Jin Hi Kim
Encyclopedia
Kim Jin-Hi is a geomungo
player and composer.
She is known for introducing the geomungo (a Korean bass zither, also spelled komungo) to the wider world through her contemporary
chamber and orchestral compositions and large-scale multimedia
pieces, as well as her extensive work in avant-garde
and cross-cultural free improvisation
.
in South Korea in 1973, at the age of 16, at her father's recommendation. She received a full scholarship to study at South Korea's first national high school for Korean traditional music , one of 60 students accepted in the first year. There, she learned both court and folk styles of singing, drumming, and bamboo flutes (both vertical and transverse), and selected the geomungo
(an ancient fretted bass zither with six silk strings that are plucked with a thin bamboo stick) as her major instrument. Her selection of the instrument was audacious; dating to the fourth century, the geomungo had been favored particularly by male Confucian
scholars, and was generally not played by women.
She continued her studies with National Living Treasures from The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts
in Seoul
, as well as with Korea's leading ethnomusicologists, eventually earning a B.A. degree in Korean traditional music from Seoul National University
in 1980.
for one year, then the San Francisco Music and Art Institute for another year, then transferred to Mills College
in Oakland, California
, where she studied for two years and received an MFA in electronic music and composition in 1985. Her composition instructors included John Adams
, Lou Harrison
, Terry Riley
, David Rosenboom
, and Larry Polansky
.
While in California, she also studied the Chinese guqin
(an ancient 7-stringed zither believed to be related to the geomungo) and Indian bansuri
(bamboo flute) from G. S. Sachdev
, and began to investigate the possibility of combining her music with the musics of other cultures.
During the 1980s, she regularly attended the New Music America
festival, where she met many noted contemporary composers. From approximately 1982 to 1988, she worked as a correspondent, writing over 30 articles about contemporary American composers for Eumak Dong-A, a Korean monthly music magazine published by the Dong-A Daily News
in 1989 and joined the one week residency with John Cage
and selected leading composers.
She has also improvised with Henry Kaiser
, Elliott Sharp
, Bill Frisell
, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker
, Joseph Celli
, Malcolm Goldstein
, Eugene Chadbourne
, Oliver Lake
, Pointless Orchestra, William Parker
, James Newton
, Reggie Workman
, Mark Dresser
, Joëlle Léandre
, Jane Ira Bloom
, Hans Reichel
, Rüdiger Carl, and many other prominent figures in new music and avant-garde jazz
.
Kim has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.
In 2001 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
, in the music/sound category.http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grant_recipients/hikim.html
Kim's "Living Tones" compositions have been performed by the American Composers Orchestra
, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project
, the KBS Symphony (Korea), the Kronos Quartet
, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
, the Xenakis Ensemble
(Holland), Zeitgeist
, and the Kairos String Quartet (Berlin).
She has also created works combining video with electroacoustic music, as well as large scale multimedia performance pieces. Her Dragon Bond Rite (1997) juxtaposed diverse masked dance traditions and music from India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Tuva, and the United States.
Her Dong Dong Touching The Moons (2000), a multi-media lunar ritual, interfaced electric geomungo, Indian tabla
, a Korean kagok singer, and an Indian kathak
dancer with a computer-controlled MIDI system, sensors, and digital animation.
Sanjo Ecstasy, for electric geomungo, gayageum
, haegum, janggo, drum set
, and shaman
trance dancer, was premiered at the Sanjo Festival in Jeonju
, South Korea in 2003.
In 2005 she created One Sky, a work for chamber string orchestra and electric geomungo dedicated to the reunification of North and South Korea, which was performed by the Great Mountain Music Festival Orchestra, with Kim as soloist, at the Korean Demilitarized Zone
(DMZ); the work was broadcast on KBS TV.http://www.theworld.org/globalhits/2005/08/03.shtml
. With the Toronto instrument builder Joseph Yanuziello, Kim developed (in 1999) and plays the world's only electric geomungo,photo with which she has created numerous interactive pieces with a MIDI computer system using MAX/MSP.http://www.yanuziello.com/gallery/indexGallery.html An earlier prototype version of the instrument was designed in 1989 by the Los Angeles instrument builder Danny Ferrington.
and serves as Artistic Director of International Performing Arts, Inc.
