Our Team
Ji In Yang
DIRECTOR
South Korean violinist Ji in Yang began her music journey at the age of six. Since then, she has appeared internationally as soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician at such venues as the Salle Gaveau in Paris, the Seoul Arts Center, Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, Carnegie Zankel Hall and Weill Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall, and Cadogan Hall. Recognized for her expressive and nuanced playing, the United Kingdom’s Musical Opinion described her solo appearance at Cadogan Hall as “brilliantly played”.
A guest soloist of orchestras internationally, Ms. Yang regularly appears with ensembles in the United States and all the major orchestras in Korea, including the KBS Symphony Orchestra, Bucheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few.
Ms. Yang tours regularly with the distinguished conductorless ensemble, Sejong Soloists, where she often appears as a soloist. Their most recent album “Passion” on the Universal Music label features her as a soloist in Piazzolla's Four Seasons’ Summer and Ponce’s Estrellita arranged by Heifetz. In 2006, she was appointed the “Samsung Foundation of Culture” Chair, a distinction she held until 2008.
Ms. Yang's performances have also been heard on radio and television shows such as NPR’s From the Top, Japan’s NHK, America’s Capital Public Radio on “Insight”, and guest appearances on Korea’s KBS television shows “Art Theatre” and “Classic Odyssey". She was also a guest performing artist at the United Nations in their Earth Day celebrations.
A frequent collaborator with some of the worlds leading musicians, she has worked closely with such artists as Joseph Kalichstein, Cho-Liang Jimmy Lin, and Elmar Oliveira. Ms. Yang holds a Bachelor and Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School where she studied with Hyo Kang and Dorothy DeLay, graduated from Yale University with an Artist Diploma on a full scholarship, and Doctorate of Musical Arts on a full scholarship at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York with Daniel Phillips. She has also worked with Ruggiero Ricci, Itzahk Perlman, Rodney Friend, Robert McDuffie, Dong-Suk Kang, Rolf Scholte, Chin Kim, and Igor Ozim in masterclasses.
Ms.Yang plays a Petrus Guarnerius violin, made in Venice in 1723.
Hyun Kyung Lee
CO-DIRECTOR
A composer, pianist, educator, and arranger originally from Seoul, Korea and now living in New York City. Hyun Kyung has received awards from several distinguished Korean organizations, including the Korea Times, the Contemporary Music Society in Seoul, ISCM Section Korea, and the Daegu Contemporary Music Festival; she has also received a scholarship from the Grace Mission Foundation. During her doctoral studies at the Graduate Center at CUNY, Hyun Kyung was awarded the Graduate Center Teaching Fellowship, the Presidential Research Fund for Doctoral Student Travel Grant, an Elebash Scholarship, and the Morton Feldman Composition Award from CUNY Brooklyn College.
Hyun Kyung’s works have been performed by prominent ensembles including the American Modern Ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, Contemporaneous, GPAMF Ensemble, Mivos String Quartet, Vigil Ensemble, CME Ensemble, the Korea Wind Society Ensemble, Bangta Percussion Ensemble, Les Beat Ensemble, and the ISCM section Korea.
As an arranger of music, Hyun Kyung has been recognized for her unique orchestrations, most notably her arrangements for the Beatles on Baroque Concert. In addition, she has collaborated with choreographer Artis Smith. As a pianist, Hyun Kyung has performed with the Korea Symphony Orchestra and the Korea Wind Society Ensemble. She is also an accomplished church musician, having served as an accompanist and music arranger.
Hyun Kyung studied with Professors Tania León, David Schober, Ben Bierman, Jeff Nichols, Ursula Oppens, Anne Stone, Gee-Bum Kim, and Seungwoo Paik. She graduated from CUNY Brooklyn College, where she received her MA in Composition. In 2022, Hyun Kyung received her DMA in Music Composition from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York with her dissertation “Unsuk Chin’s Hyper-Sheng: Sonic and Structural Development in Šu for Sheng and Orchestra,” an analysis of Unsuk Chin’s Šu for Sheng and Orchestra. This document examines Chin’s treatment of the sheng and the development of the orchestra in partnership with the solo instrument, focusing on the creation of a “hyper-sheng:” the solo sheng and the orchestra’s collaborative production of a large-scale version of the sheng’s sonic quality and structure. She has presented her paper at the Penn State New Music Festival and Symposium, the International Conference on Women’s Work in Music (WWM) in the UK, the Asian Classical Music Initiative (ACMI), and the CUNY Graduate Center Dissertation Showcase.
Hyun Kyung has been a faculty member at CUNY Brooklyn College since 2014 and is the Director of Composers at the Piano Concert series, a component of the Composer’s Forum.
