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Min Kwon
Приєднався 11 лют 2021
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states, and currently is the Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002. Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians, and it is through CME that she has commissioned the composers for America/Beautiful. Min is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where she later served as a member of The Juilliard Council, the first alumnus to be invited to do so. Min Kwon is a Steinway Artist.
America/Beautiful - Greg Sandow: “America Slow Dance and 12-Tone America” (Min Kwon, piano)
Composer's Note:
These are little pieces, the first one just a minute long, the second one two minutes. To me they sound friendly, expressive, and - especially the first one - playful.
I played some games writing them. 12-Tone America turns "America the Beautiful" (or a bit of it, anyway) into 12-tone music. America Slow Dance makes the song sound like a 1950s rock & roll ballad, the kind I danced to when I was in seventh grade. Maybe there's a connection, since in the 1950s, 12-tone music was big.
12-Tone America moves quickly! Blink, and it's lyrical. Then it's abrupt, then it's dark, and then it ends peacefully.
For America Slow Dance, I had to wrestle “America the Beautiful” into the chord progression standard in 1950s rock ballads (I, then VI, then II or IV, then V). Midway through, I pulled an old pop music trick, jacking the key up a half step. Which normally sets up a big climax, but I made it calm the music down.
How the 12-tone piece works: I constructed a row, which - combined with a transposition of its retrograde - gave me the first four notes of the tune. They jump out three times, each time followed by one of the blink-and-you'll-miss-them sections, the lyrical, jagged, and dark ones. Each is a free fantasy, built from the leftover notes in the forms of the row that gave me the tune.
Then comes the peaceful conclusion, in which you'll hear repeated low E flats. These are a tribute to Webern, my favorite 12-tone composer, whose Variations for Piano has repeated low E flats at the end.
I love these composer’s games. But they matter only if you care about them. And they wouldn't matter at all if the pieces weren't good to hear, if they didn't sound (at least to me) friendly, expressive, and playful.
About Greg Sandow:
I’ve been a composer, long ago a singer, and also a critic, one of very few with a national reputation for writing about both classical music and pop. In recent years my specialty has been the future of classical music, which I’ve addressed as a writer, a public speaker in the U.S. and abroad, as a teacher and as a consultant, and by doing projects with major orchestras. Since 1997 I’ve taught graduate courses at Juilliard, one on the future of classical music and the other about how to speak and write about music. My favorite music includes both bel canto opera and Bob Dylan. And I think classical music can close the gap between itself and the rest of the world in part by accepting popular culture as its equal - an idea, in my view, that ought to be obvious, if you spend time outside the classical music world.
More: As a critic, two of my specialties were opera, and the far edge of new classical music, in a landscape where Steve Reich and Philip Glass ranked as established masters. For awhile I also passed as an authority on hiphop, and was the first journalist ever to write about the important gangsta rap group N.W.A. Two of my happiest moments as a journalist were when I persuaded Ice-T not to say homophobic things at his shows, and when I inspired the Pet Shop Boys to create one of their slyest, most masterful songs, their mashup of Frankie Valli and U2.
My writing appeared in the Village Voice, once New York’s most important weekly paper, in the Wall Street Journal, and in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, a now-defunct daily where I was chief pop music critic. I was also music critic and Senior Music Editor at Entertainment Weekly. Among my public appearances have been keynote talks at conferences in Australia, the Netherlands, and the US; commencement speeches at Eastman and the Longy School of Music; workshops given at League of American Orchestras conferences; and many panel discussions, with organizations ranging from major orchestras to a hard rock and heavy metal convention.
As a composer, I’m not always active, but when I do emerge, I’ve had notable success. In the past I’ve written four operas, all successfully performed (though one only in workshops), and I had an evening of my music at the Music Center at Strathmore. Plus performances by (among other organizations) the Pittsburgh Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony, and the Fine Arts Quartet, which gave the first public performance of a string quartet I wrote as a surprise birthday present for my wife, and was first heard in our living room.
My wife is Anne Midgette, formerly the chief classical music critic for the Washington Post (and an outstanding one, which isn’t only my opinion). We live in a big house in DC with our 9 year-old son, who has no use for classical music, but who discovered Billie Eilish before I did.
For more information on Min Kwon’s America/Beautiful project, visit www.america-beautiful.com/.
These are little pieces, the first one just a minute long, the second one two minutes. To me they sound friendly, expressive, and - especially the first one - playful.
