The third annual June S. Kang Love of the Arts Scholarship benefit concert was held on Friday, January 13th at the Vilar Performing Arts Center in Beaver Creek. including performances by renowned violinist Chee-Yun accompanied by classical guitarist Zaira Meneses, Jing Want on violin, Conor Hanick on piano, Jeremy Turner on cello, along with soprano and vocalist Courtenay Budd. The Korean-born Chee-Yun's first public performance was at age 8 took place in her native Seoul, after she won the Grand Prize of the Korean Times Competition. At 13, she came to the United States and was invited to perform the Vieuxtemps Concerto No. 5 in a Young People's Concert with the New York Philharmonic. Two years later, she performed in Carnegie Hall with the New York String Orchestra. Chee-Yun, charming, charismatic and deeply passionate about her art, has also played with the San Francisco Symphony, the National Symphony, the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, the New York Chamber Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony. Overseas, she has made numerous tours with such orchestras as the Haifa Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Germany´s Braunschweig Orchestra and the NDR Radio Leipzig.
Local Edwards resident Han Kang established the benefit concert in 2010 in memory of his late wife, June. Chee-Yun, a long-time family friend of the Kang family, will again include Beaver Creek on her world tour to honor the Kang family and to help raise monies for this special scholarship. All proceeds from the concert directly benefited the June S. Kang Love of Arts Scholarship fund with monies to be awarded to an Eagle County high school graduate, with plans to pursue a degree in the performing arts. And this year’s concert had a special addition to the program: a piece composed by the 2011 June S. Kang scholarship recipient, Nathan Ball.
This past spring the June S. Kang Scholarship Committee selected Nathan Ball as its second recipient. Nathan is a graduate of Battle Mountain High School and has continued his pursuit of musical education at Boston College, the New England Conservatory of Music and the Brevard Music Institute. Ball is utilizing the funds to pursue his doctorate at the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University. In an effort to honor June S. Kang, Ball described his inspiration for the composition, “I wrote a piece that tried to convey an archetypical response to the loss of a friend, or family member. More specifically, I wished to capture the beauty and hope that can arise amidst times of trial and loss.”
Not only did Chee-Yun give a fantastic performance Friday, but she also made a special visit to our First Notes program at Avon Elementary School on Wednesday during PwrHrs. In addition to being a world-class musician, Chee-Yun acts as an educator, teaching master classes around the world and holding teaching posts at music schools and universities. These days, she's Artist-in-Residence and Professor of Violin at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Teaching has helped me become a better musician,” she said. “When I was a student I took every word that my teacher said very seriously. Now as a teacher, knowing that whatever I say to my students is going to remembered for the rest of their lives, I'd better say something that is going to be inspiring to them.” And her passion for education definitely showed as she played for the students and worked with the talented ten students chosen to perform with her on stage. As the students practiced their piece that they were to perform on Friday as Chee-Yun’s opening act, she could see that the students were nervous. So, she asked the musicians to put down their instruments and sing along with her. “If you can sing it,” she said “you can play it!” But Chee-Yun wasn’t done with them yet; she wanted the opportunity to play with the First Notes students, and they started a second round of “Ode to Joy.” Slowly as the song went on, all of the professionals began to join in and play with the students. So it was decided that rather than being an opening act, the young musicians would become a part of Chee-Yun’s program, an experience that the students will not soon forget. And through it all her passion for music and for teaching young musicians shone through, showing why she is the perfect person to do what she loves to advocate for the June S. Kang Love of the Arts Scholarship and help a student to follow his or her passion just as she has.
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