BIOS

INDIVIDUAL PERFORMERS


Linda Burman-Hall,
Director of the UCSC Balinese Gamelans and Professor of Music at UCSC, has played Balinese gamelan for over 30 years, and frequently visits Bali for fieldwork and ethnomusicology studies. Her interests range from music and ritual to the identification of unlabeled archival recordings, to transcriptions of old and new music for Semar Pegulingan, to collaborations with composers to expand the repertoire. She has made two films with Eli Hollander, Kawitan: Creating Childhood in Bali (2002), and Kahyangan: The Journey of the Soul in Bali (2010). One of her current new music projects is an album with commissioned duets for harpsichord and Asian plucked long-board zithers, such as the Sundanese kacapi, Japanese koto and Chinese zheng.


Mary Chun, Conductor
“…One cannot resist the charm, energy and allégresse that was displayed on the podium by Mary Chun.” Le Figaro, Paris, France. In demand as a conductor of traditional grand opera repertoire as well as a fierce advocate of new work, Mary Chun has worked with many composers such as John Adams, Olivier Messiaen, Libby Larsen and Tan Dun, to name a few, to help shape the new classical repertoire of the 21st century. Invited by the composer John Adams, she conducted the Canadian, French and German premiere performances of his chamber opera, I was Looking at the Ceiling and then I saw the Sky, with the Finnish chamber orchestra, Avanti! in Montreal, Paris, and Hamburg to critical acclaim. Passionate about new lyric collaborations, she is the choice of composers to help create the new lyric canon. She has created many world premieres including Libby Larsen’s most recent opera, Everyman Jack, based on the alcohol-driven life of American writer Jack London; Mexican-American composer Guillermo Galindo’s Decreation: Fight Cherries, a multimedia experimental portrait of the brief life of the brilliant French philosopher, Simone Weil; and Carlo Lucero’s Wuornos, the tragic true tale of one of only a few convicted female serial killers in the world.European engagements include conducting several popular European tours of Bizet’s Carmen with the Slovakian State Opera Company in Germany, Switzerland, and Austria in addition to concerts in Belgium. Her opera/stage work in the United States includes music directing at the Hawaii Opera Theater, the Lyric Opera of Cleveland, Opera Idaho, the Texas Shakespeare Festival, the Ballet San Joaquin, and the Pacific Repertory Opera, to name but a few. She has also conducted the San Francisco Contemporary Players, the Empyrean Ensemble, SF Sound, and has toured with both the San Francisco Contemporary Players (Monday Evening Concerts at Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and Earplay (Central Valley, CA).

Ms. Chun has been the Principal Conductor since 2000 for the critically acclaimed ASCAP Award-winning San Francisco new music ensemble Earplay (www.earplay.org), premiering sharp-edged performances of the latest music composed in the last decade in addition to leading dynamic performances of traditional repertoire of symphony, grand opera and ballet around the country. Equally comfortable with electronic media, Mary Chun is active both as a conductor and producer for music recordings as well as film and sound scoring.


Soo Neon Chung
– Born in Yeong-dong, Korea, is a world-renowned haegum virtuoso. Besides being a crucial contributor to the revitalization of Korean domestic interest in the haegum, she has drawn international attention with performances in Japan, China, Mongolia, Russia, Germany, England, and the Kennedy Center in the U.S. She has recorded a number of solo albums, and organizes an ongoing concert series of haegum music.

Ms. Chung majored in haegum at the National Traditional Music High School. She received her B.A. at the Seoul National University, and M.A. at the Chung-ang University. Subsequently, she became the first haegum chair of the Korean Broadcasting System Traditional Music Orchestra, and founded the traditional chamber music group Seul-Gi-Dung. Ms. Chung is a professor at the Korean National University of the Arts, School of Traditional Music. She is well-recognized in the Korean media, and performs several dozen concerts each year.


Jeong-Seung Kim
began studying traditional Korean music and the Korean bamboo flute at the age of 9, from his grandfather, who was the holder of theImportant Intangible Cultural Asset NO. 83, Gurye Hyang-je Julpungryu. After graduating from the National Traditional Music High School (daegum) and the Seoul National University (B.A.), he became a member of the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts (NCKTPA). He also became the youngest member of the Jeong-Nong Akhoe, known as the best traditional music ensemble in Korea.

Mr. Kim’s interest in newly composed Korean music led him to graduate study, where he produced a thesis that examined the instrumental techniques of the daegum. Kim's research focus was on the innovative ways to extend the traditional properties of the daegum and on the incorporation of newly devised techniques into contemporary Korean and Western music. While being actively involved in the preservation of traditional daegum repertoire and technique, Kim is also recognized as the pioneer in the performance of new Korean music. He is known as the first person to use multiphonics and circular breathing in daegum performance, techniques which opened new doors for composers and performers. He has been invited as a soloist to the Berlin Contemporary Music Festival, Pacific Rim Music Festival, Asian Composers' League Music Festival, and others.

