Korean Experimental Music Festival—Featuring the National Gugak Center and Del Sol Quartet
The National Gugak Center—Korea’s foremost institution for traditional music—joins forces with the Bay Area’s acclaimed Del Sol String Quartet to offer California audiences a rare and resonant experience. The festival blends traditional Korean musical practices, Western classical instrumentation, and cutting edge music technology in the world premiere of a over 20 newly commissioned works by faculty and graduate student composers from UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, and Stanford University.
Two concerts on Fri., Nov. 14 feature a first-of-its-kind ensemble pairing two gayageums—Korea’s zither-like string instrument—with a Western string quartet. In two additional performances on Sat., Nov. 15, traditional Korean wind instruments—the piri, saenghwang, and daegeum—are transformed through real-time computer sound processing into a striking electroacoustic experience.
The festival culminates a two-year collaboration among the National Gugak Center, the UC Santa Cruz Music Department, UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT), and Stanford’s Department of Music and Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). We hope you enjoy these concerts of new works shaped by deep intercultural dialogue and inspired by the enduring legacy of traditional Korean music.
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ADMISSION
– Open admission/first-come, first-served seating (no ticket required)
– Free and open to the public
– Doors are scheduled to open 30 minutes prior to event start time
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FULL SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
Korean Experimental Music Festival includes two-days of events at UC Santa Cruz, each with two back-to-back concerts, including:
KEMF: Traditional Korean Gayageum with String Quartet Part I
Fri. Nov. 14, 5:00 p.m., UCSC Music Center Recital Hall
New works for Korean gayageums—traditional zither-like stringed instruments—and Western string quartet, by Maisha Lani, Ben Dorfan, Michael J. Fleming, Nina Barzegar, Siamak Barghi, Chris Everingham, and Jinwei Sun. Featuring musicians from the National Gugak Center in Seoul, and San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet.
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KEMF: Traditional Korean Gayageum with String Quartet Part II
Fri. Nov. 14, 8:00 p.m., UCSC Music Center Recital Hall
New works for gayageums—traditional zither-like stringed instruments—and Western string quartet, by UC Santa Cruz Professor Ben Leeds Carson, and by UC Berkeley faculty Cindy Cox, Edmund Campion, and Jean Ahn. Featuring musicians from the National Gugak Center in Seoul, and San Francisco’s Del Sol Quartet.
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KEMF: Korean Winds and Electronics Part I
Sat. Nov. 15, 5:00 p.m., UCSC Music Center Recital Hall
Music for traditional Korean wind Instruments, including piri (a traditional Korean double-reed instrument similar to a shawm or oboe), saenghwang (a traditional Korean free-reed mouth organ, like a large, complex harmonica), and daegeum (a large, traditional transverse bamboo flute)—all of which are combined with experimental electronics. New works by UC Santa Cruz Professor Emeritus David Evan Jones, and by composers Michael J. Fleming, Mat Muntz, and Dion Nataraja. Featuring musicians from the National Gugak Center in Seoul.
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KEMF: Korean Winds and Electronics Part II
Sat. Nov. 15, 8:00 p.m., UCSC Music Center Recital Hall
Music for traditional Korean wind Instruments, including piri (a traditional Korean double-reed instrument similar to a shawm or oboe), saenghwang (a traditional Korean free-reed mouth organ, like a large, complex harmonica), and daegeum (a large, traditional transverse bamboo flute)—all of which are combined with experimental electronics. New works by UC Santa Cruz Professors Matt Schumaker and David Evan Jones; UC Berkeley Professors Ken Ueno and Edmund Campion; and Stanford Professor Jarosław Kapuściński. Featuring musicians from the National Gugak Center in Seoul.
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Additional events at Stanford and at UC Berkeley Nov. 7–12
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VISITOR PARKING AT UCSC
– Parking by permit, ParkMobile, or $5 cash/credit via the on-site parking attendant
– Arts Lot #126 is the closest parking lot to the event
– Visitors with DMV placards or plates may park for free in DMV spaces, Medical spaces, or ParkMobile spaces without additional payment, or in timed zones for longer than the posted time.
– More information provided by UCSC Transportation & Parking Services (TAPS)
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ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The festival is the culmination of a two-year collaboration between the National Gugak Center, the UC Santa Cruz Music Department, UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) and the Department of Music at UC Berkeley, and Stanford’s Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
The Korean Experimental Music Festival is supported by: The National Gugak Center; the UC Santa Cruz Music Department; The Hellman Fellows Program; The Arts Research Institute, UC Santa Cruz; Porter College, UC Santa Cruz; the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, UC Berkeley; the UC Berkeley Music Department; CCRMA at Stanford University, and others.
This program is open to all members of the public consistent with state and federal law.
