Korean Cultural Festival 2018

DoYeon Kim is a Gayageum player who is making her own genre of music by incorporating Korean Music, World Music, Free Jazz, Jazz, and Improvisation. She focuses her career on broadly sharing and bringing new approach to music, in the context of Korean music, improvisation, and development of unique techniques. Fully immersed in traditional Korean music and modern works alike, DoYeon has given several solo recitals and concerts in Korea, America and Europe. In 2017, DoYeon released her first album (​GaPi​) with pianist Chase Morrin, which was received by a sold out release-concert in Korea and moved on to be nominated in 2018 for a Korean Music Award, Korea’s version of the Grammys, in the crossover album category. Recently, she was selected as an 2018 Emerging Artist Award by the prestigious St. Botolph Club Foundation.

She has performed with distinguished improvisors: Joe Morris, Agusti Fernandez, and Anthony Coleman. The Boston Museum of Fine Arts regularly invites her to play in the ‘Lunar New Year Music Performance’ and she has performed several times at New York City’s The Stone. DoYeon was chosen by the Korean Department of Culture as one of the few Gayageum musicians for the Seoul Youth Delegation tour of Japan. Her band ‘Kim Do Yeon Band’ was invited to perform in Berlin and Budapest, where their music was enthusiastically received by the audience well versed in music on the frontier. Their Budapest performance was described by the press as “everlasting, timeless, space-barred...unforgettable, overwhelming.” DoYeon also founded the ‘JaYu Quartet’, which was one of the honors ensembles for 2015-2016 representing the New England Conservatory.

She has worked with many living composers, especially Dae-Sung Kim, who composed music for the Silkroad Ensemble, and Thomas Osborne. DoYeon has been invited as a guest lecturer on Gayageum and Asian Music at Dartmouth College, Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Tufts University, Brandeis University, Emerson College and Emmanuel College.

Early in her education, DoYeon had garnered multiple prizes, having received the Gold Prizes, in both 2009 and 2011, from the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, one of the most prestigious awards in Korea. She was also awarded the 2009 Gold Prize in the Dong-A Ilbo Traditional Music Competition. After the National Traditional Music High school, Do Yeon moved on to the Seoul National University where she was a protege of living Gayageum master Yi Jiyoung, and graduating with top honors in 2014. DoYeon is the first Gayageum player ever admitted to the New England Conservatory, and she received her masters degree and Graduate Diploma in the Contemporary Improvisation department under Hankus Netsky, Anthony Coleman and Joe Morris.

gamin is a master practitioner of the Piri, Taepyongso(double reed instruments), and Saenghwang (reed mouth organ). Currently, as a Yisuja* (designated master) of the Important Intangible Cultural Asset No.46 for Piri Court music and Daechita, she strives to both preserve and enhance traditional Korean music. At Seoul National University and as a member and assistant principal player of the Contemporary Gugak Orchestra, Gamin has used her virtuosity to perform authentic Jeongak (classical court music) and Sinawi (shaman ritual music), as well as new compositions for her instruments and electronic sounds.

The music director of the National Changgeuk Company, Yoo Young-Dae describes her music as “free-spirited in restraint, delicate in bluntness, and sorrowful in bliss.”

She has released three albums. Her first album, “Attraction” was made to popularize the Piri to the general public. The second, titled “Juxtaposition,” explores the harmony between an oriental instrument, the piri, and western instrument, marimba. The third album, “Progression” contains more progressive contemporary music that features a variety of instruments including synthesizer.

Today, she experiments and expands her musical realm to interdisciplinary projects in collaboration with international artists. The most recent project, "Pal-eum (Eight Tones)" produces a series of art projects in new formality. In the first series, she utilized the structure of a museum as a multi-complex concert hall to feature synthesizer, fashion, and video art. Yoon Jung-Gang, a renowned music critic, acclaimed that the museum became the place of deep enchantment transcending the time and space by gamin’s music.

She was a recipient of a residency program grant from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism in 2011 and had toured giving lectures at Harvard University, Northwestern University, Dartmouth University, among others. She gave a solo recital at Bennett Media Studio and recorded improvisational works with local musicians in New York. Invited by governmental organizations of France and Germany, she performed in Paris, Strasbourg, Freiburg, and Karlsruhe in 2011. More recently, she performed with Yo-yo Ma and The Silkroad ensemble at Seoul Arts Center during their Asian tour.

She holds a DMA in traditional music from Seoul National University and writes her own column for the magazine, “Arts and Culture.”

*yisuja is a title designated to someone who mastered a course study of intangible cultural assets of Korea. jeonsuja is a lower title.

Soprano Youmi Cho, a winner of The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, debuted at The Metropolitan Opera as Azema in Rossini’s Semiramide where she was enthusiastically praised by The New York Times as “one of the most beloved voices”.

Ms. Cho has performed in numerous opera including the title roles in Manon Lescaut, Lucia di Lammermoor, and Lakme, as well as Nanetta in Falstaff, Mimi in La boheme, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, and Pamina in The Magic Flute. Her career has taken her to America’s major opera houses and concert halls in St. Louis, Houston, Washington, and Chicago. Her European engagements have included venues in Poland, Greece, and Italy. Also an active concert singer, she has sung Handel’s Messiah at Lincoln Center, as well as both the Mozart and Faure Requiems, and Haydn’s Creation. She has given recitals, and performed in concerts with orchestras in Korea, Europe and America.

