ASIAN
AMERICAN
VOICES

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The second night of China Now featured the festival’s ensemble in residence, the Del Sol String Quartet, and Guggenheim Composer Fellow Jin Hi Kim, in a showcase of Asian American composers of contemporary American music at the Fisher Center at Bard College.

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Photos by Karl Rabe

PROGRAM

DEL SOL QUARTET
Takuma Itoh, Picture Brides (2017)
Jungyoon Wie, A Popular Tune (2020)
Erika Oba, Akoya (2020)
Vijay Iyer, Spasm (2021)
Erberk Eryilmaz, Ankara Havasi Goes Bananas (2020)

JIN HI KIM (composer and performer) 
A Ritual for Covid-19 (world premiere)

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The festival’s ensemble-in-residence, Del Sol, is a vigorous champion of Asian American music. The quartet will perform new compositions by Erberk Eryilmaz, Takuma Itoh, Vijay Iyer, Erika Oba, and Jungyoon Wie, representing many diverse voices to reflect various aspects of Asian American society and history, from the early years of Japanese immigration — with Itoh’s piece Picture Brides — to selections from the quartet’s ‘Joy Project’ — an effort to respond to current social and political change, technology, and artistic innovation.

Jin Hi Kim is an innovative, thought provoking composer and a virtuoso of the komungo, a type of zither from Korea. Kim will perform the world-premiere of her latest work, A Ritual for Covid-19, a multimedia composition inspired by the Korean shamanistic ‘ssitkimkut’ ritual for purifying the spirits of the dead. The work is dedicated to the memory of all the people worldwide who lost their lives during the pandemic, and to the spirit of healing during the apocalyptic years of 2020-21. This performance is created in collaboration with Joe Levassuer (stage and lighting design), Jorge Morales (projection design), and the CultureHub/NY creative team.

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featuring

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Read about Fisher Center’s Covid-19 Health and Safety Protocols on their FAQs page, HERE.

Acknowledgements

Picture Brides ukulele generously provided by Blackbird Guitars. Images courtesy of the Barbara Kawakami Collection.

A Ritual for COVID-19 was made possible with funding by the New England Foundation for the Arts New Work New England program, with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, Seedlings Foundation, Fund for the Arts at NEFA, and individual donors. This project is supported by the Rebecca Blunk Fund.
Conceived by Jin Hi Kim
Music composition and performance: Jin Hi Kim (electric kŏmungo, buk, and voice)
Stage and lighting design: Joe Levasseur
COVID-19 documentary photo collection and organizing: Jin Hi Kim
CultureHub New York creative team
Production director: DeAndrea Anthony
Projectionist: Sangmin Chae
Video artist: Jean Garcia

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