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Hi Kyung Kim,
Chair, Competition Committee

Hi Kyung Kim received B.A. in composition from Seoul National University , and the M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California , Berkeley . As a recipient of the U.C. Berkeley’s George C. Ladd Prix de Paris, she worked at IRCAM and École Normale Supérieure in Paris in 1988-1990. Her composition teachers were Andrew Imbrie, Olly Wilson, Gérard Grisey, and Sung-Jae Lee. Currently she is an associate professor at the University of California , Santa Cruz and artistic director of Pacific Rim Music Festival

Her honors/awards include the Walter Hinrichsen Award from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress, Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award, Commissioning USA grant from Meet the Composer, Tanglewood Music Center, MacDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Cleveland Dodge Foundation, Korea Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, American Music Center , grants from the University of California InterCampus Arts Program for the Pacific Rim Music Festival and others.

Her recent commissions include pieces by Meet the Composer and Yo-Yo Ma and the Chamber Music Society of Minnesota, Alexander String Quartet, Aki Takahashi & Rae Imamura, Ensemble Parallèle and UC Santa Cruz Chamber Singers among many others. Her recent project trilogy “Rituels” for Korean Dancer/percussionist, Korean Ensemble and Western Ensemble was featured at the Other Minds Festival, Herbst Theatre, UC Arts & Lectures, Chamber Music Society of Sacramento, National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, Symposium for International Musicological Society in Melbourne , and the Festival/Conference of Inter-cultural creativity in Sydney , Australia . The piece, “Rituel III ,” the last in the Rituel series was presented at the Pacific Rim Music Festival, Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles, and at the San Francisco International Arts Festival in May 2005, which is in plan to receive it’s concert tour to New York, Washington DC, Korea and Europe.

Her music is published by C.F. Peters Edition, American Composers Edition, and Sumundang Edition and her CDs are released by Capstone, Centaur and Albany Records.

... more http://arts.ucsc.edu/faculty/Kim/

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Geon-Yong Lee

Geon-yong Lee started to compose since age twelve. He played oboe in school band in Seoul Middle School. He studied composition with Dal-Sung Kim at Seoul High School of Music and Arts and with Sung-Jae Lee at Seoul National University. In 1976 he went to Frankfurt am Main, Germany, and studied composition with Heinz Werner Zimmermann at Frankfurter Musik-hochschule. After returning to Korean he taught composition in Hyo-sung Woman’s University and Seoul National University. He moved to the Korean National University of Arts in 1993 and was named the president of the university in 2002.

Lee is one of the most serious composers of our time in Korea. It is his dream to share the story of lives through music. He doesn’t want to be alienated from his own music by burying himself in contemporary trends, and he does not want to be distanced by others. After returning from Germany he challenged the modernism which dominated Korean musical environment in early 1980s.  He founded composer’s group called The Third Generation. Since then he has devoted his effort in creating music that represents the unique identity of the third worlds and Korea. In early 1980s he produced mostly chamber works which include his experiments with Korean traditional styles and forms, such as Phrygian Sanjo, Cello Sanjo, Syrum-norum, and He-yoo-Gok. During late 1980s, while the political and social conditions of the country changed for the worst, he composed many vocal pieces with strong messages including Song of Yellow Jesus and Psalms of Wrath. Since early 1990s he has been focusing on the words like ‘touching’ and ‘moving’, and beauty of lyricism. His interest narrowed down to the localized beauty rather than the universal. All of his works performed today fall under the category of this inception.

... more http://www.knua.ac.kr/leegy/

Click here to view video clips of the performances of his music at Nichols Concert Hall in USA in 2005.
(Baetaraghi for Clarinet & String Quartet, Variations on a Korean Peasant Tune, Rhapsody for Violin and Piano & more..).

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Chan-Hae Lee

Chan-Hae Lee was born in 1945 Seoul, Korea. She received Bachelor's degree from Yonsei University. Also, she got master's degree and Ph.D.(course work) from the Catholic University of America in Washington, D. C., USA. She had studied composition with prof. Jae-Yul Park, prof. Un-Young La and Dr. George T. Jones and counterpoint with Dr. Conrard Bernier. For many times, she took music seminars and festivals in Europe, also her works have been performed by major symphonies and chamber groups in Korea and abroad.

Since 1977, she has been appointed as a professor of composition at college of music in Yonsei University Seoul, Korea. And she was a visiting scholar at Okland University(1984) and National Conservatory at Paris(1994). She had music seminar course of "Kodaly Method" in Hungary, 1989.

Recently, She is General secretary of ACL/Korea and president of the Korean society of 21st Century music, a board member of Korean Music Association and vice president of The Korean Women Composer. Also she received The National Composition Prize of Korea. Recently She is Secretary General of ACL.

