Women composers and artists

April 21, 2003

Concert features international women composers and artists

The work of composer Shulamit Ran will be performed at a concert on April 23.

Aeri Ji will perform a solo work on the kayakeum (Korean zither).

UC Santa Cruz welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Shulamit Ran (Israel/U.S.) and colleagues Melissa Hui (Canada), Chan-Hae Lee (Korea), and Young-Ja Lee (Korea) on Wednesday, April 23, for a concert of contemporary music by prominent women in the world of contemporary music. The event will take place at 8 p.m. in the UCSC Music Center Recital Hall.

The concert will feature three American premieres: "Still" by Melissa Hui, "To Hwang Seong" by Chan-Hae Lee, and "Elegy" by Young-Ja Lee, as well as Shulamit Ran's 1987 "Concerto da Camera II" and Elinor Armer's "Api."

Hi Kyung Kim of UCSC's Music Department is decidedly enthusiastic about this event which is part of this month's Pacific Rim Music Festival. "We are very privileged to host such a respected group of composers and artists for this concert. Many of them have traveled great distances to be here this week," Kim emphasizes.

The four guest composers will be present for a special preconcert discussion in the Music Center Recital Hall from 7 -7:30 p.m.

The concert will be hosted by Chancellor M.R.C. Greenwood and the Korean Consul General, Jong-Hoon Kim, in honor of the Centennial Celebration of Korean Immigration to the U.S.

Among the featured performers are San Francisco's Parallèle Ensemble, conducted by UCSC professor of music Nicole Paiement, and three highly acclaimed Korean guest artists who will contribute traditional instrumentation to the contemporary program. Korean dancer and percussionist Eun-Ha Park will perform a traditional Korean piece, Pansori singer You-Kyong Kim will join the Parallèle Ensemble in Chan-Hae Lee's "To Hwang Seong," and Aeri Ji will perform Young-Ja Lee's "Elegy," a solo work featuring the "kayakeum" (Korean zither).

Wednesday's concert is a special collaboration with the International Women Composers' Festival held earlier this month (April 8-12) in Seoul, Korea. Professor Paiement traveled to Seou to conduct new works by women composers from around the globe; Wednesday's program features several pieces which were presented at the International Women Composers' Festival.

Paiement remarks that her recent experience at the festival in Seoul underscored for her that music truly engenders a broader understanding of world cultures. "I was working with a Japanese orchestra, with Korean composers and singers, German artists . . . and it was strikingly clear, especially in these times, that music really is a unifying language." Paiement adds, "It's an honor that a part of that important festival is being presented in Santa Cruz and the Bay Area."

The "World Women in Music Today" concert travels to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Forum in San Francisco on Thursday, April 24, and to UC Davis's Mondavi Center on Friday, April 25, for two encore performances.

Tickets are $12 general, $10 seniors, $8 students. To purchase tickets, contact the UCSC Ticket Office at (831) 459-2159. For further information about the concert, call (831) 459-2787.

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