Music with Korean Themes at the Sunday Salon Series
Sunday, January 26, 2014
Free admission
Free admission
Chicago Cultural Center
Preston Bradley Hall, 3rd Floor South
78 E. Washington Street
Chicago, IL 60602
The Sejong Cultural Society will present a concert featuring the internationally renowned Lincoln Trio and past winners of the Sejong Music Competition. The program will include contemporary compositions based on traditional Korean themes as well as classical pieces. David Cunliffe, cellist of the Lincoln Trio, will provide commentary and background information regarding the pieces performed. This concert is free and open to the public.
Program
Toad - Jeong Kyu Park
Violin Sonata No. 3 in D minor - Johannes Brahms
IV. Presto Agitato
Jennifer Cha, violin (violin senior winner of the 2010 Sejong Music Competition)
Milana Pavchinskaya, piano
Mong - Hee Young Yang
Miroirs - Maurice Ravel
IV. Alborada del Gracioso
Kyle Jannak-Huang, piano (piano senior winner of the 2012 Sejong Music Competition)
Joy of Ong-He-Ya - Misook Kim
Carmen Fantasie - Franz Waxman
Gallia Kastner, violin (violin senior winner of the 2011 Sejong Music Competition)
Milana Pavchinskaya, piano
Birds for piano trio (2012) - Heeyoung Yang
Trio No. 2 in B minor - Joaquin Turina
The Lincoln Trio
Performers
Formed in 2003, the Lincoln Trio takes its name from their home, the heartland of the United States, the land of Lincoln. The trio has been praised for its polished presentations of well-known chamber works and its ability to forge new paths with contemporary repertoire. The group's reputation as a first-rate ensemble draws an eclectic audience of sophisticated music lovers, young admirers of contemporary programs and students discovering chamber music for the first time.
Champions of new music, the Lincoln Trio has performed numerous compositions written especially for them, including premieres of seven works by members of the Chicago Composers Consortium, Stacy Garrop, Mischa Zupko, Janice Misurell-Mitchell, Ravinia commissioned works for the Lincoln Bicentennial by James Crowley, Eric Sawyer and Lawrence Dillon and an award winning work dedicated to the trio by young ASCAP winner Conrad Tao. 2013 will see the premiere of a Chamber Music America Award commission with composer Laura Elise Schwendinger and a trio by renowned Chicago composer Stacy Garrop.
Their website can be found at www.lincolntrio.com.
2010 violin senior winner
Jennifer Cha began playing the violin at the age of 3 while living in South Korea. She gave her first violin recital at the age of 7 and made her concerto debut at the age of 11 with the Oistrach Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Mina Zikri.
Miss Cha toured Germany in 2003 and Italy in 2005 for performances, including performing for Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican as part of the Betty Haag Magical Strings of Youth. She has recently been named a 2014 Young Arts Winner in Classical Music (Instrumental)/Violin. As a result, she is being considered to be named a Presidential Scholar in the Arts. She has also won numerous top prizes from various competitions Chicago-based, nationally, and internationally, including the Sejong Music Competition, the Music Competition in Honor of Confucius, DePaul University’s Annual Concerto Festival, and the Walgreens National Concerto Competition. She was also a semi-finalist in the Cooper International Violin Competition hosted by Oberlin College where she worked with David Cerone and Gregory Fulkerson. In addition, Jennifer Cha was a finalist in the Crain-Maling Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions.
In 2009 and 2011, Jennifer was invited to perform at the Korean-American Day celebration at the Richard Daley Hall in Chicago. As both a soloist and as a chamber musician, Jennifer has performed at the Ravinia Music Festival as a guest artist for the Kraft for Kids series as well as in the Music in the Loft’s Rising Stars Concert Series. Jennifer has also performed as a soloist with Neuqua Valley Symphony Orchestra, the Wheaton Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kevin McMahon, and the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra.
In 2011, Jennifer was chosen to be one of 6 finalists for From the Top’s Carnegie Hall Big Break Contest out of over 400 applicants nationwide. As a result, she was featured on the PBS program, From the Top, WFMT's Introductions series, and the NPR feature How Do You Get To Carnegie Hall? She has also participated in master classes with Ida Kavafian, Ani Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, and David Bowlin. As a scholarship recipient of the Hotchkiss Summer Portals Program, she had the opportunity to study with Ida Kavafian, Melvin Chen, Christopher Shepard, Harumi Rhodes, Jessica Lee, Nicholas Canellakis, Melissa Reardon, and members of the Miró Quartet, the Brentano String Quartet, and the Shanghai Quartet.