Principle Works:

Orchestra
·"A Flame" for Violin Solo and Orchestra(1999)
·"KangKangsuele" for Orchestra
·Symphony of Psalm with Chorus, Soprano, Bariton(1976)
·Overture for Orchestra(1976)
·Symphony No.2(1976)
·Symphony No.1(1976)

Chamber Music
·"Martyr" for Chamber Orchestra(1993)

Musical
·"He"(1999)

Pansori=Mono Opera
·"Job" for Percussion and Korean Buk(1999)

Chorus
·"O, Lord Here I Am" for three Choruses(1984)
·"Spinning Wheel" for mixed Chorus(1979)

Chamber Music : above 5 players
·"The First Creation" for Soprano, Baritone, Piano, Cello, Flute (1981)
·"Revival" for Piano, Cello, Violin, Mezzo Soprano and baritone (1980)

Chamber Music : below 5 players
·From the point, From the line for Violin Solo (1997)
·Transfiguration for String Quartet (1998)
·The Pilgrims Progress for Chamber Ensemble (1990)
  - "Dream" for one Chamber Ensemble
  -"Start on Journey" for Piano Solo
  -"Under the Cross" for Cello Solo
  -"Agony" for String Quartet
  -"Glorification" for 3 Percussion players
  -"Galpiri" for Clarinet Solo (1982)

Chamber Music : included Korean instrument
·"Structure" for Kayakeum and String Quartet
·The Progress of Pilgrims for Taegum Solo

Percussion Music
·Tabnacle for 4 percussion players
·"Glorification" for 3 percussion players

Writing
· New style of Sight-singing Ear-training (1995, Tearim press)

... more http://www.musictoday21.com/21c_concert/member/staff/staff_pe09.htm

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Cliff Colnot

In recent years Cliff Colnot has emerged as a distinguished conductor and a musician of uncommon range.  He is principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's contemporary MusicNOW series, resident conductor of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and principal conductor of the Contemporary Chamber Players.  Colnot also conducts the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE), various orchestras at Indiana University, the Callisto Ensemble and the DePaul University Symphony Orchestra.

One of the few musicians studying orchestral repertory with Chicago Symphony Orchestra music director Daniel Barenboim, Colnot is the assistant conductor for Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Workshops for young musicians from Israel, Egypt, Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries.  

He is also assistant conductor at Pierre Boulez’s Lucerne Academy.  Colnot received acclaim for his performances of Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire at Carnegie Hall and Pierre Boulez’s  Le marteau sans maître with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. His orchestration of Duke Ellington’s New World Coming for piano and orchestra had its world premiere with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the fall of 2000 with soloist Daniel Barenboim, and he recently arranged, conducted and co-produced the compact disc Tribute to Ellington, which features Daniel Barenboim as  piano soloist.  

Colnot graduated with honors from Florida State University and received the 1995 Ernst von Dohnanyi Distinguished Alumni Award.  He earned his doctorate from Northwestern University and has taught jazz arranging and advanced orchestration at DePaul University and the University of Chicago, respectively.  As a bassoonist, he was a member of the Lyric Opera Orchestra of Chicago, Music of the Baroque and the University of Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players.

... more http://www.newcitychicago.com/chicago/cso_colnot.html

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Desiree Ruhstrat

The violin artistry of Desiree Ruhstrat has captivated audiences throughout Europe and the Americas . A seasoned performer, Ms. Ruhstrat made her professional debut at the age of twelve with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and at age16, Ms Ruhstrat performed Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in Chicago 's Orchestra Hall by invitation of Sir George Solti. She has worked with many renowned conductors such as Lukas Foss, Eric Kunzel, William Smith and has appeared as solist in cities  throughout the US and abroad.

German audiences have heard Ms. Ruhstrat in Hamburg , Göttingen, Baden-Baden and Stuttgart , where she toured with the Philharmonia Da Camera Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Michael Holtzel, and in Berlin where she was featured on a live radio broadcast performing Sibelius’s Violin Concerto with the Berlin Radio Symphony under the direction of Ricosaccani. Of this performance the Berlin Morning Post proclaimed, "Her wonderchild youth years already behind, she now stands with early maturity at the beginning of a likely brilliant career. At the same age once upon a time such violinists as Menuhin, Misha Elman and Schneiderhan excited the public in a similar sensation".

Ms. Ruhstrat has won numerous awards including  first prize, as well as a special award for a young performer with extraordinary talent at the National Young Musicians Debut Competition in Los Angeles . She became the youngest prizewinner ever at Switzerland 's Tibor Varga International Competition by capturing second prize and the award for best interpretation of the commissioned contemporary composition. She went on to earn top prizes at the Carl Flesch International Violin Competition, Julius Stulberg International String Competition and the Mozart Festival Violin Competition.

As an active recitalist, Ms. Ruhstrat has appeared in Europe as well as the United States including Chicago , New York , Los Angeles , Denver , and at the White House by invitation of President and Nancy Reagan.

