Playing Traditional Korean Sanjo on the Violin

Sanjo is a genre of Korean traditional folk art music for a solo melodic instrument such as the zither kayagŭm or flute taegŭm, accompanied by an hourglass-shaped drum called changgu. Sanjo consists of several movements of increasing speed built on the unique Korean rhythmic patterns called changdan. The solo instrument plays dramatic and expressive melodic phrases that draw from the inflections of spoken Korean that are also characteristic of p’ansori singing.

ARTIST BIO

Although a native of Korea, violinist SOH-HYUN PARK ALTINO crossed paths with traditional Korean music only in 2019 while investigating distinctive musical elements in Sanjo for Violin and Piano (1955) by La Un-Yung (1922-1993), her maternal grandfather. Since then, supported by various research grants, she has pursued a new line of study of interpreting traditional ajaeng sanjo on the Western violin. In addition to studying extensively with traditional musicians in Korea, she has trained on the Kim Ilgu school of ajaeng sanjo with the composer-performer Kim Ilgu, Holder of National Important Intangible Cultural Property. This lecture and world premiere are made possible by the 2023 Korean Studies Grant of the Academy of Korean Studies and the Faculty Global Research Award of the Wheaton College.

Soh-Hyun came to the U.S. at age sixteen in pursuit of better musical educational opportunities and earned her bachelor’s, master’s, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in violin performance at the Cleveland Institute of Music under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein. Highly regarded as a gifted teacher and a versatile performer of solo and chamber music, Soh-Hyun taught at the University of Memphis and the University of Wisconsin-Madison prior to her current appointment as Associate Professor of Music at Wheaton College in Illinois.

Accompanist: JUNHO JEONG, National Gugak Center, Seoul

This event is a program of the U-M Fall 2023 Festival of Asian Music.

Festival of Asian Music