As an avid orchestral musician, Jennifer has served as the concertmistress of the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestra, the IMEA All-State Honors Orchestra, the Neuqua Valley Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Neuqua Valley Chamber Strings ensemble. She was the concertmistress of the CYSO last summer on their international tour to Spain where they performed in Madrid, Cuenca, Valencia, and Barcelona. With her string quartet, Quartet Ventoso, Jennifer won top prizes in the Society of American Musicians Jules M. Laser Chamber Music Competition and the St. Paul String Quartet Competition. With Quartet Ardella she won 3rd place in the Junior Division of the 2012 National Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana.
Jennifer volunteers for the Fine Arts Healing Program at Edward Hospital in Naperville along with her older sister and friend, where they perform for cancer patients and their families. As a string trio, they also volunteer, performing at various Ronald McDonald’s Houses in the Chicagoland area.
Jennifer studies with Desiree Ruhstrat. She attends Neuqua Valley High School and currently resides in Naperville, IL with her parents, sister, and dog, Joy.
2012 piano senior winner
Kyle Jannak-Huang, 16, has studied piano with Brenda Huang for 11 years. Kyle was named the winner of the 2012 Crain-Maling Foundation Chicago Symphony Orchestra Youth Auditions, and he performed 6 concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in April and May, 2013. He played 2 concerts with the Lake Forest Symphony under the baton of Alan Heatherington in March, 2011 as the winner of the Steinway Concerto Competition. Kyle was the first place winner in 2013 Milwaukee Chopin Youth Piano Competition Senior Division. He was the Silver Medalist in the 2011 Seattle International Piano Competition. Kyle was the winner of 2011 Walgreens National Concerto Competition Open Senior Piano Division. He was the first place winner in NWSMTA Awards Competition, the Society of American Musicians Competition, ISMTA competition, the Confucius Music Festival, and the Sejong Music Competition.
He performed in the Young Steinway Concert Series at Skokie Library in 2010. In 2009, Kyle played with the Oistrach Symphony Orchestra as a selected winner of the Sixth Annual DePaul Concerto Festival for Young Performers. Currently, he is a sophomore in Palatine High School. In his spare time, Kyle likes playing tennis, snowboarding, and paintballing.
2011 violin senior winner
Gallia Kastner of Arlington Heights, Illinois, is a 16 year old merit student of The Susan and Richard Kiphart Academy Fellowship. She studies with Almita and Roland Vamos at The Music Institute of Chicago. She commenced her private violin study at five and a half with Betty Haag-Kuhnke. In the course of her accomplishments, Gallia has won numerous competitions both as a soloist and a chamber musician. She is the winner of the 2013 Blount- Slawson National Concerto Competition in Montgomery, Alabama, The 2012 Triennial Johansen International Competition in Washington DC, the 2012 Skokie Valley Concerto Competition, The Walgreens National Concerto Competition, and Sejong Music Competition.
Recently she was awarded the 2013 Jack Kent Cooke Young Artist Scholarship and The Jerome and Elaine Nerenberg Foundation Scholarship from The Musicians Club of Women in Chicago.
An avid chamber musician, Gallia is a member of the Lumiere String Quartet that won gold medal at The2013 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, first place at the 2013 Midwest Young Artist Chamber Music Competition, SAM Jules M. Laser Chamber Competition, and A.N. and Pearl G. Barnett Chamber Music Competition. Gallia’s broadcast performances include appearances on WFMT 98.7/Introductions, From The Top, WTTW Channel 11, WGN Channel 9. Some of Gallia’s solo appearances include The Lake Forest Symphony Orchestra, The Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, The Skokie Valley Symphony Orchestra, The Gettysburg Chamber Orchestra, and The Highland Park Strings.
She has had the privilege to take master class with Robert Lipsett, Rachel Barton Pine, Vadim Gluzman, Arkady Fomin, Joseph Silverstein, Ida Kavafian, Ilya Kaler, Milan Vitek, and Ivry Gitlis.
She is a Junior at John Hersey High School and participates in the school orchestra and the youth music ministry at St James Parish, as a choir member and instrumentalist.
Gallia performs on a copy of the “Ex-Soldat” Guarneri del Gesu, by Peter Seman, 2008, on generous loan from Rachel Elizabeth Barton Foundation.
