London 2015 Summer

Teatime by the Thames and the British Parliament  

Teatime by the Thames and the British Parliament  

I spent an inspiring week in London during the first week of July, staying at the heart of this vibrant city and working with my friend and pianist Sasha for our upcoming performances. I stayed at a flat in Ladbroke Grove, a gorgeous home with many fascinating histories behind. My host Eric graciously provided the ample space for me to stay and practice, a rarity in this part of the town. I also enjoyed tremendously my morning runs around the borough of Kensington and Chelsea with plenty of things to see around. 

The drawing room in my flat where I got plenty of inspiration to practice and rehearse

Hallway to my room

My room at the Ladbroke Grove

I and Sasha have not played since we met at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival back in 2011, but it was very easy to work together. We rehearsed on works by Bernstein, Brahms, and Peter Lieuwen exchanging many interesting ideas and getting them in shape for our recital on Tuesday, 7 July. It was truly a pleasure to play with the great musical friend but also have many conversations on various things in our lives. The recital was tended by a small audience, but we gave quite a satisfying performance. We very much look forward to our upcoming performance in Madrid as well as our further collaboration in the US with our violinist friend Emily Westell.  

 

rehearsing at the City College of London

at Hyde Park, Kensington

Recital at St. George's Campden Hill

Kim-Karpeyev Duo, post-recital

Harlaxton Music Festival, UK

  

The Harlaxton Manor

From July 1-3, I visited the Harlaxton Music Festival in its inagural year (launched by my colleagues from the Larchmere String Quartet), where three of my students from TTU were the chamber music participants. It was a real pleasure to reside in this amazing castle, coaching some hard-working students and playing music with them, too!  

Harlaxton gardens

The atrium on the rear side of the Manor

Coaching my student Anjali's Stamitz group

The cocnert venue at the Harlaxton Manor

My student Sarah working on Mozart's Clarinet Quintet

Sarah performing Mozart Clarinet Quintet

On Thursday evening, I also performed the charming "Clarinet Quartet, No. 1" by the American clarinetist and composer Sean Osborn with my students at the St. Wulfram's Church. After the concert, we all went out to a local pub in downtown Grantham! 

St. Wulfram's Church

My student Torey performing Mendelssohn's Concert Piece at the St. Wulfram's Church

Selfie with my students before the evening concert! 

Downtown Grantham

Post-concert celebration! 

All three of my students visited me in London after the Festival, and I took them out to a gastropub near the Covent Garden where we all had some great pies and ale! 

with TTU clarinet students at a gastropub near the Covent Garden

Northern VA and Washington DC Tour

We spent the last week of June in Nortern Virginia and Washington D.C. to play two recitals: Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association's Lyceum Summer Series and a house concert at our friend David's house in DC. Aside from our musical engagements, I and Grace got to enjoy the Smithsonian Institute, Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the DC Marina, old town Alexandria, and of course some wonderful companies. 

Choi-Kim Duo Recital at Alexandria's Lyceum, sponsored by the Washington Metropolitan Philharmonic Association

Our program included: Martinu Sonatina, Bernstein's Clarinet Sonata, Devienne's Clarinet Sonata No. 2, Cantilene by Louis Cahuzac, "After you, Mr. Gershwin!" by Béla Kovács, and the world premiere performance of Bright River by Peter Lieuwen (commissioned by our duo in 2014). We quickly found out that it's a challenging but truly enjoyable program for everyone.

 Visiting Northern VA is always sentimental as a place where I spent a good part of my youth growing up. I look forward to visiting again next year with another interesting program and see my old and new friends in the area. 

Seafood market at Southwest Washington Marina where you can enjoy some fresh and delicious food!

Almost overwhelming Basilica with some amazing architecture and mosaic in Byzantine style. The mass here was accaompanied by a superb organ playing. 

At our friend David's beautiful house in DC. In addition to our program, I and Grace each played with David: Brahms Hungarian Dances for four hands and Finzi's Bagatelles.  

Bringing New Music into Life: Collaboration with the Composer Peter Lieuwen

Peter Lieuwen's Bright River (2014) written for me and Grace will receive its world premiere on July 21st at Lyceum Chamber Music Series in Alexandria, VA. The work will also be performed at ICA's ClarinetFest in Madrid, Spain later in July. 

