Press Releases

Sejong Returns to London with "3 Music Moments in Time"

7:30pm, Sunday, June 8, 2007 at Cadogan Hall

London, England - As Hilary Finch wrote in The Times of its 2005 London debut, International Sejong Soloists (SEJONG) played with “laser-bright unison, feisty counterpointing, slick syncopations” . . . “one felt the tug of bow on string, and the inner resonance of wood and varnish, at a deeply visceral level.”  On June 10 of this year, SEJONG will return to London with a new program entitled 3 Music Moments in Time at the 900-seat Cadogan Hall.  The evening is divided into music from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries, and features the European premiere of Korean composer Sukhi Kang’s Four Seasons of PyeongChang, in addition to Serenade in C Major, Op. 48 by Tchaikovsky and The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Piazzolla/Leonis Desyatnikov.  The concert is presented by the Great Mountains International Music Festival of South Korea.  

Led by Artistic Director Hyo Kang, this “top notch conductor-less string orchestra” (Washington Post) brings together fourteen individually distinguished solo and chamber musicians who hail from eight different nations: Australia, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the United States.  Unique among chamber orchestras, each SEJONG member is also a soloist in his or her own right.  For the upcoming Cadogan Hall concert, various members will take charge of the solo parts in Four Seasons of PyeongChang and The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.   

Since its inception in 1995, SEJONG has been fulfilling a ‘cultural diplomacy’ mission through performances, documentaries, TV broadcasts, youth development activities and philanthropic endeavors worldwide.  The Ensemble is also highly committed to creating new repertoire and forging new collaborations across different disciplines.  Most current projects include the world premiere of Love Past Cure—a new opera commissioned by and created for SEJONG featuring Monteverdi madrigals interspersed with Shakespeare sonnets. The semi-staged production, created by Edward Berkeley and early music specialist Kenneth Merrill, partnered SEJONG with a quintet of singers and brings the concept of collaboration to a whole new level. 

As the host ensemble of the Great Mountains Music Festival & School, SEJONG has given world premieres of works by composers Behzad Ranjbaran and Jin-Hi Kim in commemoration of the 55th Anniversary of the Korean Civil War in 2005, among other notable concerts.  Now in its fourth season, the Great Mountains Music Festival & School has been attracting international attention for its stellar faculty, unique emphasis on chamber music training and lively cultural exchange between students of different nationalities.  Director Hyo Kang recently announced the inaugural Aldo Parisot Cello Competition, to take place during the 2007 Festival & School this August in PyeongChang, South Korea.