Composers
Naperville, IL
third place winner, 2008 Sejong Composition Competition
Composer Misook Kim, received her B.M. with the honor of Cum Laude from Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea. After finishing her “New Star Concert” sponsored by the Cho-Sun Newspaper, she entered the graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin where she completed her M.M. and D.M.A. degrees in composition and the certificate of piano performance. Reviewer Mike Greenberg, writing in the San Antonio Express-News, called the composer ‘a bold and unrepentant modernist.’ Kim has performed as a composer as well as a pianist in various concerts of her own works and other composers’ from solo to larger ensemble compositions throughout the States and Korea. She has won 2007 International Alliance for Women in Music (IAWM) Judith Zaimont Award and the Long Island Arts Council International Composition Competition and 2008 International Sejong Music Composition Competition. Her music was broadcasted on Classical Spotlight of KPAC (Texas Public Radio) and WFMT(Chicago). She was a former faculty member at the University of the Incarnate Word and Trinity University in San Antonio, TX. In the fall of 2006, Kim joined the faculty at the Conservatory of Music at Wheaton College, IL.
“JOY of Ong-He-Ya” (2008) is based on the Korean traditional folk tune, ‘Pori-Tajak Sori’, barley threshing song from Kyung-Sang Province. The thematic elements are derived from the simple interval of a major 2nd, minor/major 3rd and perfect 4th. These two short motivic ideas, ‘Ong-He-Ya’ and ‘Uh-Jul-Shi-Gu’, keeps repeating and developing as a call and response between violin and piano. A delightful rhythmic motif personifying Korean traditional folk-tune in different registers and instruments. Throughout the piece this simple and clear musical material interacts with a happy theme, representing the joyful and exciting Korean folk song.
Incheon, Korea
first place winnner, 2005 Sejong Composition Competition
Jeong Kyu Park attends the Korean National University of Arts graduate school, where he has received a BM in music composition. He has studied with Sung-Ho Whang, Feliciano, and Byung-Eun Yoo. Mr. Park was the first prize winner of the 2003 Dong-A Music Competition, 2004 Tong-Young International Music Festival, 2004 Korean Chorus Music Festival, 2004 Seoul City Chorus Music Competition, and 2004 Dae-Jun City Chorus Music Competition.
“Toad” for violin and piano: A piece of eight variations, it is based on a theme derived from a Korean traditional children’s song “Du-Gup-Ah, Du-Gup-Ah” (Toad, Toad). It starts with a slow tempo, gradually accelerating to finish with a strong and stormy ending.
West Lafayette, IN
third place winner, 2012 Sejong Prize for Music Composition
Heeyoung Yang holds a M.M. in composition from Yonsei University (Korea) and College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati where she studied with Joel Hoffman. She attended Aspen Music Festival and studied with George Tsontakis. Her music has been performed in Korea, Japan, France, Croatia, Canada as well as in various place in the States. She is also active in Christian choral music, offering various works to churches in Ohio and Indiana area, as well as in Korea and Germany. She is currently working toward her doctoral degree with Joel Hoffman, Mara Helmuth, and Michael Fiday at College-Conservatory of Music, University of Cincinnati.
The Birds (2012) for piano trio: This is a short piece based on Sae-Taryeong (Bird Song) for piano trio. Five main pitches (A-C-D-E-F) in the original melody and their relationship, pitch class set, pitch center and their characteristic gesture mostly remain in the piece; vibrating note (A), a note without vibrato as pitch center (D), and bending note, appoggiatura (F-E). The twenty-measure-long melody is divided into five phrases, four measures each, and become the essential ideas of each five sections in the piece. The opening melody of Sae-Taryeong and its specific gesture of vibrating note (A), non-vibrating note (D), and bending note, appoggiatura (F-E) are emphasized in the first and second section. As the original tune centers bird sound, especially cuckoo with two note figure F-D, in its melody, various melodic and harmonic figurations describing birds sounds are presented in the middle section and sound of cuckoo, F-D or other minor 3rd is also emphasized. The essential melodic ideas of the fourth section, minor 3rd (A-C) and perfect 4th (A-D) are combined with several passages from the previous sections as a remembrance and this tranquil fourth section opens the animated final section which restates the original tune in an intense and passionate tone.
Mong (2012) for solo piano: This is a short piece based on Korean traditional song named MongKeumpo-Taryeon, very simple pentatonic melody. The title Mong means ‘dream’ and it describes an earnest desire of a woman who longs to meet her beloved as it is implied in the text of the tune. The sequence of perfect fifth is used in the beginning and at the end in order to emphasize the innocent, pure, and sincere love with its high degree of consonance. It is composed for the Sejong Music Competition in 2012.