I first met Peter in 2009 while working on his piece, Gulfstream, as a member of enhake, during our emerging years as graduate students at Florida State University. We were invited to perform Peter’s work at the opening recital of FSU’s biennial New Music Festival, and this very difficult piece prompted us to put an untold amount of time and effort on learning it intimately. In the end, we became personally attached to the work and gave a very satisfying performance. Peter, who were present at the recital, became a good friend of ours. Since then, enhake has given about 15 additional performances of Gulfstream at various places, including Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall and Texas A&M University (College Station, where everything from rental car to hotel room seemed to be extra large), where Peter is a faculty member and composer-in-residence. We also recorded the work for our 2011 Naxos album, which was later entitled “Gulfstream”! The CD received number of rave reviews and was selected as recording of the month by major journals such as BBC Music Magazine and MusicWeb International. Now thinking back, it is truly amazing how a serendipitous first meeting can lead to such exciting venture! I always advise my students to cherish every opportunity they get to meet with new colleagues as you never know where it will lead them. 

enhake with Peter Lieuwen during their residency at Texas A&M - College Station, TX in 2009

Few years after I started working at TTU and joined its faculty ensemble, Cumberland Quintet, Peter asked me if we would be interested in looking at his recent woodwind quintet entitled Windjammer. Fortunately, my quintet colleagues are always after exploring new works and agreed to commit to learn and record the piece. The unrelenting pacing of Windjammer demanded utmost stamina from all members of the quintet and posed a myriad of challenges, but the piece really grew on us in the end. Our quintet recorded the piece on August 2013 with the help of Peter and his recording engineer Brad Sayles who works for the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the CD was recently released on MSR Record. 

Burgess Fall in Cookeville, TN

During Peter and Brad’s visit to Cookeville, I had a chance to take them to nearby Burgess Fall. It is a quite impressive site without being too overwhelming. Peter’s music is often “inspired by nature and legend,” and I particularly enjoyed his reference to water. I asked him if he would be willing to write a clarinet-piano duo for me and my wife, and Peter graciously agreed to move the project forward. 

Peter and Brad enjoying a pool game at my house during their visit to Cookeville

Peter already wrote several works for the clarinet, including a concerto for clarinet and orchestra, “River of Crystal Light,” written for the renowned British clarinetist David Campbell. Below is the YouTube link to Campbell’s recording of "River of Crystal Light":

"River of Crystal Light" (1999) for Clarinet, Harp, Piano and Strings David Campbell, clarinet/Texas Music Festival Orchestra conducted by Franz Anton Krager from Albany TROY928 http://www.albanyrecords.com An attractive array of shimmering, shuddering sonorities. The music of the outstanding American composer Peter Lieuwen has been described by The New York Times as "an attractive array of shimmering, shuddering sonorities."

I was thrilled to receive the final draft of our piece Bright River from Peter last September. This was the most exciting commission for our husband-wife duo to date, and we have been preparing hard since the start of this summer for our upcoming premiere and performances. After several years of ongoing collaboration, I became so familiar with Peter’s musical language and sound world. It helped me greatly in conceptualizing the musical ideas, and I knew exactly how I wanted to bring the score into the performance. As a result, past few weeks of my work has been mainly dealing with various issues on technical execution and acoustic realization.

An example of ever-ascending phrases which require a great deal of tonal and dynamic control

Some passages require extra attention to the acoustics of our instrument: how we want the music to sound versus how it actually sounds

Peter's use of extreme range of the clarinet in some of the most delicate and melodic passages poses many challenges. By taking greater liberty  on dynamic and articulation, I sometimes had to come up with creative ways to produce the desired sound and effect. The piano part also turned out to be quite hard with non-repeating patterns which involve very difficult fingerings. All of these problems are worth overcoming as the piece is completely filled with shimmering beauty, rapturous joy, and scintillating colors. As our ensemble has made a significant progress over the past few weeks, I feel such raw enthusiasm I have not experienced from playing new music in a while. Both I and Grace are truly looking forward to introducing Bright River to our audiences in our upcoming concerts. If you are attending this year's ClarinetFest, please plan on coming to my recital on the 22nd!