Her work was documented on an hour-long episode of the KBS television program Han Nation .http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/hannation/vod/1257697_1195.html She also appeared in the MBC
TV national broadcast of the film 100 Years of Sanjo. Her autobiography, covering her 25-year performing career, is scheduled to be published (in the Korean language) in 2007.
Geomungo
The geomungo or hyeongeum is a traditional Korean stringed musical instrument of the zither family of instruments with both bridges and frets...
player and composer.
She is known for introducing the geomungo (a Korean bass zither, also spelled komungo) to the wider world through her contemporary
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
chamber and orchestral compositions and large-scale multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
pieces, as well as her extensive work in avant-garde
Avant-garde
Avant-garde means "advance guard" or "vanguard". The adjective form is used in English to refer to people or works that are experimental or innovative, particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics....
and cross-cultural free improvisation
Free improvisation
Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the logic or inclination of the musician involved. The term can refer to both a technique and as a recognizable genre in its own right....
.
Early life
She began studies of traditional Korean musicKorean music
Traditional Korean music includes both the folk, vocal, religious and ritual music styles of the Korean people. Korean music, along with arts, painting, and sculpture has been practiced since prehistoric times....
in South Korea in 1973, at the age of 16, at her father's recommendation. She received a full scholarship to study at South Korea's first national high school for Korean traditional music , one of 60 students accepted in the first year. There, she learned both court and folk styles of singing, drumming, and bamboo flutes (both vertical and transverse), and selected the geomungo
Geomungo
The geomungo or hyeongeum is a traditional Korean stringed musical instrument of the zither family of instruments with both bridges and frets...
(an ancient fretted bass zither with six silk strings that are plucked with a thin bamboo stick) as her major instrument. Her selection of the instrument was audacious; dating to the fourth century, the geomungo had been favored particularly by male Confucian
Korean Confucianism
Korean Confucianism is the form of Confucianism developed in Korea. One of the most substantial influences in Korean intellectual history was the introduction of Confucian thought as part of the cultural influence from China...
scholars, and was generally not played by women.
She continued her studies with National Living Treasures from The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts
The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts
National Gugak Center, located in Seoul, South Korea, is the primary institution of learning for Korean traditional music.With a history dating back to the Eumseongseo music institute of the Silla kingdom in the 7th century, The National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts was founded...
in Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
, as well as with Korea's leading ethnomusicologists, eventually earning a B.A. degree in Korean traditional music from Seoul National University
Seoul National University
Seoul National University , colloquially known in Korean as Seoul-dae , is a national research university in Seoul, Korea, ranked 24th in the world in publications in an analysis of data from the Science Citation Index, 7th in Asia and 42nd in the world by the 2011 QS World University Rankings...
in 1980.
Move to the United States
Interested in learning more about the musics of other cultures but aware that this would not be possible in Korea, she emigrated in August 1980 to the United States, where she immersed herself in many different world musics. She first attended the San Francisco Conservatory of MusicSan Francisco Conservatory of Music
San Francisco Conservatory of Music, formerly the California Conservatory of Music, founded in 1917, is a music school, with an enrollment of about 400 students. It was launched by Ada Clement and Lillian Hodgehead in the remodeled home of Lillian's parents on Sacramento Street. It was called the...
for one year, then the San Francisco Music and Art Institute for another year, then transferred to Mills College
Mills College
Mills College is an independent liberal arts women's college founded in 1852 that offers bachelor's degrees to women and graduate degrees and certificates to women and men. Located in Oakland, California, Mills was the first women's college west of the Rockies. The institution was initially founded...
in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
, where she studied for two years and received an MFA in electronic music and composition in 1985. Her composition instructors included John Adams
John Coolidge Adams
John Coolidge Adams is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer with strong roots in minimalism. His best-known works include Short Ride in a Fast Machine , On the Transmigration of Souls , a choral piece commemorating the victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks , and Shaker...
, Lou Harrison
Lou Harrison
Lou Silver Harrison was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison (May 14, 1917 – February 2, 2003) was an American composer. He was a student of Henry Cowell, Arnold Schoenberg, and K. P. H. Notoprojo Lou Silver Harrison...
