nF presents – Co. Ko. performed by Jihye Chang

Jihye Chang

performs and presents

Co. Ko.

Contemporary Korean Piano Music

April 6th, 2024 – 7:00pm

Program

Arirang Rhapsody (2006) – Jisoo Lee

Silver Bells! (2023) – Sungji Hong

  • written for Jihye Chang

Chorale Fantasy IV: Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott (2018) – Shinuh Lee

  • Written for Jihye Chang and her Continuum 88 project

Buddhist Dance (1998) – Young-Jo Lee

I thirst (2008) – Younghi Pagh-Paan

Piano Etude No. 4 – “Scalen” (1995/2003) – Unsuk Chin

Piano Etude “Nam-Ok Lee” (2021) – Eun Young Lee

Co.-Ko. – un poco Loco (2017) – Texu Kim

  1. Sangietto
  2. Emperor of Ballads
  3. Jingle Up!

Performer Bio

Pianist Jihye Chang is an internationally active performer, educator, and new music specialist. She has received the Henry Kohn Award from Tanglewood Music Center, the Honorary Fellowship from Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, the Yvar Mikhashoff Pianist-Composer Commissioning Award (with Derek Johnson), Grand Prize from Samick Piano Competition, and Barlow Endowment’s commissioning award (with Christian Gentry). As a devoted interpreter and promoter of contemporary music, Chang has premiered more than 40 works since 2016, many of them written for her. She premiered the Piano Concerto No. 2 by Robert L. Aldridge at the Brevard Music Festival in 2018 and recently premiered “Igerthi,” a new piano concertowritten for her by Sungji Hong, with the Intersection Music in Nashville. This concerto was written with the support of the Guggenheim foundation.  Her recordings can be found on Albany, Centaur and Ravello/Parma label.

Since 2020 she has been invited to lead residencies at composition departments at UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music, Tufts University, University of North Texas, and Tulane University as well as online residencies at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, the Mason Gross School of Arts at Rutgers University, Texas Christian University, and Walnut Hill Academy of Arts. She has also been invited to new music festivals and series at Studio 2021 Seoul National University, University of Louisville, Ball State University, and Brandeis University. 

Her research and performance activities have focused on piano etudes, and she has given recitals and lectures on this topic at various institutions and festivals, including a hugely successful collaboration with the Brevard composition area since 2016 called “BMC Etude Project.” In 2021, eight composers based on Boston composed new piano etudes for her, and they were premiered on her YouTube channel. Interviews with the composers can be found on her Facebook page. These etudes were recorded at the Tufts University and will be released in September 2024 on New Focus label. 

Another ongoing project is her multi-year solo piano project titled “Continuum 88,” an exploration of the solo piano literature in collaboration with young composers from Australia, Korea, and U.S.A., with concerts in Korea, Taiwan, and various venues in the U. S. A. Eight new works have been created for this project since 2016, and she has performed them in performing venues and academic institutions such as MIT, UCLA, Old First Concert Series of San Francisco, Seoul National University, and Lipscomb College, among others. Chang also regularly performs programs of music by living women composers and Korean composers, which she has presented at C4NM San Francisco, UC Berkeley, TCU, and Boston Conservatory. Her research and performance interest in diversity and inclusion has culminated into a new class on music by Korean composers, which she taught at FSU as well as guest lectures at several universities across the country. 

Chang is on the piano faculty of the Brevard Music Center and is a lecturer at Florida State University. She is also the director of Piano Intensive Bulgaria. Her music and musings can be found on her instagram and YouTube channel.


nF Acknowledgements

nienteForte would like to give heartfelt thanks to our Season 14 donors and sponsors. We would also like to give acknowledge the following people and organizations who have offered their time and resources to make this season possible:

  • Jeff Albert
  • Michael Batt
  • Kari Bersharse
  • Shivani Bondada
  • Maxwell Dulaney
  • Samantha Eroche
  • Evan Hammond
  • Megan Ihnen
  • Dylan Parrilla-Koester
  • Hayden Outlaw
  • Heather Penton
  • Phillip Schuessler
  • Daniel Sharp
  • Rick Snow
  • Andrew Szypula
  • Alan Theisen
  • Kappa Kappa Psi Rho Chapter
  • Marigny Opera House
  • Tulane University’s Music and Science Technology Program
  • Versipel New Music

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