Berklee today is the official alumni publication of Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. It is a forum for contemporary music and musicians.
Issue link: http://berkleetoday.epubxp.com/i/106074
Jang majored in professional music, and studied piano, arranging, and more. Among her professors were Danny Morris (groove writing) and Donna McElroy (voice). After Bill Cosby handed her a diploma at Berklee's 2004 commencement ceremony, she returned to Seoul. In 2011 she reached a career high point when she competed on the Korean TV show I Am a Singer. Unlike American Idol or The Voice, all competitors on the program are established professional singers. The visibility heightened her fame and requests for more concert and TV appearances poured in. "I turn down a lot of TV offers," she says. "I want to remain a musician rather than become a TV celebrity. But if the show is more about music than entertainment, I'll accept the offer." In addition to her performing career, Jang also devotes a lot of energy to education. A faculty member at Hanyang Women's University in Seoul, she spends four days a week teaching voice and ear training and directing a vocal ensemble. Lee, Su-jin (whose stage name Seomoon Tak) is an unusual artist in K-pop; when her debut album, Asura, came out in 1999, Korea had few rock singers—especially female rockers. Seomoon Tak is known for her gutsy and agile voice (visit www. youtube.com/user/333mtak ). To date, she has released seven CDs, and her latest, Victoria, is her first self-produced outing. Sales of her albums for BMG Korea total nearly 1 million units. After more than a decade as a successful concert and recording artist, Seomoon Tak came to Berklee in 2010. "I felt that I needed to learn how to communicate better with musicians and engineers," she says. "I hadn't had any musical education before Berklee, so I came to learn how to express my ideas." Seomoon Tak is an MP&E; major, but she is also honing her vocal chops. Like Jang, Hye-jin, she was chosen as a contestant for I Am a Singer. In mid-2012, she took a leave of absence from Berklee to return to Seoul for the show's latest season. There were significant benefits for Seomoon Tak to compete. "Lots of people watch this show," she says. "Also, we're asked to sing songs by other artists, so I am singing in styles other than what I'm known for." Seomoon Tak is a finalist, and a win could boost her career to new heights. After the show's conclusion, she plans to make a new album and then return to Berklee. "I don't know how long it will take," she says, "but I want to get back to finish my program." film Peppermint Candy by famed Korean director Lee, Changdong. Lee, Jaejin took a yearlong leave of absence from Berklee and returned to Seoul to score it. The venture paid off when the film won several festival awards and its director hired him to score his next film as well. After 13 years of composing for features, Lee is firmly established with Korean filmmakers and pens two to three scores annually. The hardworking Lee is not just riding the wave of his success though, he's digging deeper into his field. Currently, he is completing master's degree studies at Korea University in film for journalism and communication. "I want to better understand what makes people react to a film. What makes them experience surprise, cry, and laugh? Music is a big part of that." Lee is also teaching students about film music and hopes the master's degree will offer further opportunities to teach. He's also planning to form a production company that will enable him to take on more film projects. "I've been handling all the music issues in my projects by myself," he says. "In Korea, the composer also does the work of a music supervisor. So I take on the responsibilities for all the music in a film. It's difficult to write everything I need. I'm hoping to build a team to compose and arrange with me, as [L.A.-based film composer] Hans Zimmer has done with his company Remote Control." Despite having few spare hours, Lee makes time to regularly gather Berklee film scoring alumni for discussions about the business. While in Seoul, President Roger Brown and I attended one of their dinner meetings. Young alumni such as Nam, Yunhee '11, Yoon, Sunghye '06, Hwang, Hyesook '06, and Hwang, Sunkyun '10 are composing for documentaries and industrial projects. Cho, Sun-han '11 is working with a music director at EDU Broadcasting, and Chong, Jeehoon '06 is writing music for theater productions and films as well as teaching. Sadly, I couldn't connect with another alumnus, Kim, Jungbum '08, during my Seoul visit, but his label, Stomp Music, passed along several CDs. Kim has scored a handful of films and released CDs and singles with his band Pudding and under the nom de plume Pudditorium. Kim's soundtracks for the films Project 577, My Dear Enemy, and Love Talk reveal an artist capable of writing and playing piano with authenticity in a number of genres, from traditional and Dixieland jazz to funk to Latin styles to electronic dance music and New Age piano improvisation. He's someone to watch. Music for the Screen With 30 movies on his résumé, Lee, Jaejin '00 ranks among the topmost film composers in Korea. Before attending Berklee, he played piano and sang. But despite winning several prestigious music competitions, he decided against majoring in music when he enrolled at Hanyang University. After graduation, he turned his attention to contemporary music. A brochure for Berklee picturing one of his musical heroes (Pat Metheny) inspired Lee to apply to the college. He became a film scoring major only after prodding from his piano teacher, Assistant Professor John Arcaro. "He heard my compositions and recommended that I become a film scoring major," Lee says. "John was not only a piano instructor but also a mentor." In 1999, while Lee was still a Berklee student, a friend in Seoul connected with him and said that a Columbia University graduate needed music for his short film. The score that Lee completed in one day led to an opportunity to score the feature TV and Musical Theater Pianist, composer, arranger, and TV host Yoonhan '06 graciously made time for our interview on a busy day just before he dashed off to the sound check for a concert at a venue miles outside of Seoul. Yoonhan is a rising star with a multidimensional career. A film scoring major, his training in arranging and orchestration comes in handy when he writes two charts weekly for the 30-piece orchestra on the TV show he hosts. MBS (one of the four major national TV and radio networks in South Korea) airs Beautiful Concert on Sundays, with Han serving as the musical director and pianist as well as the show's MC. "Playing in front of people is not as hard for me as being an MC," Yoonhan confesses. "This is the first time I've done this. Everything is on a teleprompter, but I memorize my lines so that it won't look like I'm reading." Lee, Su-jin '12 (aka Seomoon Tak) From the left: Don Wilkins, Lee, Jae-jin '00, and Colette Delerue on the day in 2000 when Lee received the Berklee Georges Delerue Film Scoring Scholarship Yoonhan '06 Spring2013 15