Kyong Mee Choi 2018 Commission Winner

Kyong Mee Choi, composer, organist, painter, visual artist, and poet, has received several prestigious awards and grants

Kyong Mee Choi, composer, organist, painter, visual artist, and poet, has received several prestigious awards and grants including John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, Robert Helps Prize, Aaron Copland Award, John Donald Robb Musical Trust Fund Commission, Illinois Arts Council Fellowship, First prize of ASCAP/SEAMUS Award, Second prize at VI Concurso Internacional de Música Eletroacústica de São Paulo, Honorary Mentions from Musique et d’Art Sonore Electroacoustiques de Bourges, Musica Nova, Society of Electroacoustic Music of Czech Republic, Luigi Russolo International Competition, and Destellos Competition. She was a Finalist of the Contest for the International Contemporary Music Contest "Citta' di Udine and Concurso Internacional de Composicai eletroacoustica in Brazil among others. Her music was published at CIMESP (São Paulo, Brazil), SCI, EMS, ERM media, SEAMUS, and Détonants Voyages (Studio Forum, France). Ravello records published her multimedia opera, THE ETERNAL TAO, which was supported by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship and Roosevelt University. Aucourant Records published her CD, SORI, featuring her eight compositions for solo instrument and electronics. The project was supported by the IAS Artist Project Grant from the Illinois Arts Council. She is the Head of Music Composition at Roosevelt University in Chicago where she teaches composition and electro-acoustic music. Samples of her works are available at http://www.kyongmeechoi.com.

Program Note by Kyong Mee Choi:
Adiós a lo conocido (Goodbye to the known) was commissioned by the University of New Mexico John Donald Robb Musical Trust. The composition is written for violin, clarinet, saxophone, bassoon, piano, and percussion and is scheduled to be premiered by the ensemble Sound Icon in March 2019. As a requirement of the commission, a folk tune, El Adios de Guaymas, from the John Donald Robb Archive of the UNM Zimmerman Library was used as source material for the composition.

The text of El Adios de Guaymas describes the emotional state of someone who is leaving their life and home, Guaymas, a city in Mexico. There are two parts to this folk tune. The first part says good bye to the town; the second part expresses hope to meet this place again in the afterlife. 

Adiós a lo conocido has three sections, and uses melodic lines and the spirit of El Adios de Guaymas. The first section is based on material from the first part of the El Adios de Guaymas, alternating slow and fast tempo and capturing an emotional stage of leaving the known. The second section uses some rhythmic patterns from El Adios de Guaymas to intensify this emotional stage. The last section utilizes the first section material in reversed order, alternating fast and slow tempo, indicating one’s hope for peace. Adiós a lo conocido aims to depict the journey of the acceptance and letting go of the known. 

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