I played some games writing them. 12-Tone America turns "America the Beautiful" (or a bit of it, anyway) into 12-tone music. America Slow Dance makes the song sound like a 1950s rock & roll ballad, the kind I danced to when I was in seventh grade. Maybe there's a connection, since in the 1950s, 12-tone music was big.
12-Tone America moves quickly! Blink, and it's lyrical. Then it's abrupt, then it's dark, and then it ends peacefully.
For America Slow Dance, I had to wrestle “America the Beautiful” into the chord progression standard in 1950s rock ballads (I, then VI, then II or IV, then V). Midway through, I pulled an old pop music trick, jacking the key up a half step. Which normally sets up a big climax, but I made it calm the music down.
How the 12-tone piece works: I constructed a row, which - combined with a transposition of its retrograde - gave me the first four notes of the tune. They jump out three times, each time followed by one of the blink-and-you'll-miss-them sections, the lyrical, jagged, and dark ones. Each is a free fantasy, built from the leftover notes in the forms of the row that gave me the tune.
Then comes the peaceful conclusion, in which you'll hear repeated low E flats. These are a tribute to Webern, my favorite 12-tone composer, whose Variations for Piano has repeated low E flats at the end.
I love these composer’s games. But they matter only if you care about them. And they wouldn't matter at all if the pieces weren't good to hear, if they didn't sound (at least to me) friendly, expressive, and playful.
About Greg Sandow:
I’ve been a composer, long ago a singer, and also a critic, one of very few with a national reputation for writing about both classical music and pop. In recent years my specialty has been the future of classical music, which I’ve addressed as a writer, a public speaker in the U.S. and abroad, as a teacher and as a consultant, and by doing projects with major orchestras. Since 1997 I’ve taught graduate courses at Juilliard, one on the future of classical music and the other about how to speak and write about music. My favorite music includes both bel canto opera and Bob Dylan. And I think classical music can close the gap between itself and the rest of the world in part by accepting popular culture as its equal - an idea, in my view, that ought to be obvious, if you spend time outside the classical music world.
More: As a critic, two of my specialties were opera, and the far edge of new classical music, in a landscape where Steve Reich and Philip Glass ranked as established masters. For awhile I also passed as an authority on hiphop, and was the first journalist ever to write about the important gangsta rap group N.W.A. Two of my happiest moments as a journalist were when I persuaded Ice-T not to say homophobic things at his shows, and when I inspired the Pet Shop Boys to create one of their slyest, most masterful songs, their mashup of Frankie Valli and U2.
My writing appeared in the Village Voice, once New York’s most important weekly paper, in the Wall Street Journal, and in the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, a now-defunct daily where I was chief pop music critic. I was also music critic and Senior Music Editor at Entertainment Weekly. Among my public appearances have been keynote talks at conferences in Australia, the Netherlands, and the US; commencement speeches at Eastman and the Longy School of Music; workshops given at League of American Orchestras conferences; and many panel discussions, with organizations ranging from major orchestras to a hard rock and heavy metal convention.
As a composer, I’m not always active, but when I do emerge, I’ve had notable success. In the past I’ve written four operas, all successfully performed (though one only in workshops), and I had an evening of my music at the Music Center at Strathmore. Plus performances by (among other organizations) the Pittsburgh Symphony, the South Dakota Symphony, and the Fine Arts Quartet, which gave the first public performance of a string quartet I wrote as a surprise birthday present for my wife, and was first heard in our living room.
My wife is Anne Midgette, formerly the chief classical music critic for the Washington Post (and an outstanding one, which isn’t only my opinion). We live in a big house in DC with our 9 year-old son, who has no use for classical music, but who discovered Billie Eilish before I did.
For more information on Min Kwon’s America/Beautiful project, visit www.america-beautiful.com/.
Переглядів: 377
Відео
America/Beautiful - Derrick Skye: “Woven, Gesture, Flow” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 6103 роки тому
Composer's Note: My work aims to promote cross-cultural understanding and communication between communities and artists of different backgrounds, through compositions that build bridges between instruments, genres, cultures, and people. I sometimes term this compositional process as a musical equivalent of linguistic “code-switching,” where a speaker engages with two or more languages or dialec...
America/Beautiful - Terry Riley: “Crown of Brotherhood” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 4643 роки тому
Composer's Note: As patriotic anthems go, this is actually a pretty good tune as Ray Charles reveals. The individual 6 “varieties” (I like using the term varieties instead of variations ) all have their own titles as well and are in various stages of completion. Spacious Majesties Blue America Crown of Brotherhood Rag Shining Seas Chromatic Kafka The Grace Shed About Terry Riley: California C...
