If you have been following Glow Music, you might have noticed that we have been busy! This post aims to round up our project that culminated in the concert on April 14, and a community education program around the concert date.
The “Concert Number Four: Connecting the Dots” was a two-part project. One is the concert, and another is that the student-artists visit Cincinnati’s local music program to interact with their youth groups.
On April 12, two days before the concert, the first team, Yasmine (violin) and Saebyul (composition) visited MYCincinnati and met their string ensemble students. This event was curated to involve our artists directly with a local community, especially an underserved one. During the visit, Yasmine and Saebyul played the violin and piano for the kids and were able to demonstrate basic musical concepts. Saebyul also had the kids improvise as a group by having cello section pluck one note, the viola section play one note, and the violin section knock on their instrument! Yasmine instantly reacted to it and improvised on her violin, and it made the whole experience exciting!
MYCincinnati brings together students from 3rd to 12th grade in the Price Hill area to provide a free music ensemble program. Multiple groups of students regularly get together at a renovated firehouse building to make music!
Yasmine also introduced Saebyul’s new composition to the MYCincinnati kids with a few demonstrations of her compositional techniques in the children’s language, and Saebyul had a chance to explain what it meant for her.
After the first hour, they sat in at the ensemble rehearsal to help out kids who would have difficulty following the instructions or reading music.
Only two days later, we met again at the concert! It was absolutely a beautiful day to present a concert. ARCO was a perfect place to put on our concert, and the staff were wonderful people to work with. After a couple hours of setting up and soundchecks, we opened the house to the public.
Photo credit @Richard Van Dyke
People kept coming in, and we constantly had to put more chairs! We had a variety of audiences. There were performers’ family members and professors, Glow Music’s regular VIPs :), a MYCincinnati student and parent, and followers of ARCO events! Together we had more than 50 people in the audience.
The first half was Yasmine’s solo violin program, including the world premiere of ‘misfit’ by Saebyul Woo.
Photo credit @Bill Lindsay
The second half was a musical offering of Noah Jacobsen (piano) and Meg Booker (soprano). They brought the theme of mythology, and also premiered ‘Two Songs by Sara Teasdale’ by Kevin X. Li!
The crowd really enjoyed what the performers had to offer. As the one who was watching everything from the back, I felt the deep connection happening – when Yasmine introduced Saebyul’s composition notes, and when Meg and Noah drove the music to climax.
Another big part of this concert is the commission and collaboration! Glow Music finds student composers whose music is deserved to be highlighted regardless of their background and commissions a piece of music for our concert. Then, we connect the composers and performers to collaborate toward the most artistic and effective performance. This year, we paired up Saebyul Woo with Yasmine Bougacha (violin), and Kevin X. Li with Meg and Noah (Soprano&piano). Glow Music saw meaningful collaborations and the fantastic world premiere!
The concert and MYC program accomplished its goal to connect the performers and the audience of the community. We are moving one step forward! We want to thank all of our supporters, volunteers, and donors.
-April 25, 2024. Yeon-Kyung Kim
Yeon-Kyung Kim, piano 