Ms. Ruhstrat’s distinguished career as a chamber musician includes appearances as guest artist of the Chamber Music Series of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Apollo Chamber Ensemble, the Colorado Chambers Players, Pacifica Quartet, University of Oklahoma , University of Wisconsin and the University of Tennessee . Festival appearances include the Aspen Music Festival, Peninsula Music Festiva l, Laurel Festival of the Arts, the Breckenridge Music Festiva l, and the 1997-2003 Utah Music Festivals where she has also served as faculty. She is currently a member of the Lincoln Trio and a founding member of Camerata Chicago , a 13 piece chamber ensemble.

Ms. Ruhstrat is a graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music and her teachers have included Joseph Gingold, Dorothy Delay, Harold Wippler and Aaron Rosand.

This season Ms. Ruhstrat will record the Stamitz Duo for Violin and Viola for Centaur Records.

... more http://www.lincolntrio.com/lincolntrio/biographies/ruhstrat_3.htm

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Abraham Stokman

Abraham Stokman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel , where he began his piano studies at the age of six.  He came to the United States at the age of 12, when he was offered a scholarship from the Julliard School in New York City, where he obtained his bachelor's and master's degree with his teacher, Edward Steuermann. For five years, he served as a vocal coach at the Juilliard's opera department.  Then in the ensuing years, he proceeded to give solo and chamber concerts at the United States and Canada . In 1969, he moved to Chicago and became the artist-in-residence and assistant professor at the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University for six years, and subsequently served as chairman of the piano department at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago .

Mr. Stokman has scored brilliant successes in solo recitals at the Alice Tully Hall, the Town Hall in New York City , the Gardner Museum in Boston , the Phillips Gallery in Washington , and Mandel Hall in Chicago, as well as universities across the country. He was featured as soloist with many orchestras around the country, but most notably with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  For many years, he collaborated with the Steinway Company in bringing classical piano music played on a good instrument to the Chicago Public Schools. He gave piano recitals in different schools in Chicago and the Steinway Company provided a Steinway grand for the concerts. This was a huge success with school children, especially in the south side, many of whom may not have ever heard classical music. He also participated in a series of chamber music concerts with members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra given throughout the Chicago area. He helped start the Mostly Music series by playing the first opening concerts for them. In the spring of 1991, he was a guest artist in the first Irving S. Gilmore International Keyboard Festival in Kalamazoo , Michigan , where he premiered "Fluxus IX" a work written for him by Ramon Zupko. On the same program, he performed "Verticals" by Shulamit Ran, who won the Pulitzer Prize that same year.

Mr. Stokman has always been a champion of contemporary music. He was a member of the Contemporary Chamber Players with Ralph Shapey for many years, and has played for CUBE through the years.  He has premiered a lot of music and composers, Robert Lombardo, John Austin, Ramon Zupko, and Ernst Krenek have written works especially for him.  He premiered Ramon Zupko's piano concerto, "Windsongs" with the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra in Michigan .  He performed this same concerto at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. , and with the American Composers Orchestra in New York 's Lincoln Center .

Mr. Stokman has recorded Ramon Zupko's music for CRI, as well as a CD of twentieth century American piano music for Centaur records, featuring music of William Karlins and Howard Sandroff.  He also recorded "Hyperbolea" on a CD of Music by Shulamit Ran. Other recordings include "A Kurt Weil Cabaret" with singer Martha Schalamme for MGM, and "Songs from the Magic Door" with Charles Gerber.

Mr. Stokman is currently teaching piano and improvisation at the Music Institute of Chicago, where he has founded the contemporary music series, "Music for a While" For the past ten years, this series has featured contemporary composers and their music, presented in a format that made their music more accessible to the audience. Most performers that play in this series are from the faculty of the Music Institute. Some advanced students are coached and asked to participate in these concerts. After all, they will be the future performers of modern music.

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David Cunliffe

Cellist David Cunliffe began studying at the age of nine in his native England . Three years later he was chosen to receive a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London . In 1984 Mr. Cunliffe went on to study at the Royal Northern College of Music where he founded the Argyll String Quartet and was the recipient of the Terrance Weill and Leonard Hirsch Quartet prizes and the Lady Barbirolli Chamber Music Award. His teachers included Margaret Moncreiff, Moray Welsh, William Pleeth, Christopher Bunting and Ralph Kirshbaum. He completed his studies at the International Yehudi Menuhin Music Academy in Switzerland where he studied with Radu Aldulescu and toured throughout Europe with Yehudi Menuhin and the Camerata Lysy. In 1995 he was asked to join the Balanescu Quartet touring extensively to Australia , Europe and the United States appearing frequently on radio and TV, including featured performances on NPR and the BBC. He has served as Principal cello with the RNCM Chamber and Symphony Orchestra s and performances with BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish and Royal Scottish Symphony Orchestras. Mr. Cunliffe can be heard on various recording labels including Enja and DMD.

He is currently on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago and a founding member of the Lincoln Trio, ensemble-in-residence at the Music Institute. He is also a founding member of the Camerata Chicago Orchestra.

... more http://www.lincolntrio.com/lincolntrio/biographies/cunliffe.htm