Word: kohs
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Nearly 40 years ago, as a consequence of traveling to North Korea, composer Isang Yun was forced to leave his homeland of South Korea and go into exile in Germany. More than 30 years later, cellist Bong Ihn Koh ’08 would also live in South Korea and Berlin, discovering Yun’s music along...
...Koh will make the journey that proved fateful for Yun, traveling to Pyongyang to perform Yun’s “Cello Concerto” as part of a festival honoring the composer, who died in 1995. The Isang Yun World Peace Concert, a rare event that brings together musicians from both North and South Korea, is a joint effort between the South’s Isang Yun Peace Foundation and the North’s Yun I Sang Music Institute. Koh will perform with the Isang Yun Orchestra and renowned Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conductor Chung Myung-Whun...
Though soft-spoken, Koh, a biochemical sciences concentrator in Cabot House, exudes passion and enthusiasm when he talks about Yun, a personal hero for the cellist. “Yun said, ‘You can express the world’s pain through music,’ which I believe in,” says Koh. Though born in South Korea, Koh did not encounter the music of Yun until his high school years in Berlin. It was after watching a documentary on Yun that Koh decided to champion the music of his fellow countryman...
...Koh was particularly affected by the location of the competition: Yun’s birthplace of Tongyeong, South Korea. “[I felt] a wave of emotion when I arrived in Tongyeong,” recalls Koh. “The hotel I was staying at was right on the coast, which Yun missed most during his exile. I arrived late in the evening and was unaware of the beauty of Yun’s memories...
...Koh was disappointed by one aspect of the competition: the apathy towards Yun’s music that many of Koh’s competitors expressed. In what was supposed to be a competition honoring the composer’s accomplishments, Koh would be the only participant to perform one of Yun’s pieces—the challenging 1976 “Cello Concerto”—in the final rounds...