Category: Media & Performing Arts

Shin Saebom is a musician and singer who majored in pansori, a genre of traditional Korean music. From early childhood, she had an interest in traditional Korean music and started learning pansori. She had learned a variety of songs like chunhyang-ga and simcheong-ga under several notable singers. She won numerous awards in many prestigious national Pansori competitions, including the Dong-A Traditional Korean Music Competition. She completed her studies in Seoul National University. As a member of the World music group Yoonseul Project, she appeared in Korea, including at Maria Callas Hall in Seoul and World Music Market APaMM Choice Showcase in Ulsan. She also released several albums, including Spring-Sacheolga Part 1.

KoN is a violinist, singer, composer, actor, model, and music director. He earned his undergraduate and graduate degrees, with honors, from Seoul National University College of Music. Active in Korea and Japan, he is the first Korean Roma violinist and has held concerts in Hungary and China. KoN has released two full-length albums and his compositions have been featured on Korean drama OSTs. He has performed at numerous music festivals such as the Jazz Tonic Festival, Seoul Arts Center Jazz Festival, Yoeuido Cherry Blossom Festival, and many more. KoN also debuted as a fashion model at New York Fashion Week and has been featured on Korean television programs such as SBS Star-King, JTBC Hidden Singer, and Arirang TV Heart to Heart.

Ms. Rami Seo is an accomplished gayakeum artist whose expansive musical repertoire on the 12-string and 25-string gayakeum spans the traditional and the contemporary to include ancient Korean court music and folk music, as well as current and cross-cultural compositions from across the globe. Born and bred in Seoul, Korea, Ms. Seo is the protégé of world class maestros and several of Korea’s most revered National Cultural Living Treasure title-holders. She graduated from the prestigious National Music School and Seoul High School for Korean Traditional Arts with a full scholarship and top honors. In 2002, she was Class Valedictorian of Chung-Ang University’s College of Korean Traditional Performing Arts, where she earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Korean Traditional Music and Music Education. With an impending Master’s Degree in Ethnomusicology from Hunter College, Ms. Seo is a bona-fide scholar, musician, and performance artist.

Lucite Tokki is a New York-based female alt-pop duo formed in Seoul 2005. Over a decade later, they have released four full albums and six EPs growing their audience worldwide. With a base of pop, they established their own unique mood and sound by exploring various elements of music.

gamin
gamin is a New York-based distinguished soloist performing traditional Korean music as well as cross-disciplinary collaborations worldwide. Born in Seoul, she began studying piano at the age of six, violin at the age of nine, Korean music (piri major) at age fifteen. In 1998, she received her B.A. in Korean Music from Seoul National University. Her main instrument is the piri, a double reed instrument similar to the oboe. She also plays the taepyeonso (a double-reed horn) and saenghwang (a type of mouth organ). She is a yisuja, official holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Asset No. 46 for Classical Court Music, Classical Piri Music, and Daechita (royal military music). She has also dedicated herself to academic studies, receiving a D.M.A. (Doctor of Musical Arts) in Korean traditional music from Seoul National University. She was a member of the National Gugak Orchestra from 2004 to 2010 as assistant principal piri player. She was the recipient of a residency program grant from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Republic of Korea in 2011 & 2012 and has toured with lecture concerts at Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Dartmouth College, Northeastern University, University of Hartford, among other places. Currently, gamin is a visiting scholar at the James Joo-Jin Kim Program in Korean Studies in University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Fairbanks
Deemed a “rising multi-faceted star if not musical voice on the New York scene” by CriticalJazz, 2016 New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow Jeff Fairbanks has won a number of highly competitive awards for composing, including the USAF Sammy Nestico Award, the Jerome Fund, ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award, and the BMI Charlie Parker Award. He has won eight grants from the following institutions: the Aaron Copland Fund, the Queens Council on the Arts, and New Music USA (formerly American Music Center). Fairbanks is a native of South Florida. After earning a Master’s degree in Jazz Composition from USF in 2005, he moved to New York to join the BMI Jazz Composer Workshop under Jim McNeely. Now, in addition to leading and writing for Project Hansori and other projects, Jeff freelances as a composer and performer and teaches with the New York Jazz Academy. He lives in Queens, NY with his wife, Heun Choi, and their two children.

Photo by Caroline Forbes
Edward Rothenberg
Composer/Performer Ned Rothenberg has been internationally acclaimed for both his solo and ensemble music, presented for the past 33 years on 5 continents. He performs primarily on alto saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and the shakuhachi – an endblown Japanese bamboo flute. His solo work utilizes an expanded palette of sonic language, creating a kind of personal idiom all its own. In an ensemble setting, he leads the trio Sync, with Jerome Harris, guitars and Samir Chatterjee, tabla, works with the Mivos string quartet playing his Quintet for Clarinet and Strings and collaborates around the world with fellow improvisors. Recent recordings include this Quintet, The World of Odd Harmonics, Ryu Nashi (new music for shakuhachi), and Inner Diaspora, all on John Zorn’s Tzadik label, as well as Live at Roulette with Evan Parker, and The Fell Clutch, on Rothenberg’s Animul label.

Satoshi Takeishi
Satoshi Takeishi, drummer, percussionist, and arranger is a native of Mito Japan. He studied music at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. While at Berklee he developed an interest in the music of South America and went to live in Colombia following the invitation of a friend. He spent four years there and forged many musical and personal relationships. One of the projects he worked on while in Colombia was “Macumbia” with composer/arranger Francisco Zumaque in which traditional, jazz, and classical music were combined. With this group he performed with the Bogota Symphony Orchestra to do a series of concerts honoring the music of the most popular composer in Colombia, Lucho Bermudes. In 1986, he returned to the U.S. where he began work as an arranger in Miami. In 1987, he produced “Morning Ride” for jazz flutist Nestor Torres on Polygram Records. His interest expanded to the rhythms and melodies of the Middle East where he studied and performed with Armenian-American oud master Joe Zeytoonian. Since moving to New York in 1991, he has performed and recorded with many musicians such as Ray Barretto, Carlos “Patato” Valdes, Eliane Elias, Marc Johnson, Eddie Gomez, Randy Brecker, Dave Liebman, Anthony Braxton, Mark Murphy, Herbie Mann, Paul Winter Consort, Rabih Abu Khalil, Toshiko Akiyoshi Big Band, Erik Friedlander, and Pablo Ziegler to name a few. He continues to explore multi-cultural, electronic, and improvisational music with local musicians and composers in New York.