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
Choi, Sung-soo '00 Yangpa '02 In, Mi-jung-'04 (left) and Jang, Hye-jin '04 14 Berklee today and drummers Bob Moses and Tony Smith for the project. After the album's release, Han gigged around Seoul playing clubs and studio sessions. (By now he's played on 150 albums.) In 1994 he started teaching guitar at Seoul Institute of the Arts, the first Korean school to offer a popular music curriculum. He's currently a professor at Howon University, a top institution for music. "Teaching wasn't something I'd planned to do," Han says, "I just wanted to play. But I also wanted to share what I had learned at Berklee and from playing for years." By now, I have taught the basics to about 5,000 students. Some have gone on to Berklee and they've returned to teach others what they learned." During the 1990s, a buzz about Han and his peers took hold among younger musicians. Fellow guitarist Steven Ohm '06 says, "When Sang and his friends returned and started playing great music, people began asking where they had learned those styles. "We looked up to them, and called them wonroh—the ancient ones or ancestors. If Sang-won and others hadn't gone to Berklee, many other Koreans might not have either. I went to Berklee because of him." Ohm has continued the tradition of passing the torch by launching IDRM, an online music school. Career Reinvention During the past 15 years, several Korean pop artists with established careers opted to put things on hold and attend Berklee to acquire new skills. Among them are songwriter Kim, Dong-ryool and vocalists Choi, Sung-soo, Jang, Hye-jin, Yangpa, and most recently, Lee, Sujin (a.k.a. Seomoontak). After releasing his first CD in 1983, Choi, Sung-soo '00 became a popular singer/songwriter known for penning wistful, chart-topping ballads that connected with Korean listeners in a big way. His many accolades include a Golden Disk Award in 1987 and appearing on the Top 10 Singers of the Year awards for the next two years. "At that time, ballads were a very popular Korean musical form," Choi says. "But by 1995, the rap artist Seo, Taiji had become famous. Before him, there were no Korean-language rap artists. I saw that Korean music was changing. It was harder for me to have a hit." Choi decided to attend Berklee to burnish his skills. "At first, I took performance and songwriting courses because I was a singer/songwriter. But writing lyrics in English was very difficult for me, so I became a professional music major." After receiving his degree in 2000, Choi returned to Seoul. But the ballad style he was known for had waned, there was a new emphasis on dance music. So Choi adapted and began mixing in jazz, classical, and musical theater styles with his ballads at concerts. He also released a series of compilation albums of his top songs. In 2008, he became the CEO of Yedang Art TV cable station. He appears frequently on TV shows, including the live concert program EBS Space Gong-Kam, and the talk show Are You Going with Me? Like many returning Korean alumni, Choi is a sought-after educator and has taught at several Seoul institutions. He currently teaches courses on music history—including early and contemporary jazz—at Jangan University. An enthusiastic advocate for Berklee in Korea, Choi served for a year as the president of the local Berklee alumni associa- tion in Seoul. While he enjoys a successful and ever-evolving career, songwriting and performing are his main interests. "I plan to do more TV and teaching," Choi says, "but my goal is still to write songs and sing." Foreign Exchange Yangpa '02 captured the attention of Korean pop listeners in the mid-1990s as a teen idol with her powerful delivery of romantic ballads. In 1997, a song from her self-titled debut album topped the charts, sold 800,000 copies, and netted multiple awards. Her subsequent albums also soared up the charts. With a career firmly on the upswing, Yangpa surprised her fans by accepting a scholarship to study at Berklee in 1999. "It was time for me to go to university," Yangpa says. "But I knew my career would make attending a university in Korea difficult." To comprehend Yangpa's dilemma, just imagine Justin Bieber taking a hiatus to attend an American college. "I needed a break and I wanted to study music properly," she says. So Yangpa chose Berklee. "It ended up that I didn't get to have a real private life at Berklee, though. Students as well as teachers knew that I was a star in Korea." Yangpa had come to Berklee at the same time as another Korean former teen star, singer/songwriter Kim, Dong-Ryool '04. A story on the two in a major Boston newspaper trumpeted their arrival. While in Boston, Yangpa released the recording "Letter from Berklee." After two years, she returned to Korea. Before completing his studies in film scoring, Kim, Dong-ryool released the album Hope, which combined the sounds of the London Symphony Orchestra and traditional Korean percussion. Today, Kim continues to release critically acclaimed albums and is a popular TV and radio host. Conversely, Yangpa encountered contractual problems with her label, and since her return to Korea, has issued new albums only sporadically to her still-loyal fan base. The Korean pop music machine is fixated on youthful stars, and Yangpa was no longer a teen sensation. "These days, people begin careers at 11 or 12," she says. "I am older now, and I had a hard time with my contract when I was in my 20s." Now a 30-something, Yangpa is negotiating offers from CJ Entertainment (a major Korean distributor) and American record label Interscope. "I was a ballad singer when the Korean market was dominated by ballads and dance music," she says. "Now there's a lot of hip-hop, electronic, and other music out there. My tastes run toward rock, but I'm not quite sure what I'll do next." I Am a Singer Jang, Hye-jin '04 began her ascent as a Korean pop star in 1991 after the release of her debut album, Always in My Dreams. Her husky alto voice and emotional delivery drew in many fans. Throughout the 1990s, she released a string of albums and hit songs and kept a busy schedule with TV and concert appearances. Pondering her future, she decided she needed to know more about music. Friend and Berklee alumnus bassist Chang, Ki-ho recommended that she attend Berklee. "I had been a professional for 10 years before I came to Berklee," Jang says. "I'd wanted to go there for a long time after looking into it." Once on campus, Jang was immediately recognized by fellow Korean students. "My English didn't get that much better, because they all wanted to hang out with me and we spoke Korean," she says with a smile.