Here is the composer's program note:

The inspiration for Bright River (2014) is found in the visual and auditory intricacies of rivers as they evolve from rivulets and continually fluctuate between waterfalls, violent rapids and tranquil pools as the terrain changes.  In Bright River the piano presents a constant flowing motion that is placid and lyrical in some passages while spirited and syncopated in others.  The clarinet presents a bold awakening introductory gesture and weaves in and out of the musical fabric as the piece moves forward.  Drama and tension are enhanced with pandiatonic sections juxtaposed with those employing the diminished (half-step/whole-step) scale.  The melody is often presented  “in harmony” at the interval of the 7th or 9th creating a translucent musical aura.

Bright River was written for and is dedicated to Wonkak Kim and Grace Choi.

On our recent Facetime "rehearsal" with Peter Lieuwen

On our recent Facetime "rehearsal" with Peter Lieuwen

2015 Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop

Spending the first week of June each year in Chapel Hill with chamber music enthusiasts from various parts of the country (and around the world!) has long become an essential part of my summer. Catching up with the phenomenal faculty colleagues as well as exploring a vast number of chamber music literature with highly dedicated participants are among the most inspiring moments I get to enjoy. It was also fun to be joined by the Larchmere String Quartet, this year's young artists ensemble, and we had great time performing Mozart's Clarinet Quintet for an incredible group of audience on the first evening of the workshop. 

with LSQ at the reception - intentionally looking upset for no reason...

Each year, I am both amazed and invigorated by what our participants manage to achieve. Mostly comprised of highly successful individuals in their own fields (and many who are retired), they display not only an impressive degree of technical and musical proficiency but a true understanding of the intrinsic communication through chamber music. The long hours of coaching, rehearsals, and of course our famous "marathon" concerts are exhausting, but I always end up wishing that the week did not end. 

Working with adult amateur musicians poses many different challenges than what I normally encounter with my own students. Serving past six years as a faculty member at the workshop enlightened me various ways to articulate musical ideas without being too technical and creative means to overcome problems and mediate differences. My aspiration of helping our participants (many of them now good friends) through musical journey is always realized by their hard-work and positive feedback. Below is an excerpt from a truly gratifying email I received a few days ago from one of the participants whom I share a great deal of mutual respect:   

"I have always enjoyed both listening to you – your extraordinary musicianship is complemented by a beautiful sound that truly exemplifies the “open inner embouchure” Don [Oehler, also my formal teacher] is fond of talking about – and your coaching.  You always wish to get the most out of the players you work with (even when constrained by the most rudimentary of performance problems such as those I have been plaque with, certainly in past years) yet you never give up trying to make everyone do their best.  You apologized one day for not wanting to make the sessions like a conservatory, but that is exactly what makes you so effective: you just have only one high standard."

One of the participant ensembles I coached at the workshop

More than ever, I am fully convinced at the immense power of chamber music to connect people and bring the best out of our collective mind. I am thrilled at the prospect of continue sharing this experience with many people I will meet through performing, teaching, and listening.  

Each year, I discover several hidden gems in our repertoire. This year, my dear friend and mentor Freddy Arteel, brought this marvelous work by the Flemish composer Piet Swerts.

NYC Trip

I had a wonderful weekend in NYC meeting and catching up with some friends and visiting the studios of Buffet and Vandoren!

Me and Grace with clarinetist and friend Thomas Piercy

Playing some duets at Tom's apartment at the Manhattan Plaza!

It was a great day here at the NY Showroom! We had a wonderful visit from Prof of Clarinet at Tennessee Tech University...

Posted by Buffet Group USA New York Showroom on Thursday, May 14, 2015

Vandoren Instagram!

2015 Summer Plan

An unrelated image taken several years ago in Minneapolis, MN. 