Mr. Kim is the founding and active member of the Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea (CMEK), formed in 1998. His traditional repertoire reaches over 10 hours and he performs around 90 traditional and contemporary music concerts every year.


Sang-Hun Kim
was born in 1973 in Kwang-Ju, Jeon-Ra-Nam Province, South Korea. He attended the Seok-San High School, and subsequently the Jeon-Nam University, where he received B.A. in Korean Traditional Music. Mr. Kim earned his master’s degree in Korean Traditional Music from the Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul.

Mr. Kim studied under the renowned ajaeng masters Jong Sun Park, Dae Song Park, Jong Sik Kim, and Tae Baek Lee. In 1997, he received first place at the Students’ National Traditional Competition in Kwang-Ju.

Mr. Kim’s interest in contemporary music began when he became a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra. Mr. Kim recorded the first ever CD of modern works and arrangements for the ajaeng, titled KYRIE, which was released in March 2007.

Performances include those with the Korean Composers in Tong-Yeong International Music Festival, solo recitals at the Sejong Cultural Center and the Mozart Hall, and as a soloist with the Seoul Metropolitan Orchestra. Mr. Kim has also performed at the Maison de La Danse in Lyon, France, and with DANO in Oxford, Cambridge, and London, England.

Sang Hun Kim has been a concertmaster of the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra since 1999. He has also taught at the Korean National University of the Arts, Seoul, and the Mok-Won University, Seoul, since 2002.


Woong-Sik Kim
– is a percussionist of great versatility, expert in numerous styles, and both a sought-after sanjo accompanists and a performer of new works by Korean and western composers. Mr. Kim has been an active member of the CMEK since 2003, a group known for their frequent collaborations with Western composers and performers.

Mr. Kim has been a member of the renowned creative world music group PURI since 1995. The four current  members  were all taught by Kim Yongbae, one of the original members  of the pioneering Kim Duksoo samulnori team. The PURI group, led by the composer Won Il, takes the rhythmic distillation inherent to samulnori one step further, continuously exploring new ways to imbue their music with the essential expressive idioms of the Korean culture.

Woongsik Kim studied at the Danguk University, where he currently teaches. He performs close to 100 times per year. Since his first international concert tour in 1989, he has appeared in over 200 international performances in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. He has also performed numerous times with the Korean Broadcasting System Traditional Orchestra, and frequently appears in various TV and radio concert broadcasts.


Hyang-Hee Lee
– Ms. Lee graduated from the Korean National High School, and subsequently from the Department of Korean Traditional Music at the Seoul National University, College of Music. She has been invited to the Festival Urban + Aboriginal XVI (Berlin, Frankfurt, Leipzig, Utrecht, and Amsterdam), as well as the Asia-Korea-Yun Festival (Stuttgart University), the Berlin-Seoul Festival (Berlin University), and the Tongyeong International Music Festival. Ms. Lee is a Member of the Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea.


Chi-Wan Park
– Mr. Park completed his musical studies at the Seoul National University, as well as the Korean National University of the Arts, where he received his Master's degree. He is a member of the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, and is the intangible Cultural Asset No.46, in the Korean Classical Piri Music and Royal Marching Music. In addition to his activities as a traditional musician, he has premiered many contemporary works, both as a soloist and as a core member of CMEK (Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea). He has also collaborated with City Winds, New Music Works, the Atlas Ensemble, the Pacific Chamber Symphony, and the Wooden Fish Ensemble. He has made numerous appearances in the San Francisco bay area, including at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, Old First Concerts, and the Herbst Theatre.


John Sackett, Clarinet
John Sackett received a B.M. from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music where he studied clarinet with Alan Balter and composition with John Adams. He received an M.A. in composition from Mills College, studying with Terry Riley, and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley, where he studied with Andrew Imbrie and Olly Wilson. He has also been a student of North Indian classical vocal music and studied with the renowned vocalist Pandit Pran Nath for 20 years, traveling with him to India in 1990. As a clarinetist, he was a soloist with the Minnesota Orchestra at age 16, he received a fellowship at the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood, and he has performed with Terry Riley's legendary group Khayal in the Bay Area. He has received a composition grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Charles Ives Composition Award from the American Academy Institute of Arts and Letters. He is presently on the faculty at the University of California, Santa Cruz.