America/Beautiful - Gyan Riley: “Endure” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3493 роки тому
Composer's Note: Our democracy is both strong yet fragile, at its core backed by the will of our people yet always prone to sabotage. This piece is built on the first 4 notes of the original song’s opening melody, which reflect both this delicate and powerful nature. About Gyan Riley: “Gyan Riley is a one-man American-music machine, amicably ranging across the fields of jazz, world music, and...
![America/Beautiful - Shulamit Ran: “America Summer 2020 [the Beautiful]” (Min Kwon, piano)](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/fOOoMviMGrE/mqdefault.jpg)
America/Beautiful - Shulamit Ran: “America Summer 2020 [the Beautiful]” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 6513 роки тому
Composer's Note "Min Kwon’s “America the Beautiful” project was not the first time pre-existing musical materials were to be at the core of a challenge I took on as composer. Prior commissions of this nature brought me face-to-face with Bach’s Art of Fugue, the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Ninth, and a signature viola moment in Berio’s Folk Songs as “source materials” for new compositions. I lov...
America/Beautiful - Judith Lang Zaimont: “in darkness veiled” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 7093 роки тому
Composer's Note My variation is "in darkness veiled" a pianistic nocturne in three panels with a tempestuous middle. Lush in textures with hints of the tune's motives, covering all registers, and evaporating upward at the close. About Judith Lang Zaimont Judith Lang Zaimont is internationally recognized for her music’s emotion, strength, color sensitivity, and dynamism. A Guggenheim Foundation ...
America/Beautiful - Liliya Ugay: “The Beautiful” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 7923 роки тому
Composer's Note "The Beautiful" is my personal take on America the Beautiful hymn. What is America for me as an immigrant? I moved here ten years ago in search of artistic freedom, for the large country that represents a great variety and multiplicity of voices. I moved here expecting that no matter what my artistic choices would be I could find a community that would appreciate my craft and sh...
America/Beautiful - Christopher Trapani: “Thine Every Flaw” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3473 роки тому
Composer's Note Thine Every Flaw takes its title from a later verse of "America the Beautiful." It is primarily a 4-voice hymn that develops the melody's third phrase, resettled with unorthodox harmonic rules. The calm homophonic texture is broken by staccato interjections, then an abrupt climax that starts grandiose but begins to drag. It is an invocation for self-examination and repair, finis...
America/Beautiful - Huang Ruo: “Meditation on 'America the Beautiful'” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 5773 роки тому
Composer's Note “Nothing can dim the light that shines from within.” - Maya Angelou About Huang Ruo Composer Huang Ruo has been lauded by The New York Times for having “a distinctive style.” His vibrant and inventive musical voice draws equal inspiration from Chinese ancient and folk music, Western avant-garde, experimental, noise, natural and processed sound, rock, and jazz to create a seamles...
America/Beautiful - Gity Razaz: “Beauty of America” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 2793 роки тому
Composer's Note "America the Beautiful" has attained such a degree of cultural ubiquity that we can lose sight of the beleaguered hopefulness of the lyrics and weight of the melodic line. My piece "Beauty of America" was my attempt to color and subvert the familiarity of the melody with harmonies and counterpoint that put the complex poetry of the song front and center, to illustrate that it is...
America/Beautiful - Jessica Meyer: “Halcyon Skies” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 2523 роки тому
Composer's Note The song we know as "America the Beautiful" originated as a poem, written by a woman in her 30's named Katharine Lee Bates. While she was teaching at Colorado College, she and her colleagues took a trip up to Pikes Peak via prairie wagon and mules in July of 1893. Having traveled across the country by train to get to this teaching post, she was already taken with the variety of ...
America/Beautiful - Miya Masaoka: “Praying for a Sign” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 4193 роки тому
Composer's Note This piece was composed during the lockdown restrictions during the Pandemic, November 202, in Berlin Germany. While in Quarantine, I wrote this piece, while in pain and grief for a friend I knew and those I didn’t know, and for the precariousness of the state of the world, and America. I was having a hard time, but nothing like others, and certainly not compared to my parents w...
America/Beautiful - David Serkin Ludwig: “Qaddiš” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3353 роки тому
Composer's Note “I wrote “Qaddiš” (Kaddish) after the passing of Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her memory. Justice Ginsburg represented the best of America, and so it was a natural fit with this fascinating project to incorporate America the Beautiful (which appears thinly veiled in the first bars of the piece). Also woven into the fabric of the piece is the Qaddiš - the traditional Jewish prayer for ...