May 13-18 - New York City and Alpine, NJ

May 30-June 5 - Chapel Hill, NC

June 20-25 - Washington D.C. and Northern VA 

June 26-30 - Greensboro, NC

July 1-3 - Harlaxton, UK 

July 4-8 - London, UK

July 8-19 - Greensboro, NC

July 20-26 - Madrid, Spain 

July 27-August 1 - Greensboro and Raleigh, NC

I am looking forward to a busy but fun-filled summer! In May, I will be in Alpine, NJ and NYC, visiting friends and family as well as doing some consulting works. I was also invited to be an Artist-in-Residence at local youth orchestra in Murfreesboro and will work with young musicians there at the end of the month. I will need to find some time here and there to work on edits for two of my upcoming CDs (enahke's Piazzolla CD on MSR and Krehl's chamber music on Naxos) as well as a clarinet textbook for my studio.  

In June, I will return to Chapel Hill Chamber Music Workshop (my sixth year). Aside from working with many long-time participants and friends, I am excited to welcome my friends from the Larchmere String Quartet to be this year's ensemble-in-residence with whom I will perform Stephan Krehl's Clarinet Quintet, op. 19. I am also looking forward to performing a series of recitals in Northern VA (Lyceum Chamber Music Series) and D.C. area with Grace, featuring the world premiere performance of Peter Lieuwen's Bright River for Clarinet and Piano (the work we commissioned), as well as works by Bernstein, Devienne, Martinu, and more. Later in June, I will take up a residence at my friend Jacob's house in Greensboro, NC. with Grace, who will serve on the piano faculty at the Eastern Music Festival for the next five weeks. 

July will be a very busy month for me, as I will make couple of overseas trips. First, I will be visiting my students at the Harlaxton Chamber Music Festival earlier that month. You can read about this on my recent blogpost. I am also excited to collaborate with my friend and amazing pianist Sasha Karpeyev. Sasha will perform with me in Madrid at this year's ICA Conference in Madrid, and we will work on a number of projects (including our US performance in March 2016) during my stay in London. I have not seen Sasha since our time together at Norfolk Chamber Music Festival back in 2011 and am really looking forward to our collaboration. After couple weeks off in Greensboro, I will be back in Europe to be a part of ICA ClarinetFest in Madrid, where I will present the European premiere of Peter Lieuwen's new work for clarinet and piano. 

For more details and specific dates/times/venues, please visit my calendar page. I am much relieved that I will be back home in August to get ready for 2015-16. It will be a demanding academic year with 19 students and 5 senior student recitals as well as some major performance opportunities for me. Please stay tuned for some great projects planned for the next season!

2015 Tennessee Tech Clarinet Day

Last Saturday, I hosted our annual Clarinet Day at TTU. Although I face a multitude of challenges each year planning for the event, I feel tremendously fortunate to have wonderful colleagues, students, sponsors, and community to make it possible. This year, I asked my student Delaney to write a report to submit to our upcoming Clarinet Magazine issue and other newsletters:

A Report by Delaney Naffziger (pending publications by ICA Clarinet Magazine and WKA Newsletter) - published in this blog with the permission by the author

2015 TTU Clarinet Day Group Photo

On April 18th, 2015, Tennessee Technological University held its annual Clarinet Day on campus in Cookeville, Tennessee. The event was led and coordinated by the university’s assistant professor of clarinet, Dr. Wonkak Kim. In the past, this event has primarily consisted of local clarinetists of all ages coming together for a day dedicated to choir ensemble playing; however, when Dr. Kim took the assistant professorship in 2011, he began to reconstruct the event, keeping its community choir foundations but gradually expanding the event to contain guests artists, master classes, and a wide range of clarinet products available to be enjoyed by all participants.

Sqwonk Recital

The event kicked off at 9AM with opening remarks made by Dr. Kim and was immediately followed by the Clarinet Day Artist Recital. Dr. Kim opened the recital with the beautiful works Deuxieme Sonate pour clarinette et piano by François Devienne and Introduction et Rondo, Op.72 by CH-M Widor and was accompanied by  Dr. Eunhye Grace Choi on piano. The program continued with guest artist Matthew Miracle performing Shovelhead for Clarinet and Electronics by Steven Snowden. The recital concluded with the day’s main guest artists Jonathon Russell and Jeff Anderle, members of the San Francisco bass clarinet duo Sqwonk, who performed stunningly their works KlezDuo by Jonathon Russell and Toccata and Fugue in D minor by Bach (arr. Russell).

