An unexpected event at the Cadogan Hall tomorrow night, Friday 10 July. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, under the baton of Korean conductor Lee Young-chil, will perform Park Jae-eun’s Arirang – “a lovers’ song of separation and longing”. The main items in the programme are Tchaikovsky’s fiddle concerto and fifth symphony.
Unfortunately the Cadogan Hall website contains no information about Park’s work, though another website without much pedigree suggests that it was composed in 2006, and this blog post which seems to be affiliated with the Chosun Ilbo supports that date, indicating that it was commissioned by the conductor Lee Young-chil when he was in charge of the Bulgarian Symphony Orchestra.
Equally difficult is finding any information about Park Jae-eun on the interweb, but if you know where to look she makes an appearance on the 2006 Think Korea website. She came to London to give some recitals in her capacity as President of the Korean Society of Women’s Composers. Think Korea give her biography as follows:
Jae-eun Park received her D.M.A. in composition from New York State University, M.A. in composition from University of Michgan, and B.M. in composition from Ewha Womans University. She is a recipient of the Donga Competition, International Alliance for Woman in Music competition, and Excellent Composer Prize at University of Michgan and New York State University. She has had her music performed at the Seoul Olympic Cultural Art Festival in 1988, Dae-jun Expo Cultural Festival in 1992. Also, her works have been performed in Seoul Music Festival, Asia League of Composers, Korean Society of Women Composers, Chang-ack Society, ISCM. She has been awarded commissions by Seoul City Orchestra, Dae-jun City Orchestera, and KAMSA Orchestra in USA. Her work Nouveau Voyage for Piano Concerto was performed by Krakow Orchestra in Poland, Japan, Korea and was released by International Music Corporation.
Ms. Park’s has had her music performed world-wide including France, Germany, USA, Japan, Thailand, Argentina, Italy, Taiwan. Recently, her works have been performed International Alliance for Woman in Music Festival in L.A. and Israel Asia League of Composers Festival in 2004.
She was a radio show host for the classical music program myung-gog-e Jun-dang and Hyun-jang Music in KBS-FM.
She also translated the Materials and Technique of Twentieth Century Music and the Musical Term Dictionary in 5 languages.
Ms. Park participated in the International Composers Festival by UNESCO in France as a Korean representative for 7 years. She was a board member of Asia League of Composers and a vice-chairperson of the International Festival of Women in Music Today Seoul. Also she directed the Aida and Tosca as a board member of Jenus Opera.
She is a President of the KSWC since March of 2005 and a currently faculty in composition department at Kyunghee University in Korea.
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