America/Beautiful - Viet Cuong: “America the Beautiful: Echo Chamber” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 6183 роки тому
Composer's Note The melody is dropped into a reverberant atmosphere, where every note swirls around its own echo and the echo of others. About Viet Cuong Called “alluring” and “wildly inventive” by The New York Times, the “irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) music of American composer Viet Cuong has been commissioned and performed on six continents by musicians and ensembles such as Sō Per...
America/Beautiful - Michael Gandolfi: “Of Liberating Strife” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3723 роки тому
About the Piece When pianist Min Kwon invited me to compose a short piece for her America / Beautiful e pluribus unum project, one that seeks to commission over seventy composers to contribute to “a 21st century American Diabelli Variations” that will “celebrate this country’s contributions to the field of classical music,” I was immediately interested. I have written several works inspired by ...
America/Beautiful - Melinda Wagner: “Swinging in My Yard: an American reverie” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3323 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Melinda Wagner: “Swinging in My Yard: an American reverie” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Jeff Scott: “Purple Mountains” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3823 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Jeff Scott: “Purple Mountains” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Paul Schoenfeld: “Aramaic Fuel Tube” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 4703 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Paul Schoenfeld: “Aramaic Fuel Tube” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Daniel Bernard Roumain: “america, NEVER beautiful” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 5013 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Daniel Bernard Roumain: “america, NEVER beautiful” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Dave Ragland: “A Most Glorious Grace” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3263 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Dave Ragland: “A Most Glorious Grace” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Daniel Newman-Lessler: “Kintsugi” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 2353 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Daniel Newman-Lessler: “Kintsugi” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Qasim Naqvi: “America The” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 2383 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Qasim Naqvi: “America The” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - John Musto: “Habanera” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3663 роки тому
America/Beautiful - John Musto: “Habanera” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Lei Liang: “America the Beautiful …devastatingly quiet…” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3393 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Lei Liang: “America the Beautiful …devastatingly quiet…” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Libby Larsen: “Amber (Variation)” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 4123 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Libby Larsen: “Amber (Variation)” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Jiyoung Ko: “My America” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3253 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Jiyoung Ko: “My America” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Texu Kim: “America the Polarized” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3253 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Texu Kim: “America the Polarized” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Aaron Jay Kernis: “Epilogue: End of the Dream” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3603 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Aaron Jay Kernis: “Epilogue: End of the Dream” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - JP Jofre: “Air of America” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 2213 роки тому
America/Beautiful - JP Jofre: “Air of America” (Min Kwon, piano)
America/Beautiful - Kristjan Järvi: “Look up America” (Min Kwon, piano)
Переглядів 3133 роки тому
America/Beautiful - Kristjan Järvi: “Look up America” (Min Kwon, piano)
클래식 라디오에서 선생님 연주곡 듣고 반했습니다. 아름다운 연주 고맙습니다~🎉
Oh my. This is a gorgeous piece…and a stunning video. Brava, bravi!
스코틀랜드학파같은데😊
섹시한콘서트야 아름다운밤이고
잘친다 미국의여유시간에더욱듣기좋다
An amazing piece--but not surprising from this exceptional composer!
Very refined ❤
Just heard this in a live performance. Absolutely inspiring!
Mishna is followed by the Gemara of the well known tune...
Thank you so much for commissioning so much good piano music. It’s very important for our tradition. I wish more people knew about this project!
Beautiful.
WILD
Dang this is amazing
This is absolutely gorgeous!! I am a master’s student in piano performance and I’d love to learn this piece-is there anywhere I can find the sheet music? Thank you!
This is astounding. I listened to the whole thing, twice. Just wondrous and real and terrifying and virtuoso and loving.
Loved the piece! What’s the venue?
Beautiful music, beautifully played!
Lovely performance in an exquisite setting. This video deserves to be seen widely. Fitting quotation in the piece from Chick Corea's Children's Song. ua-cam.com/video/_f196xWR6LE/v-deo.html
Very glad I discovered this.
Beautiful, awesome.
Sweet!
794v3 vun.fyi
Lovely, Charles!
Thank you, Luis! Much appreciated. 😊
Fun!
Cool!
Lovely setting, captivating music. Appreciate your views on patriotism too.
