 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
         |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Booking Projects
Komungo Meditation, Digital Buddha: Solo Concert Kim will use both acoustic komungo and the world's only electric komungo for her solo recital. The komungo is a string instrument indigenous to Korea, originating in the fourth century. The six-stringed, fretted board zither was mainly used in the court music orchestra and kagok ensemble for the performance of aristocratic lyric songs. Traditionally, komungo was performed by male Confucian scholars for their meditation. The only solo repertory for komungo is sanjo, a long folk-style virtuoso master piece. Kim broke this tradition of formality and austerity when she came to live in the USA by creating innovative works. Kim's komungo music represents an evolution of the instrument into the twenty-first century, a development she has pursued over twenty years. Kim has created a wide array of pioneering compositions for the komungo not only as a soloist but also collaborated with leading Western contemporary classical musicians, orchestra, jazz musicians, improvisers, and co-designed the world's only electric komungo. Her new komungo music is imbued with meditative and vivid energy that makes it mesmerizing. The electric komungo was built for Ms. Kim by Joseph Yanuziello in Canada in 1999. In collaboration with Alex Noyes, she has created the live interactive pieces for the electric komungo and MIDI computer system. Using MAX/MSP, the komungo sound is processed through a personal computer program, and she is then able to blend acoustic and processed sounds using MIDI foot pedal. This new MIDI computer/komungo arrangement allows her to trigger digital animations in live performance. Staying true to the nature of the instrument, her solo interweaves from old timeless mind to space-age blips.
Sanjo Ecstasy
Following Jin Hi Kim’s appearance in the national MBC-TV broadcast of the film 100 Years of Sanjo, A90 minutes long Sanjo Ecstasy, conceived by Ms. Kim, was premiered to overwhelming success in Korea in 2003. Sanjo
Ecstasy features new generation of Korea's leading musicians performing
exotic traditional instruments (kayagum board zither, haegum fiddle,
janggo drum), with American jazz percussionist Gerry Hemingway and Jin
Hi Kim's electric komungo.
In the sanjo form, the time sense is riveting, hypnotic and almost trance like in it's manner of rhythmic repetition. These highly stylized rhythmic cycles gradually accelerate resulting in a mesmerizing experience. With an attempt of capturing the aesthetics and energy of the sanjo, Ms. Kim has developed a new piece, Sanjo Ecstasy. This suite has six sections that are performed without break. Each piece evokes its own energy and then links to the next. They are immersed with tension and release. In this new work, three traditional sanjo soloists move in and out of the traditional sanjo form as the electric komungo layers new sonic textures upon them. Korean janggo and a Western drum set juxtapose the time sense between sanjo rhythmic cycles and a free jazz time zone.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
