[Press Clipping] Wonkak Kim puts wow power into enhake

Wonkak Kim puts wow power into enhake

FSU quartet takes its name from the Seminole word for sound

Written by Andrea Personett 
SPECIAL TO THE DEMOCRAT

He was 15 years old when he began playing the clarinet. Today, at 25, Wonkak Kim has two Carnegie Hall appearances under his belt and has worked with the likes of Yo-Yo Ma.

The award-winning Tallahassee-based musician has dazzled audiences all over the world, garnering high praise. “Sultry, stylized melodies ... impressive range,” The New York Concert Review enthused. “Vibrant enthusiasm; thoughtful artistic ideas,” said FSU alum and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. “Virtuosic and stirring,” the Swiss publication Journal de Morges opined. 

A native of Korea, Won admits he took up clarinet a bit late, “because my mom wanted me to. But, I’ve worked very hard and caught up fast.” That’s an understatement. He has quickly established himself at the forefront of his generation by playing with astounding precision and power. A featured soloist with more than a dozen orchestras, Won has appeared at the Kennedy Center, Constitution Hall and the German Embassy in Washington D.C. He appeared in PBS’s Classical Music and Paintings in South Korea and each year assists the Tallahassee Ballet Company with An Evening of Music and Dance. Won holds dual degrees in mathematics and music from the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill and is completing his doctoral degree at FSU. When he’s away from the concert stage, Won collects antiquarian books. 

Exuberant contemporary sound

Won is also a founding member of enhake. There’s nothing ordinary about this classical chamber ensemble. The name (pronounced in-HA-kee) is the Seminole (Creek) word for “sound” — and it pays subtle homage to the group’s collective alma mater, FSU. Won, M. Brent Williams (violin), Eun-Hee Park (piano) and Jayoung Kim (cello) share a unique approach to music — sensitive, politically conscious and emotionally broad. That approach allows them to per- form pieces from bygone classical eras — although not a lot was written for their distinctive instrumentation — as well as captivating contemporary works.

“We focus on modern compositions and work exclusively with composers who write for our unusual instrumentation,” explains Won. With grants and prize money from competitions, the group has commissioned several of America’s on-the-rise composers to create new works for them.

“There is so little literature available” for this wonderfully balanced ensemble, Won says. Within a year of forming in 2007, enhake played Carnegie Hall for the first time (the four musicians went back for a second Carnegie Hall appearance May 3). “They were absolutely stunning,” said one reviewer. “enhake exhibited confidence, artistry and poise from the moment they walked on stage to the last note of the performance. Their sense of exuberance ... was felt by every member of the audience.”

While the ensemble has performed in many countries and collected many impressive international awards, the four members also give back to its home community as artists-in- residence for the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra.

Recordings by enhake are set to be released through Emeritus and Centaur Records in the coming year, with a Naxos classical label CD due out in 2012. Won will perform a solo recital Sept. 17 at FSU before embarking on a tour of England, Belgium and France in December.

Between those solo concert dates, Won will join the rest of enhake at the Pan Music Festival on Oct. 28 at the Seoul Arts Center (Korea’s Carnegie Hall). The quartet will perform the works of living Korean and American composers.“It’s what we like to do best,” Won says.

Find out more about enhake at www.enhake.com, and learn more about the Tallahassee Youth Orchestra at www.tallahasseeyouthorchestras.com.

For a PDF copy, visit http://static1.1.sqspcdn.com/static/f/800771/11356099/1300837570817/TLH_8810.pdf?token=gErZ28xL3Xj44nXjBNakw6a8KDk%3D 

[Press Clipping] Enhake Quartet at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall

An article from New York Concert Review published on May 3, 2010

ENHAKE QUARTET by David LaMarche

WEILL RECITAL HALL AT CARNEGIE HALL, NEW YORK, NY

MAY 3, 2010

An evening of works by five living composers was presented by the Enhake Quartet from Florida State University on May 3rd. The members of this foursome, all impressive soloists and adept chamber musicians, made strong cases for each of the compositions on this program. One of the defining characteristics of the Enhake is rock-solid rhythmic integrity which was evident from the start of “Breakdown Tango” by the composer John Mackey. Propelled by the violinist M. Brent Williams’ driving sixteenth note ostinato, each of the other players added a layer of complexity until the grand climax gives way to a lonely habanera solo on cello. Throughout the tango, clarinetist Wonkak Kim wove his sultry, stylized melodies into the fabric. Much of this piece feels as though it has quotation marks around it, yet in spite of that, it is well crafted and benefited from precise ensemble.

Two movements of Kris Maloy’s “Quartet in Four Actions” entitled “Slink” and “Float” further proved the quartet’s strengths in balance, intonation, and musicality. The simple arc of “Slink”, with its slowly blossoming minor third motive, was beautifully paced and modulated. At the outset of “Float”, cellist Jayoung Kim spun a legato line of great elegance, the initial voice in an expansively lyrical canon. As the music spiraled downward in dynamic and pulse, the players handled their challenges with poise.

Libby Larsen’s “Rodeo Queen of Heaven” proved to be the most harmonically adventurous composition in a decidedly conservative program. It commenced with a burst of activity. As the pianist Eun Hee Park held a tenacious pedal note, her colleagues embarked upon an almost improvisational extended fantasia. Ms. Larsen asks the performers of this piece to extend the boundaries of traditional technique, and Enhake is ideally suited to the task. This was a polished, yet spontaneous performance.

Peter Lieuwen’s “Gulfstream”, which opened the second half, was quite obviously programmatic in its deft evocation of the swirling waters of that grand body of water. Again, Eun Hee Park provided a solid foundation of fluent pianism, at times industrious, and then gently undulating. Along the way, Mr. Kim showed his impressive range in a quasi cadenza-like solo for clarinet. This was not an ambitious work, but well structured and idiomatic in its writing.

For sheer enjoyment, it would be hard to beat Peter Schickele’s “Quartet in A” as a program finale. In four clearly defined movements, the composer employs elements of French salon music, American jazz, and Eastern European folk dance, complete with off-kilter meter changes. Mr. Schickele knows how to feature his musicians, providing them with meaty, virtuosic rifts, and intuitively musical passages which just seem fun to play.

I look forward to hearing Enhake again soon, and by then I hope they will have been able to commission an even greater range of works for their growing repertory. They are excellent artists and technicians who present thoroughly prepared performances.