Supposedly Samuel Adler retired from composing in 2016. Obviously he’s back! Bravi Samuel and Min.
👏👏👏👏💐💐bravo!!
👏👏👏👏👏💐💐bravo!!
Great job
💐💐💐💐 beautiful !!
0:11 Intro 2:02 Jessica Meyer 7:00 Michael Gandolfi 12:28 Miya Masaoka 21:10 Gyan Riley 25:01 Nico Muhly 29:28 Theo Chandler 32:24 Fred Hersch 36:28 Bruce Adolphe 40:02 John Musto 43:17 Leila Adu-Gilmore 47:49 Kristjan Järvi 57:48 Jonathan Bailey Holland 1:01:02 JP Jofre 1:05:41 Jiyoung Ko 1:10:19 Timo Andres
0:15 Intro 1:58 Reena Esmail 7:00 George Lewis 12:23 Jonathan Berger 18:52 Richard Danielpour 24:35 Michael Gilbertson 29:38 Gity Razaz 34:34 Jake Heggie 37:50 Peter Boyer 40:24 Chris Trapani 44:15 Lei Liang 49:33 Terry Riley 57:42 Daniel Newman-Lessler 1:01:37 David Serkin Ludwig 1:05:21 Daniel Bernard Roumain 1:10:51 Qasim Naqvi 1:14:47 Vijay Iyer
0:20 Intro 1:56 Aaron Jay Kernis 9:50 Pierre Jalbert 11:53 Huang Ruo 19:01 Schulamit Ran 23:06 Jeff Scott 26:10 Judith Lang Zaimont 32:27 Stephen Hartke 37:19 Texu Kim 41:28 Texu Kim Trio 43:38 Melinda Wagner 46:28 Tyson Davis 51:21 Juri Seo 56:25 Charles Coleman 1:00:56 Greg Sandow 1:04:30 Greg Sandow 1:06:00 Robert Sirota 1:09:53 Samuel Zyman
0:26 Intro 2:21 Samuel Adler 5:46 Libby Larsen 8:40 John Harbison 10:27 Avner Dorman 15:10 Kenji Bunch 18:46 Viet Cuong 22:29 Lilya Ugay 28:35 Andrew Bambridge 32:13 Paul Schoenfeld 36:50 Hannah Lash 42:10 Derrick Skye 48:32 David Ragland
It feels so fitting to me how much emotion - dominantly turbulent and pained - these composers poured into their works.
You really are an amazing pianist! You're so talented! You nailed it 😍🤩❤️
BRAVO TUTTI! Superb music and piano playing! Three cheers to all!
It looks like Min Kwon is performing Michael Gilbertson-Grace's work at the Shalin Liu in Rockport, MA, a venue of indescribable beauty. Thank you to Min Kwon for her brilliant idea, and all the composers for the chance to reflect on Katherine Lee Bates' piece performed in so many varied ways. Wouldn't it be great if it became our national anthem?
These compositions are absolutely gorgeous! What a wonderful pianist you are, too! I truly loved listening and watching you perform!
Bravo. Ms. Kwon! This is fantastic! I enjoyed watching you play as much as I loved hearing the beautiful music you performed. Great job! I absolutely loved these amazing and delightful pieces of musical art! I want all of my best students to be able to play any or all of these pieces. Wonderful!
Absolutely love this beautiful Composition of America The Beautiful, and the way you played it certainly lives up to the name! Gorgeous!
Beautiful, thank you!
This was a day of incredibly diverse compositions and performance styles! The addition of other instruments, playing only with left hand. and playing with elbows and fists all made for a very entertaining day!
Another fascinating, challenging, inspiring and, yes, beautiful collection of music. You should be very proud of being the catalyst of this great work of art.
What a fabulous enterprise. Thank you so much to all the contributors for sharing their talents and efforts. Would love to know if/when these might be available to purchase and replay for my students and friends. Do not want to rip them off of UA-cam as I think all of you should get appropriate credit and recompense. Thank you again.
As an aside, thank you for introducing me to such fantastic artist/composers. Have found searching for them on Spotify and other services introduced me to a whole new world of music that sadly is not readily found on the airwaves otherwise.
Amazing variations. Fantastic.
THEO CHANDLER: UNDIMMED BY TEARS Min Kwon - Piano & CME Young Artists Brian Hong - Violin Ari Evan - Cello Graeme Steele Johnson - Clarinet
Great show
🌸🌸🌺🌺💐💐💐 🌸🌸🌺🌺💐💐💐 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