SYBIL
violin concerto
It was an April night in freshman year of college that I met a violinist–really met him for the first time after a semester and change of school together–in a conversation about his life and the way he thought about the world and music itself. And I was just smitten. And I still remember walking back to my dorm room, and realizing I was hearing a violin concerto play itself into existence in the "thunder dome" of my mind. It was one of those magical times where my conscious brain was just a spectator, not a creator, and I felt strongly the powerful gravity of whatever that music and that evening was beginning.
The summer that followed was one where the one family trip was up north in Michigan to an island to spread my grandmother's ashes, a surprisingly noiseless end to the last 15 years which had witnessed her steady descent from her posh life of 1990s real estate, glamorous adventures with her girlfriends (all of whom had names that ended in "y"), and a fierce independence all the way down, deep down, into madness and anger courtesy of Alzheimers. Coping with this ending of hers had quite a foil in the rest of my summer, spent at my parent's home in the woods, the magic of twilight and fireflies as its own soft balm.
I worked my way through the first two movements of Sybil at my piano that summer, sitting down there every time I needed solace.
I had grown up as a serious little violinist but hadn't, at 19, met the Sibelius concerto yet or even met the Barber concerto. Sybil was just, in retrospect, a self-portrait in the way that all creation is self-portrait. Music as diarist. And of course she's so much more now too, existing as her own thing, own experience in minds and ears and bodies and memories outside my own. Which is so beautiful. So if you're reading this, it's because you're hanging out with her now too, listening. So thank you : ' )
Instrumentation: 2.2.2.2./2.2.2.1./timp./solo violin/strings
Duration: 22 Minutes, Three Movements
Premiered by: Eunae Koh with Nathan Aspinall and NEC, 2015
premiere recording
Second Prize and Chamber Music Prize winner of the 2015 Michael Hill International Competition, violinist Eunae Koh enjoys a rapidly blossoming career as a soloist, chamber musician, and concertmaster. Ms. Koh made her concerto debut at the age of nine with the Seoul Symphony Orchestra and won numerous national competitions in her native South Korea. In 2010, she was awarded the Seong-Yawng Park Special Prize at the Isang Yun International Competition. Soon after coming to the United States in 2013, she made her U.S. debut performing the Brahms Concerto in Jordan Hall with the New England Conservatory Symphony Orchestra as the school’s competition winner.
Ms. Koh has appeared internationally as a soloist with many orchestras such as the Auckland Philharmonic Orchestra, Colby Symphony Orchestra, Hwaum Chamber Orchestra, New England Symphony Orchestra, Korean Chamber Orchestra and Sungjung Philharmonic Orchestra. Her live performances have been broadcasted on the ArteTV, KBS Classic FM in Korea and WCRB in Boston. She gave her first public recital at the age of 13 in Kumho Art Hall and was invited to return for another recital several years later.
A serious chamber musician, Ms. Koh has collaborated with many renowned musicians including Donald Weilerstein, Steven Mackey, Anthony Marwood, Ayano Ninomiya, Natasha Brofsky, Michael Kannen and Victor Rosenbaum. She has toured with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Also, she has performed with A Far Cry, Symphony in C and European Salon Orchestra. She regularly appears with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble, New York Classical Players, Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and Wellesley Chamber Players. Her festival appearances include Yellow Barn Music Festival, Rockport Chamber Music Festival, Olympic Music Festival and Kneisel Chamber Music Festival. She has appeared at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Weill Recital Hall, Lincoln Center, Jordan Hall and Seoul Arts Center.
As an orchestral leader, Ms. Koh has served as concertmaster at the Haffner Sinfonietta for three years. She has also served as guest concertmaster at the Symphony in C, New York Classical Players, New England Symphony, Camerata Virtuosi, New England Conservatory’s self-conducted Chamber Orchestra, New England Conservatory Philharmonic Orchestra and both orchestras of Seoul National University.
In addition, Ms. Koh is an active teacher, maintaining a private studio since 2008. As teaching assistant of Donald Weilerstein from 2015 to 2017 and Young Uck Kim from 2012 to 2013, she taught undergraduate and graduate students at the New England Conservatory and Seoul National University. In 2018, Ms. Koh joined the faculty at Yellow Barn Music Festival's Young Artists Program and New York Music School. She was also a teaching artist at Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens, New York.
Ms. Koh received a master’s degree and a Graduate Diploma with the Abraham Skernick Memorial Presidential Scholarship at the New England Conservatory after completing bachelor’s degree at Seoul National University. A recipient of the Robert Mann Endowed Scholarship, she is currently pursuing a Doctoral degree at the Manhattan School of Music where she studies with Brentano Quartet violinist Mark Steinberg. Her primarily mentors are Mark Steinberg, Donald Weilerstein and Young Uck Kim.