Sounds Korean

MEDIA RELEASE

19 March 2004

Sounds Korean

Korean music is to take centre stage in Sounds Korean: A Festival of Korean Music next month.

The festival, which runs from April 1 to April 4, has been organised by the Conservatorium of Music at Massey University, Wellington, and Victoria University's School of Music as part of the initiative to establish the New Zealand School of Music. The festival has been organised in association with the Asia 2000 Foundation and the Embassy of the Republic of Korea.

Festival director Jack Body says “this is a reciprocal event which came about after an initiative by Korean composers to have a concert of New Zealand music in Seoul early last year. It is significant for artists within the region to share their experiences and reach a greater understanding of their respective cultures, rather than always being focused on Europe or America.” A delegation of nine Korean musicians will come to Wellington for this event, as well as composers from as far a field as Japan and Israel.

On Thursday 1 April at the Concert Hall of the Conservatorium of Music, Massey University at 12pm, Wellington ensemble, GateSeven, join forces with guest musicians from Korea to perform traditional and contemporary Korean Music. This free event will feature Postcards from the Camp, by Cecilia Heejeong Kim, a socio-political work for amplified string quartet and video about the Korean ‘comfort women’, women who were used as sex slaves by the Japanese during the Second World War. Two works for the Korean gayageum zither, will be performed by Korean virtuoso Yi Ji-Young.

On Saturday 3 April at 2pm, Murphy Building, Room 632, Victoria University, there will be an open seminar in which New Zealand and Korean composers will share experiences of what it’s like working in their respective countries. Special guest composers from Taiwan, Japan, Australia and Israel will also contribute to the event.

On Sunday 4 April at 2.30pm in the Hunter Council Chamber, Hunter Building, Victoria University, members of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, with Yi Ji-Young (gayageum) and Kim Woong-sik (percussion), under conductor Hamish McKeich will perform, among other works, Dylan Lardelli’s piece Paulownia which has been especially written for the occasion. This innovative cross-cultural piece combines gayageum with an ensemble of Western instruments. The concert begins with a demonstration of traditional Korean instruments, the gayageum zither and changgo drum.

For further information; contact Jack Body, Victoria University School of Music, 04 463 5853

Dylan Lardelli Biography

Dylan Lardelli, born in Wellington New Zealand holds a Bachelors degree in Guitar Performance and a Masters Degree in Composition from Victoria University of Wellington.

Dylan has been the recipient of many scholarships and awards and has been a prizewinner in the Victoria University of Wellington Composition Competition between 2000 and 2002 receiving first place in 2000 and 2002. He has been involved with premiere performances and recordings of many New Zealand compositions.

Dylan has had pieces performed by the Wellington Youth Orchestra the Victoria University of Wellington Orchestra, Saxcess, Saint Paul’s Cathedral Choir of Wellington, members of 175 East and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. He has been involved with the ensemble of professional musicians Stroma, both as a performer and a composer.

In 2003 he travelled to Seoul as part of an Asian Composers League exchange as both a composer and a performer. In the same year Dylan’s composition “Four Fragments” was the first place winner in the Asian Composers’ League Young Composers Competition in Tokyo.

As of October 2003 Dylan has held the shared position of Composer in Residence with the Auckland Philharmonia.

In 2003 Waiteata Press published his Eidolon for cello solo, and his Four Fragments will be published in 2004.

ENDS

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