, Terry Riley
Terry Riley
Terrence Mitchell Riley, is an American composer intrinsically associated with the minimalist school of Western classical music and was a pioneer of the movement...
, David Rosenboom
David Rosenboom
David Rosenboom is an American composer and a pioneer in the use of neurofeedback, cross-cultural collaborations and compositional algorithms...
, and Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky
Larry Polansky is a composer, guitarist, mandolinist, and a professor at Dartmouth College. He is a founding member and co-director of . He co-wrote HMSL with Phil Burk and David Rosenboom....
.
While in California, she also studied the Chinese guqin
Guqin
The guqin is the modern name for a plucked seven-string Chinese musical instrument of the zither family...
(an ancient 7-stringed zither believed to be related to the geomungo) and Indian bansuri
Bansuri
The bansuri is a transverse alto flute of Bangladesh, India and Nepal made from a single hollow shaft of bamboo with six or seven finger holes. An ancient musical instrument associated with cowherds and the pastoral tradition, it is intimately linked to the love story of Krishna and Radha, and is...
(bamboo flute) from G. S. Sachdev
G. S. Sachdev
G. S. Sachdev is an Indian performer of the bansuri . He performs Hindustani classical music.Among his students are Oscar van Dillen and Jin Hi Kim.-Discography:*Spirit*Live in Concert...
, and began to investigate the possibility of combining her music with the musics of other cultures.
During the 1980s, she regularly attended the New Music America
New Music America
New Music America was an American festival of experimental or Downtown new music.The festival began at The Kitchen in New York City in 1979. In this first year, the festival was actually called New Music New York....
festival, where she met many noted contemporary composers. From approximately 1982 to 1988, she worked as a correspondent, writing over 30 articles about contemporary American composers for Eumak Dong-A, a Korean monthly music magazine published by the Dong-A Daily News
Musical career
This initial interest led to extensive work in cross-cultural performance and improvisation, which has remained a consistent imperative in her work. She has performed and recorded with musicians from Senegal, Australia, India, Japan, Tuva, Vietnam, Korea, China, and many other nations, often with her cross-cultural ensemble No World Improvisations. Plunged into the American avant-garde music scene, she was invited to the Composer-to-Composer festival in Telluride, ColoradoTelluride, Colorado
The town of Telluride is the county seat and most populous town of San Miguel County in the southwestern portion of the U.S. state of Colorado. The town is a former silver mining camp on the San Miguel River in the western San Juan Mountains...
in 1989 and joined the one week residency with John Cage
John Cage
John Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, music theorist, writer, philosopher and artist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde...
and selected leading composers.
She has also improvised with Henry Kaiser
Henry Kaiser (musician)
Henry Kaiser is an American guitarist and composer.Recording and performing prolifically in many styles of music, Kaiser is a fixture on the San Francisco Bay Area music scene. He is considered a member of the "first generation" of American free improvisers.-Biography:His grandfather was the...
, Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp
Elliott Sharp is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, and performer.A central figure in the avant-garde and experimental music scene in New York City since the late 1970s, Sharp has released over eighty-five recordings ranging from blues, jazz, and orchestral music to noise, no wave rock,...
, Bill Frisell
Bill Frisell
William Richard "Bill" Frisell is an American guitarist and composer.One of the leading guitarists in jazz since the late 1980s, Frisell's eclectic music touches on progressive folk, classical music, country music, noise and more...
, Derek Bailey, Evan Parker
Evan Parker
Evan Shaw Parker is a British free-improvising saxophone player from the European free jazz scene.Recording and performing prolifically with many collaborators, Parker was a pivotal figure in the development of European free jazz and free improvisation, and has pioneered or substantially expanded...
, Joseph Celli
Joseph Celli
Joseph Celli is an American musician and composer specializing in contemporary and improvised music for oboe and English horn...
, Malcolm Goldstein
Malcolm Goldstein
Malcolm Goldstein is a composer, violinist and improviser who has been active in the presentation of new music and dance since the early 1960s. He received an M.A. in music composition from Columbia University in 1960, having studied with Otto Luening...
, Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne
Eugene Chadbourne is an American improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. Highly eclectic and unconventional, Chadbourne's most formative influence is free jazz. He has also been a reviewer for Allmusic and a contributor to Maximum RocknRoll.Chadbourne started out playing rock and roll guitar, but...
, Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake
Oliver Lake is an American jazz saxophonist, flutist, composer and poet. He is known mainly on alto saxophone but also performs on soprano saxophone and flute....
, Pointless Orchestra, William Parker
William Parker (musician)
William Parker is an American free jazz double bassist, poet and composer.-Biography:Parker was not formally trained as a classical player, though he did study with Jimmy Garrison, Richard Davis, and Wilbur Ware and learned the tradition. Parker is one of few jazz bassists who regularly plays arco...
, James Newton
James Newton
James W. Newton is an American jazz flautist, composer, and conductor.-Biography:From his earliest years, James Newton grew up immersed in the sounds of African American music, including urban blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel. In his early teens he played electric bass guitar, alto saxophone,...
, Reggie Workman
Reggie Workman
Reginald "Reggie" Workman is an American avant-garde jazz and hard bop double bassist, recognized for his work with both John Coltrane and Art Blakey....
, Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser
Mark Dresser is an American double bass player and composer.-Biography:He has performed and recorded with many of the luminaries of "new" jazz composition and improvisation. For ten years he performed with the Anthony Braxton Quartet, as well as diverse groups led by Ray Anderson, Tim Berne,...
, Joëlle Léandre
Joëlle Léandre
Joëlle Léandre is a double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation....
, Jane Ira Bloom
Jane Ira Bloom
Jane Ira Bloom is an American jazz soprano saxophonist and composer.-Biography:Bloom was born in Boston, Massachusetts. She began as a pianist and drummer, later switching to the alto saxophone, and eventually settling on the soprano saxophone as her primary instrument...
, Hans Reichel
Hans Reichel
Hans Reichel was a German improvisational guitarist, experimental luthier, inventor, and type designer.-Career:...
, Rüdiger Carl, and many other prominent figures in new music and avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz
Avant-garde jazz is a style of music and improvisation that combines avant-garde art music and composition with jazz. Avant-jazz often sounds very similar to free jazz, but differs in that, despite its distinct departure from traditional harmony, it has a predetermined structure over which ...
.
Kim has performed throughout the United States and Canada, as well as in Europe, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Russia.
In 2001 she was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts
Foundation for Contemporary Arts , originally known as Foundation for Contemporary Performance Arts, is a nonprofit based foundation in New York City founded by artists Jasper Johns , John Cage, Elaine de Kooning and others in 1963. FCA offers financial support and recognition to contemporary...
, in the music/sound category.http://www.foundationforcontemporaryarts.org/grant_recipients/hikim.html
Works
Kim's compositions for Asian and Western instruments (both alone and in combination) have as their central focus the exploration of the Korean concept of shigumse (or shigimse), the technique of ornamentation used in traditional vocal and instrumental music. Although the term's literal meaning is not known, in 1985 Kim began to use the term "living tones" to describe this attitude toward melodic material as she applied it in her work. Thus, her compositions use newly developed forms of notation to indicate various types of vibrato, pitch bends, etc. in order that, as in Korean traditional music, each musical tone is given a unique expression and development.Kim's "Living Tones" compositions have been performed by the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project
Boston Modern Orchestra Project
The Boston Modern Orchestra Project is a full professional orchestra in Boston, Massachusetts, and is widely recognized as the premiere orchestra in the United States dedicated exclusively to commissioning, performing, and recording new music of the 20th and 21st centuries...
, the KBS Symphony (Korea), the Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet
Kronos Quartet is a string quartet founded by violinist David Harrington in 1973 in Seattle, Washington. Since 1978, the quartet has been based in San Francisco, California. The longest-running combination of performers had Harrington and John Sherba on violin, Hank Dutt on viola, and Joan...
, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center
The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center is an American organization dedicated to the performance and promotion of chamber music. Its website states that it is "the nation’s premier repertory company for chamber music."...
, the Xenakis Ensemble
Xenakis Ensemble
The Xenakis Ensemble is a Dutch ensemble dedicated to the performance of contemporary classical music. Based in Middelburg, it is known as one of the few ensembles specializing in the works of the composer Iannis Xenakis...
(Holland), Zeitgeist
Zeitgeist (new music group)
Zeitgeist is an American contemporary classical music group based in Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was founded in 1977.Its instrumentation includes two percussion, piano, and woodwinds...
