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
Performer-Professors Chung, Won-young '89 is an influential piano teacher and performer in Seoul. He started playing classical music at six, and decided to attend Berklee after his friends—songwriter Min Kim and guitarist Sang Won-han enrolled. Studying piano with Dean Earl at Berklee was Chung's first exposure to jazz. It became his passion. After earning his degree in professional music, he returned to Seoul in 1990 and began playing various gigs with singers and as an instrumentalist. He is presently finishing his sixth album featuring original music that straddles jazz and pop styles. He has also contributed his music to movie soundtracks and served as a judge on the popular music audition show Top Band. Teaching is also an important part of Chung's career. He teaches two days a week at Howon University, and has guided many young students—including 16-year-old prodigy and current Berklee student Chaeree Kaang. "Young musicians come to me and want to play like Hiromi or Brad Mehldau," Chung says. "Both of those artists are great, but that's not where students should start. It seems easier for young players to develop technique rather than feeling. I have them play the blues very slowly and listen to earlier players like Dave Brubeck or Thelonious Monk. Musicians need to keep returning to the roots of the music." Another jazz pianist and educator is Im, Mi-jung '04. A former student of Chung, Won-young and other Berklee alumni, Im, took their advice and continued her jazz studies at Berklee with Joanne Brackeen. Im is now a professor at Seoul's Hanyang Women's University and recently released a new album featuring the music of Benny Golson. Typically, Korean universities feature more instruction on pop styles than jazz. Im teaches jazz to her students and is sanguine about the future of the genre in Seoul. "There is not a large jazz audience here yet," she says. "Musicians love it, and there are a number of clubs where jazz musicians play. Maybe the audience will grow when a real Korean jazz star like Herbie Hancock [emerges]. We're waiting for a person like that." Jazz Expats Pianist Song, Young-joo '01 and drummer Lee, Sang-min are temporary Korean expats working as jazz musicians in New York. They play with various American artists and work together on occasion. They also stay plugged into the scene in Seoul, returning periodically for big gigs and recording sessions. Song arrived in New York in the fall of 2001 (just before the 911 attacks). She graduated from Berklee as a performance major and was in New York in a master's degree program at Manhattan School of Music. After completing that program in 2004, she returned to Korea and began touring extensively with K-pop artists Kim, Dong-ryool, Yangpa, Rain, and others, as well as teaching. In addition to her pop music work, Song headlined for her own jazz gigs and released seven albums for Sony Music Entertainment/Korea. Last year she won a 2012 Korean Music Award in the jazz performance category for her latest CD, Tale of a City. The disc showcases her formidable skills as a pianist and composer. "For about six years, I did a lot of pop gigs in Korea," Song said in a phone conversation from her New York apartment. "I played for tours and recordings and was also teaching at Korean universities. But then felt I had to go back to America to refresh and challenge myself." She returned to New York in 2010. "It was my plan to stay one year and then return to Seoul and teach. But at this stage in my career, I don't want to settle down yet." Song currently leads her own trio in gigs at Manhattan's Kitano and Blue Note jazz clubs and at Small's in the Village with such jazz exponents as saxophonist Mark Turner '90, bassist Vicente Archer, and drummers Marcus Gilmore and Kendrick Scott '03. She's brought American musicians back to Seoul for special concerts, too. She's found survival as a jazz musician in New York difficult, but being part of the Big Apple's jazz scene exhilarating. "I play with so many great jazz musicians all the time. If I go back to Korea, things would be better for me financially—and I know I can go back anytime. It's a sacrifice to be here. I've got an artist visa, and so for now, I just want to stay here playing and writing." Master Recorder Since earning his Berklee degree in MP&E; Hwang, Beyongjoon '99 has become one of Korea's top recording and mastering engineers. Upon earning a master's degree in electrical engineering at Seoul National University, Hwang enrolled at Berklee as an MP&E; major at 27. After an introduction by the late Berklee professor Robin Coxe-Yeldham, Hwang became an intern at the Boston-based recording company Soundmirror. It turned out to be a career-defining alliance. Back in Korea in 2000, he helped Soundmirror open a Seoul facility. Hwang still works periodically with the Boston team on projects in the U.S., Korea, and other countries. In fact, Hwang and Soundmirror's Boston team won a 2011 Grammy award in the Best Engineered Album, Classical, category for recording the opera Elmer Gantry. Cho, Yoon-seung '00 Song, Young-joo '01 Park Jong-geun own groups too. Like many Berklee-educated musicians in Seoul, Cho is also involved in education and teaches three days a week at Jangan University. Cho's current focus is on cultivating an indigenous jazz style. "K-pop is getting a lot of attention now, but I hope to develop 'K-jazz': incorporating traditional Korean music elements with jazz," he says. "I think it's possible." Cho has written the material and will soon record it. He'll collaborate with bassist Hwang, Ho-kyu '05 and drummer Lee, Sang-min '06. In addition to bass, Hwang will play Korean traditional stringed instruments, and Lee will add traditional percussion instruments. Cho is already booking festival performances of the new material. Cho is a model for the motivated contemporary musician. "I studied performance rather than composition," Cho says, "but I've gotten to write a lot of string arrangements for songwriters Choi, Sung-soo and Lucida Fall. But I believe musicians have to go beyond just playing and writing music. They should also do their own promotion, create blogs, and really manage their careers." Optimistic about the potential of K-jazz, he has bought Internet domain names for K-jazz and other variations on the name. "My two future goals are to become a great producer and to develop the K-jazz project. It won't happen in one year. Maybe it will take me 10." Hwang, Beyong-joon '99 Spring2013 17