performed at the village Shamanistic ritual. During the Shaman ritual (kut), the farmer’s percussion group entertained the crowds with a parade and dance with spinning hats while they were playing the band at outdoor events. In contemporary times, this tradition has evolved by using the word samulnori. In 1978, four virtuoso Korean percussionists created a small ensemble for janggu (hour glass shaped drum), buk (barrel drum), jing (gong) and kwenggari (small gong), and they started to perform this music in a sitting position on the floor for indoor concert events. Thus moving it from the original outdoors to the formal concert stage performed by professional. Traditionally the music is for exorcism with the aesthetic of duality of tension and release between tempo; and contrasting timbres of yin and yang between skin and metal instruments of the ensemble. The series of rhythmic cycles are evolving with continuous variations that have the alternative goal to create both swing and mesmerizing energy throughout the piece. NORI II is an attempt to realize the same aesthetic for Western instruments. In this piece the time sense is different. The rhythmic cycles reflect ever-repeating cycles of our life. They eventually move towards independent rhythmic cycles, reflecting the behavior of energy inside empty space forcing planets and stars further away from each other and into space. NORI II is a reimagining of NORI I, a work written for Zeitgeist for two percussion, keyboard, and clarinet. —Jin Hi Kim RITUAL FOR EARTH 2024 Conceived by Jin Hi Kim for the Zeitgeist Ensemble and friends fractal patterns -repetition-cycles-layers-multi directions-organic landscape If we pay attention to sounds around our living, we will appreciate the organic beauty in nature or eventually either stop creating sound pollution like manmade machines in our living. The practice of listening to environmental sound/living sounds is to enhance and inspire everyone for the daily observation of the sonic atmosphere around us on the earth. In the forest, at dawn I hear individual birds vocalizing their unique sonic identity at their own time, in their own space, from multi-directions as they are mobilizing. Soon the variety of sounds are spreading in a large open space piling the multi-layers of sonic fragments. As John Briggs wrote in his book The Patterns of Chaos, fractal patterns such as trees, waves, and clouds focus on broken crinkled, wrinkled and uneven shapes. In the same way the sounds of nature are repetitions of similar sound gestures, but they are never controlled instead they are forming organic beauty in oddly organized manner. The intensity of the fractal patterns becomes a sonic blanket at dusk. The ocean waves have been in and out ever since the beginning of the earth and never stopped and will last forever until the end of the earth. They remind us of continuity and cycles of life, and time of circle. In contemporary American life, we often ignore this environmental sonic beauty instead live with sound pollution like mechanical noise and traffic noise. In my piece, Ritual for Earth, I want the participants to respect the natural acoustic phenomena, which is uncontrolled but organic sonic formation. Being inspired by the environmental soundscapes I constructed 5 sections: Prelude (Dawn Chorus), Rainstorm, Ocean, Wildfire, and Rain Forest. In the section of Dawn Chorus, we are acknowledging patterns of similar, individual fractal sounds of birds. In the section of Ocean, we recognize repetition of rhythmic cycles of the life through the waves. In the section of Rain Forest, we are listening to multi-layers of natural acoustic phenomena. In the sections of Rainstorm and Wildfire, we contemplate the serious consequences of global warming that we are faced now. —Jin Hi Kim WORLD SANJO For Clarinet and Drumset (2024) Conceived by Pat O'Keefe World Sanjo for Clarinet is based on the traditional Korean instrumental form called Sanjo, which involves one melodic solo instrument accompanied by one percussion instrument. In my version the percussion will be played on a standard Western drum kit. Sanjo performance moves through a progression of rhythmic modes, moving gradually from slow to fast. I've always heard similarities between the Korean rhythms and certain Western grooves, and also between the Korean melodic modes and some characteristic Western scales, so I wanted to create my own version that had a very clear Korean base in its rhythm and sound, but which would also morph into more familiar Western patterns. I also took it as a challenge to adapt my own clarinet playing to mimic as best I can the wonderfully unique and expressive sounds of Korean traditional instruments. The term Sanjo means "scattered melodies" so I have utilized several different forms of Sanjo as the basis for my version, along with interpolations of melodies from varied Western genres and some improvisation of my own. Given this, I see my creative role as "conceived, compiled, and arranged by..." not "composed by..." — Pat O'Keefe Tickets can be securely purchased by credit card or through your PayPal account in advance, or by cash, check, or credit card at the door. Tickets purchased online will be held at the door.
Please consider adding a $5 donation to Studio Z with your ticket purchase. Your donation supports the operation of Studio Z and keeps it an affordable venue for artists and presenters in the Twin Cities. Studio Z is owned and operated by Zeitgeist, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the music of our time. |