Antares Sagbas
, Flute – Winner of the 2009 International Competition “Classical Star Search” of KDFC Radio, San Francisco Bay Area, Sagbas also won the Young Artist Competition from the International Kirishima Music Festival, Kirishima, Japan in 2008, as well as the Mooredale Concerto Competition, Toronto, Canada in 2007. “Sagbas is an amazing flutist – a 21st century Moyse. He has the ideal combination of beautiful tone, dramatic musicality, powerful stage presence, and warm personality. We can and should expect much from an artist of his capability. Watch for a glowing future for him and the flute repertoire.” – Gabriel Sakakeeny, Music Director, American Philharmonic

Antares has performed as a soloist, as the principal in opera and symphony orchestras, and as a chamber musician in all of Turkey’s and Italy’s major cities as well as those in Spain, Holland, Japan, Canada and the U.S. He has been invited to some of the most prestigious classical music festivals such as: the Festival del Sole, CA, Waterloo Chamber Music Society, ON, The Murcia Music Festival, Spain, and the Kirishima Music Festival, Japan, where he performed and studied with Timothy Hutchins (Principal Flutist, Montreal Symphony).

In recent years, he has performed as a soloist with the members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, in the Mooredale concert series, as well as at the Luminato Festival as solo flute of the first multimedia opera, Passion of Winnie, in Toronto. Some of the orchestras and ensembles he has recently been involved with are: Virtioso Orchestra Kirishima, Canadian Opera Company, San Francisco Conservatory Opera, San Francisco Conservatory of Music Orchestra, New Music Ensemble – BluePrint Project, and the Armatthan Woodwind Quintet.

Originally from Ankara, Turkey, he is currently a master’s student at The San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Previously he graduated from Carnegie Mellon University School of Music and Glenn Gould School of the Royal Conservatory of Music. Among his teachers are Tim Day (Principal Flutist, San Francisco Symphony), Jeanne Baxtresser (Former Principal Flutist, New York Philharmonic), Kathleen Rudolph (Principal Flutist, CBC Symphony), and the international soloists Alberto Almarza, Raffaele Trevisani, Bulent Evcil, and Stilliana Stavreva. He has also performed in the master classes of Mathieu Duffour and Robert Langevin.

Sagbas is active in the Animal Rights Community. He is also an arranger, and a scuba diver.


Henry Spiller
is an ethnomusicologist whose research focuses on Sundanese music and dance from West Java, Indonesia. He is interested particularly in investigating how individuals deploy music and dance in their personal lives to articulate ethnic, gender, and national identities. He has studied Sundanese music and dance for more than 20 years, and he has conducted fieldwork in Bandung, West Java, on several occasions, including 10 months of Fulbright-sponsored dissertation research in 1998–99. ABC-CLIO published his first book, Gamelan: The Traditional Sounds of Indonesia, in 2004. In 2008, Routledge released a second edition under the title Focus: Gamelan Music of Indonesia. His latest book, Erotic Triangles: Sundanese Dance and Masculinity in West Java, is slated for publication in 2010.


Jiyoung Yi
is Korea's leading gayageum player, specializing in a very broad range of music, from traditional to the latest avant-garde.

Ms. Yi began learning the gayageum, traditional song, and dance at the age of five. She went on to study the gayageum at the College of Music, Seoul National University, where she received both B.A. and M.A. degrees. In 2002, she earned her Ph.D. at the Ewha Women’s University, which drew attention, as she was the first national Ph.D. recipient in gayageum performance.

Since her solo debut with the Korean Broadcasting System Traditional Music Orchestra in 1987, she has appeared in numerous concerts, including those with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Shanghai Orchestra, Tokyo City Orchestra, Atlas Ensemble, and others. She was a soloist with the National Center for the Korean Traditional Performing Arts from 1988 to 1993, and the youngest member of the Chongnong Akhoe, the foremost traditional court music ensemble in Korea.

Ms. Yi is renowned for her mastery of a style of Korean folk music, gayageum sanjo. She is accomplished in five schools of the style, those of Sung Geum-ryun, Choi Ok-san, Chung Nam-hee, Kim Byung-ho, and Seo Gong-cheol. She is also proficient in the Kim Byung-ho and Seo Gong-cheol schools. She has been invited to numerous concerts as a sanjo player.

Ms. Yi’s musical enthusiasm is not confined to the preservation of tradition, but extends into the field of contemporary music. She is the leader of the Contemporary Music Ensemble Korea, and has performed in the U.S., Germany, and New Zealand as a member of the group. She is a pioneer of contemporary music for the gayageum, and is regarded as a member of a younger generation of Korean musicians responsible for revitalizing the country’s musical scene.

Since her debut, Jiyoung Yi has performed numerous solo recitals in Korea, the U.S., Germany, and other countries. She has also recorded over 40 albums, including 4 solo releases. Her Yi, Ji-young Gayageum Boheosa is acclaimed as a prime recording of Korean court music, and her 8 Scenes – Contemporary Music for Gayageum is a landmark collection of new music for the instrument.

In 2003, she was awarded the “Best Young Musician” award by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, given to the most prominent young musicians of the year. From 1997 to 2007, she was an associate professor at the Yongin University.

Currently, Ms. Yi is an associate professor at the Korean Music Department, College of Music, Seoul National University. She is the successor of Important Intangible National Cultural Asset No. 23 (gayageum sanjo and byungchang), and member of the Chongnong Akhoe.