Poem for Moonjar Profile
Shinuh Lee
It has been said that Shinuh Lee is a composer who ponders seriously about the origins and nature of human existence and her works are the result of such thoughts. Lee's reflection touches on the universal pain and emotion of heartbreak of humans in the secular world, but she is a composer who is ultimately finding the consolation and language of healing in regard to these things.
Lee studied composition with Sukhi Kang at Seoul National University and later with Michael Finnissy at the Royal Academy of Music in London and the University of Sussex. She won the Royal Philharmonic Society Prize for Composers and the Musical Times Composers’ Competition. She was also a finalist at Gaudeamus International Composers’ Competition and the Leonard Bernstein International Jerusalem Composing Competition.
Lee’s works are being performed by many orchestras, ensembles and soloists. Her clarinet concerto commissioned by the Seoul International Music Festival was premiered by Michel Lethiec and the Korean Chamber Orchestra conducted by Grzegorz Nowak, ‘Lament’ by Lethiec with ensemble Opus at the Casals Festival, ‘Four Songs of Lamentation‘ by Hyunah Yu and the Prime Philharmonic Orchestra, and Symphonic Poem ‘Yeomillak‘ by Sejong Soloists in Korea and New York Carnegie Hall. Most recently, her viola concerto ‘Earth Poem‘ commissioned by the National Orchestra of Korea, was premiered by Hwayoon Lee and the NOK conducted by Yunsung Chang at the opening concert of the Ieum Music Festival in the National Theater of Korea in 2022. Her new albums 'Till Dawn' and 'Death and Offering' were released by SONY Classical in December 2021. She has been a professor in composition at College of Music, Seoul National University since 1999, and was appointed as an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music 2019.
Hwayoon Lee
Hwayoon Lee was born in Seoul. She began playing the violin at the age of five, switched to the viola at nine and developed the basis of her viola playing from the great European tradition, studying with Sang-Jin Kim, primarily through the exercises of Tibor Varga. Since the age of 13, she has been a popular violist in chamber music concerts and enjoys joining her teacher Sang-Jin Kim in his concerts. Since 2013, she has regularly toured with the ensemble of star violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter. Masterclasses with Yuri Bashmet, Tabea Zimmermann, Steven Isserlis and others and numerous prizes are testimony to her masterly effortless technique and warm musical radiance. From 2015 to 2019, she studied with Prof. Nobuko Imai at the Kronberg Akademie (as a scholarship holder of the Friends of the Anne-Sophie Mutter Foundation). Since 2021, she has been continuing her studies with Prof. Hartmut Rohde at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. (Graduation: concert exam)
From 2001 to 2003, she learned the art of Pansori from the master Jung-Hae Oh. Today, she has replaced her voice with her instrument bringing the expressiveness of this "art of storytelling" to the concert hall. She also plays the gayageum, the traditional Korean arched board zither.
Hwayoon Lee regularly performs with international orchestras, including the Baltic Philharmonic Orchestra (Krzysztof Penderecki), the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (Manfred Honeck), the hr Symphony Orchestra (Gregory Vajda), the Moscow Soloists, the New Russia State Symphony Orchestra (Yuri Bashmet), the Munich Symphony Orchestra (Ken-David Masur), the Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester Berlin (Michael Francis), the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra (Joana Mallwitz) and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden. Hwayoon Lee performed on a viola by Gasparo de Salò dating from 1590 on loan from the Samsung Foundation.
Eun-E Goh
Eun-E Goh is a pianist, musicologist and a journalist. She was a winner of International Charles Hennen competition in Holland and made a highly claimed debut at the South Bank Centre as a Park Lane Artist. While studying at the Royal Academy of Music for her undergraduate and Masters, her particular interest in contemporary music formed through collaborations with distinguished composers including Ligeti and Schnittke. This led her to research further about the ‘Notation and its Limits of Interpretation’ at the Goldsmiths College. She is inquisitive about the relationship between the creative process and its interpretation through the sociological and humanistic aspects.
Her cross disciplinary interest coupled with her Korean roots resulted in unique concerts with a wide spectrum of artists ranging from traditional Korean music performers, visual artists and dancers both in Europe and Korea. She was a regular contributor for Korean music magazines, newspapers and radio. She is a member of the contemporary music ensemble ‘Phenomena’ in London and the co-leader of a group and platform of musicians ‘The Pathway’ based in Korea.