The day immediately continued with a full clarinet choir rehearsal consisting of all participants under the direction of Dr. Kim. The choir played Tarantella, Op. 102/3 by Mendelssohn, Introduction and Rondo by Gordon Jacob, and Clarinet Polka arranged by Eric Osterling.

TTU Clarinet Day Ensemble Rehearsal

After a brief lunch break, participants reconvened to watch a master class led by Sqwonk members featuring TTU students Sarah McMichen, Anjali Sivaainkaran, and Michaela Cundari. Jeff Anderle and Jon Russell worked with these students addressing many key issues which affect all players. Sarah McMichen played excerpts from Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream (Scherzo) and was encouraged not to get carried away with technical passages and to always remember that the goal is to make music, regardless of passage difficulty. Anjali Sivaainkaran performed Minuet from Bach’s First Cello Suite as Sqwonk members worked with her on remaining loose and relaxed even and especially during high passages. And Michaela Cundari played movement one of Sonata no. 2 by Brahms as Mr. Anderle had her and the audience work on projecting an upward airstream while pushing off with legs as well as practicing many different forms of phrasing.

Michaela playing Brahms Clarinet Sonata for Sqwonk

Anjali playing Bach's Cello Suite for Sqwonk Master Class

After another brief rehearsal with the choir, participants were encouraged to take a break and enjoy the various booths of the day’s sponsors including Buffet Group USA, Lohff and Pfeiffer, Onks Woodwind Specialist, Just For Winds, Silverstein Ligature, and Vandoren. 

TTU Clarinet Day Exhibition Room

Buffet Group USA

Silverstein Ligature Booth

At 4PM, the Final Concert began, opening with the Cookeville Community Band Clarinet Choir performing the works Three Baroque Dances by J.S. Bach (arr. Russell Howland), Klezmer Suite by Alexis Ciesla, New Orleans Medley arranged by Charles Rose, and The Chrysanthemum  by Scott Joplin (arr. William Schmidt). The concert continued with Sqwonk performing Bass Clarinet Double Concerto by Jonathon Russell accompanied by the TTU Clarinet Choir. The concert was concluded by the Clarinet Day Choir; however, before the final performance, Dr. Kim presented a plaque of appreciation to Tennessee Tech’s clarinet professor emeritus Dan Hearn for his unending dedication to the studio even after retirement. 

2015 TTU Clarinet Day Mass Clarinet Choir - Any clarinet lover is invited to play in it at the final concert! (Gordon Jacob - Introduction and Rondo - Wonkak Kim, director)

Overall, TTU Clarinet Day 2015 was a fantastic event enjoyed by all. Thanks to the diligent work and organization of  Dr. Kim, the event came together seamlessly and held diverse aspects enjoyable to all clarinet lovers alike. It was both an enjoyable and educational experience which is sure to have inspired all participants. For information about how to partake in this annual event, please visit the website at www.wonkak.com/clarinet or contact Dr. Kim (wkim@tntech.edu).

Cookeville Community Band Clarinet Choir

Another BUSY weekend for Buffet Crampon USA! We were at the Tennessee Tech Clarinet Day, hosted by Clarinet Artist...

Posted by Buffet Crampon USA on Monday, April 20, 2015

Here is an album of pictures from Clarinet Day at Tennessee Tech University. One of our PRO Team members, Professor...

Posted by Silverstein Ligature on Wednesday, April 22, 2015

TECHnovations Interview

My recent hour-long interview with Penny Brooks for WTTU 88.5FM's TECHnocations is scheduled to air today at 11am. I enjoyed talking to Penny about my teaching, research (creative works), and music entrepreneurship. 


You can also listen to or download the podcast here: http://www.technovations.libsyn.com (Episode 13: Dr. Wonkak Kim, assistant professor of clarinet in the College of Education, discusses his scholarly work as a soloist and member of chamber groups, including one in which he is co-founder, enhake. Two musical works are featured, one a solo work and one performed by enhake.)