Born in Korea, in her early career Ms. Cho won major competitions, and performed with orchestras, noted for her “breathtaking voice”, and as “an artist that will be watched”. After receiving her undergraduate degree from Ewha Woman’s University in Korea, she moved to Boston to continue her vocal studies at New England Conservatory where she received her Master of Music and Artist Diploma.

Jacob Hiser​ is a versatile pianist and violinist who performs and studies a variety of musical traditions. Originally from Missouri, where he graduated from Missouri State University with a bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies, he now lives and works in Boston, having recently completed a master’s degree program in Contemporary Improvisation at New England Conservatory. During the summer, Jacob is a faculty member of two arts programs: Missouri Fine Arts Academy (a three-week summer residential program for highly motivated student artists in visual arts, theatre, dance, creative writing, and music), and NextGeneration, a week-long piano/strings camp in Joplin, MO for middle school and high school students. He is currently part-time piano faculty at University of Massachusetts Lowell, an accompanist for Boston Children's Chorus and New England Conservatory Preparatory School choirs, and also freelances around the Boston area.

Max Light ​is a guitarist from the Washington DC area, now living in New York City. His guitar playing and musicianship have garnered him experience and acclaim playing all over the world. He has performed with Donny McCaslin, Jason Palmer, Noah Preminger, Tia Fuller, Rudy Royston and Guillermo Klein among many others. He was a member of the Creative Ensemble Collective with Donny McCaslin from 2015-2016 and in the summer of 2017 he was a featured artist at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival at National Sawdust. He recorded a two volume live album at Wally’s Jazz Club in Boston with Jason Palmer’s band that was released on Steeplechase in 2018. He recently recorded on Noah Preminger’s newest album for Criss Cross to be released in 2019. He regularly performs as an artist in residence at Hotel 7132 in Vals, Switzerland through Newvelle Records.

Max Ridley​ is a Boston-based musician, composer and teacher. He began his formal studies at Boston’s arts high school. It was there also that he first fell in love with improvised music and the double bass. While at Boston Arts Academy, he was selected out of many other young musicians to perform at Boston’s Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops three years in a row. Also during these years, he joined the Berklee City Music program and in this program, was able to travel to New York to play for Quincy Jones and his foundation. He was awarded full-tuition scholarships to study at Berklee College of Music for both an undergraduate and graduate degree. He earned his graduate degree from Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute under the direction of pianist and educator Danilo Perez. He has also shared the stage with renown musicians, Kenny Werner, Ingrid Jensen, Bob Mover, Jason Palmer, George Garzone, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ra-Kalam Bob Moses and Perico Sambeat. He has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Dizzy's Club Coca Cola at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center and the Umbria Jazz Festival. He has toured domestically and internationally and has also spent some time living and working as a musician in Valencia, Spain.Today, he is active in the musical community as sideman, leader and co-leader of groups in and around New England.

For drummer ​Lee Fish​, it all started traveling on the road with his musician parents. He began performing with their band at the age of three, playing drums and singing throughout North America - all the way from Quebec to New York to Florida. His unique life experiences and talent led him to become one of the most highly sought after musicians worldwide. Fish has since performed not only coast to coast in America, but also in Japan, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Russia, Bolivia, China and Korea. After already having acquired his Bachelors degree at Berklee College of Music, he completed his Masters degree in 2017 at the prestigious Berklee Global Jazz Institute on a full scholarship studying under the likes of Danilo Pérez, Terri Lyne Carrington and Joe Lovano.

Jaemi graduated with B.A. in Communications from University of Michigan. After graduation, she interned as a reporter for the local Canyon News in Beverly Hills CA and freelanced as an anchorwoman in Seoul, further trained at the international PR firm Burson-Marsteller. While attending Yonsei University M.A. program in International Relations, she became interested in Public Health Communication, especially in the distribution of information for the wellbeing of communities. Currently, she is living in Boston as a mother of one child and seeking the path for a new chapter of life.

Jessica Park is a traditional Korean dancer and educator based in Boston. She has participated in previous KCB cultural festivals. Jessica is joined by Seojean Megan Kim, Seanna Lee, Sarah Yanagimachi, Chloe Kim, Eleanor Liesl Park and Sujin Cha for the performance of the Korean Fan Dance.

Jihye Kim is a percussionist and composer based in Boston, MA. She has majored in Korean Traditional Performing Arts at Korean National University of Arts (K-arts). Jihye has professionally studied Samulnori, the contemporary version of Korean traditional drumming, and traditional music at K-arts. She has developed her specialty and career as a musician with the guidance of and performances with Master Kim Duk-soo, the founder of Samulnori. Jihye also has professionally participated in various contemporary arts including dance, playing and composing for theatre.

2010 – 1st Place, Percussionist for BK Jung’s “On the Road” at ACT Festival, Bilbao, Spain

2011 – Guest Artist, Miami University, Oxford, OH & Earlham College, Richmond, IN

2015 – Percussionist for “GTA of Performing Arts” at National Gugak Center, Seoul, South Korea

2018 – Percussionist for Korean Traditional Music Festival at New York, NY, Englewood, NJ & Philadelphia, PA

Haeun Jung started piano at the age of five and studied at Sun Hwa Arts School and Seoul National University. While at Sun Hwa, she won numerous competitions held by Music Education Newspaper, Phone Classics, Eumak Chunchu, World News, Kook Min Ilbo and performed at Yurim Young Artist concert and Buam Young Artist Concert series. While at Seoul National University, she gave a recital at the Amalfi Coast Music & Arts Festival in Italy. Currently she is working toward the Master's degree at the New England Conservatory with Alexander Korsantia.