In a 2013 event project entitled
“Sonnet of an Innocent Flower“, we featured TeRra Han, a superb gayageum virtuoso from Korea, in a program of music and dance with accompanying commentaries on Korean poetry by Professor David McCann of Harvard University. In 2014, the main theme of
our annual Gala concert was "Han", the unique concept of unrequited yearning and deep regret, which pervades much of Korean sentiment and its folk culture. The concert introduced original pieces by the composer Jae Hyeok Jang to the Boston audience. In 2015, our concert featured the
Boston premiere of “Village Music”, a chamber piece composed by the young US composer Michael-Thomas Foumai, who drew inspiration from Shinawi, a Korean traditional style of music of shamanistic origin. The composer employed the western instruments such as clarinet and violin and created an interesting aural landscape that was reminiscent of the quintessential Korean traditional music employing gayageum and Pansori. The 2016 Gala concert “
Elegy for the Fallen, Light Beyond the Abyss” touched a strong chord in the hearts of the audience who were weary of on-going turmoils both in Korea and the States. The concert featured several young musicians from Korea and other parts of the world in the unique fusion of the classical and the experimental repertoire. The final piece “Lost” by Wonmi Jung, DoYeon Kim, Chris McCarthy and Eli Cohen, was a moving tribute in memory of the Sewol Ferry victims.