, and the Kairos String Quartet (Berlin).
She has also created works combining video with electroacoustic music, as well as large scale multimedia performance pieces. Her Dragon Bond Rite (1997) juxtaposed diverse masked dance traditions and music from India, Indonesia, Korea, Japan, Tuva, and the United States.
Her Dong Dong Touching The Moons (2000), a multi-media lunar ritual, interfaced electric geomungo, Indian tabla
Tabla
The tabla is a popular Indian percussion instrument used in Hindustani classical music and in popular and devotional music of the Indian subcontinent. The instrument consists of a pair of hand drums of contrasting sizes and timbres...
, a Korean kagok singer, and an Indian kathak
Kathak
Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...
dancer with a computer-controlled MIDI system, sensors, and digital animation.
Sanjo Ecstasy, for electric geomungo, gayageum
Gayageum
The gayageum or kayagum is a traditional Korean zither-like string instrument, with 12 strings, although more recently variants have been constructed with 21 or other numbers of strings. It is probably the best known traditional Korean musical instrument...
, haegum, janggo, drum set
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, and shaman
Korean shamanism
Korean shamanism, today known as Muism or sometimes Sinism , encompasses a variety of indigenous religious beliefs and practices of the Korean people and the Korean area...
trance dancer, was premiered at the Sanjo Festival in Jeonju
Jeonju
Jeonju is a city in South Korea, and the capital of Jeollabuk-do, or North Jeolla Province. It is an important tourist center famous for Korean food, historic buildings, sports activities and innovative festivals.- History :...
, South Korea in 2003.
In 2005 she created One Sky, a work for chamber string orchestra and electric geomungo dedicated to the reunification of North and South Korea, which was performed by the Great Mountain Music Festival Orchestra, with Kim as soloist, at the Korean Demilitarized Zone
Korean Demilitarized Zone
The Korean Demilitarized Zone is a strip of land running across the Korean Peninsula that serves as a buffer zone between North and South Korea. The DMZ cuts the Korean Peninsula roughly in half, crossing the 38th parallel on an angle, with the west end of the DMZ lying south of the parallel and...
(DMZ); the work was broadcast on KBS TV.http://www.theworld.org/globalhits/2005/08/03.shtml
Instruments
Kim's primary instrument is the geomungo, though she also plays Korean percussion instruments such as the jangguJanggu
The janggu or sometimes called seyogo is the most widely used drum used in the traditional music of Korea. It is available in most kinds, and consists of an hourglass-shaped body with two heads made from animal skin...
. With the Toronto instrument builder Joseph Yanuziello, Kim developed (in 1999) and plays the world's only electric geomungo,photo with which she has created numerous interactive pieces with a MIDI computer system using MAX/MSP.http://www.yanuziello.com/gallery/indexGallery.html An earlier prototype version of the instrument was designed in 1989 by the Los Angeles instrument builder Danny Ferrington.
Current activities
Kim lives in ConnecticutConnecticut
Connecticut is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, and the state of New York to the west and the south .Connecticut is named for the Connecticut River, the major U.S. river that approximately...
and serves as Artistic Director of International Performing Arts, Inc.
Her work was documented on an hour-long episode of the KBS television program Han Nation .http://www.kbs.co.kr/1tv/sisa/hannation/vod/1257697_1195.html She also appeared in the MBC
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation
Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC (Hangul : 문화방송주식회사, Munhwa Bangsong Jushikoesa) is one of four major national South Korean television and radio networks. Munhwa is the Korean word for "culture". Its flagship terrestrial television...
TV national broadcast of the film 100 Years of Sanjo. Her autobiography, covering her 25-year performing career, is scheduled to be published (in the Korean language) in 2007.
External links
- Jin Hi Kim official site
- Jin Hi Kim autobiography
- Jin Hi Kim interview
- Jin Hi Kim page from International Performing Arts
- Article from The New York Times
Interviews
Listening
- "Korean Music on Our Doorstep", from WNYC, 2003
- Radio piece about One Sky
Video
- Jin Hi Kim interview, from Heart to Heart program, Arirang TVArirang TVArirang TV is an international, English-language network based in Seoul, South Korea, operated by The Korea International Broadcasting Foundation...