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KCC June House Concert Live! Jongsun Woo (Piano) and Alicja Kozak (Cello)

The second of two House Concerts this month both of which feature Jongsun Woo as accompanist. But this one’s special: it’s the first concert at the KCC in front of a live audience since February 2020. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that this tentative return to normality is long-lasting.

Jongsun Woo (Piano) and Alicja Kozak (Cello)

Thursday 24 June 2021 7 pm @KCCUK
Registration essential

KCC June House Concert Live

Programme

“I was born in Korea and project that culture, but I developed musically in Europe. I don’t need to organise or separate elements of the cultures. I am a unity, a simple person. It’s a synthesis.”
– Isang Yun

Isang Yun’s music beautifully combines both musical elements from East and West, resulting in compositions with an unique musical voice that is undoubtedly Yun’s own. For example, in Space I, he explores Eastern philosophies such as Taoism and the sound world of Korean traditional instruments, using Western avant-garde compositional technique.

Beethoven Cello Sonata No.3 in A major, Op.69

I. Allegro ma non tanto
II. Allegro molto
III. Adagio cantabile – Allegro vivace

– Interval –

Isang Yun Espace I

Schumann Fünf Stücke im Volkston, Op.102

– Mit Humor
– Langsam
– Nicht schnell, mit viel Ton zu spielen
– Nicht zu rasch
– Stark und markiert

Isang Yun Nore

Performers

Pianist Jongsun Woo is currently in her second year of Masters in Collaborative Piano at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, studying with Eugene Asti, Pamela Lidiard and Carole Presland. JongSun has performed in venues such as the Wigmore Hall, Crush Room Royal Opera House, Purcell Room Southbank Centre, St. John’s Smith Square. She has made multiple appearances as a concerto soloist with orchestras in UK. As a chamber musician, JongSun performed Beethoven’s complete works for ‘cello and piano in 2017.

Jongsun started her studies with Patsy Toh at Junior Royal Academy of Music and the Purcell School. After graduating from Guildhall School of Music and Drama with First Class Honours in 2014, she then went on to win a full scholarship to study with Peter Serkin at Bard College Conservatory, New York. She has also participated in masterclasses with Ferenc Rados and Rita Wagner at Prussia Cove International Musicians’ Seminar 2015& 2016 and has received guidance from Krysia Osostowicz and Richard Lester among others.

Cellist Alicja Kozak is a versatile musician in demand as a chamber, orchestra and solo player. She began her musical education at the age of 6 and completed her studies at the Frederic Chopin University of Music in Warsaw and Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. She also spent one year in Hochschule für Musik Detmold in the class of prof. Alexander Gebert, as a part of Erasmus + scholarship program. Currently she holds a Junior Fellowship position at Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. Alicja is a prizewinner of international competitions such as Spisak International Competition, Concurso Internacional De Musica Agustín Aponte, Gustav Mahler Prize Cello Competition as well as Danczowski Cello Competition – the oldest cello competition in Poland. She took part in various masterclass where she had the opportunity to work with artists such as Jens Peter Maintz, Peter Bruns, Reinhard Latzko, Emil Rovner, Jerome Pernoo, Romain Garioud and has been lucky to receive mentorship from members of the Bozzini Quartet, the Endellion quartet and the Dante quartet, as well as the members of the LA Philharmonic and Gould Piano Trio.

She was invited to participate in chamber music festivals such as ISA Festival (Austria), Musethica Festival, Guildhall Chamber Music Festival, Festival Ensemble (Poland) and TriAcademy Alliance (Shanghai), Usedomer Festival, Sinfonia Varsovia Festival, Aurora Festival (Sweden), Summer Festival in Paderewski Centre with Scharoun Ensemble of Berliner Philharmoniker. She performed as a soloist with orchestras in her native Poland in Zabrze, Koszalin, Zielona Gora, and gave solo recitals in Chamber Halls of National Orchestra of Polish Radio in Katowice, Zielona Gora Philharmonic, I.J. Paderewski Center, Southwark Cathedral, St. John’s Smith Square, and many others. Alicja was selected for the 2020/2021 Foyle Future First – London Philharmonic Orchestra development program.

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