About the Composer:

Dong-Ji Moon ’s musical education was greatly influenced by his mother who is a pianist and teacher. He came to America in 1997. He participated in the Montgomery County Honors String Orchestra and has been awarded by The Old York Road Symphony. He is currently studying composition with Dr. Brodhead at Temple University .

About the Music:

“ Hae - ga San M a - loo - eh Ju- mool - uh - do ” (해가 산마루에 저물어도) based on a poem by So Wol Kim: Melodically, this piece mostly uses a minor-pentatonic scale that is based on key signature. Every pitch in this scale is exactly matched with her feelings, so it could express her pains so well. It modulates five times by major-pentatonic scale (f-g-B flat-c-d) instead of minor-pentatonic which represents the composer’s hope for happy ending. Mostly, the pitch is based atonal harmony, but it also uses quintal harmony.

About the Poem

When the Sun comes to an end over the ridge of a mountain
To me, it comes to an end by the reason of you.

When the Sun rises over the ridge of a mountain
To me, the bright morning breaks by the reason of you.

When the ground caves in under my feet or when the sky falls down on my head
To me, all these happen by the reason of you.

Once again, when the time comes,
My never ending love to you will follow you like your shadow.

Oh, my beloved, my dear heart.

해가 산마루에 저물어도

  해가 산마루에 저물어도
  내게 두고는 당신 때문에 저뭅니다.

  해가 산마루에 올라와도
  내게 두고는 당신 때문에 밝은 아침이라고 할 것입니다.

  땅이 꺼져도 하늘이 무너져도
  내게 두고는 끝까지 모두다 당신 때문에 있습니다.

  다시는, 나의 이러한 맘뿐은, 때가 되면,
  그림자 같이 당신한테로 가오리다.

  오오, 나의 애인이었던 당신이여.

김소월(金素月)

So-Wol Kim (1902-34) is one of Korea ’s most famous poets. His most significant achievement was the flexibility and versatility he achieved in the use of the Korean language. In this poem, he presented the sorrow of a woman who was left by her husband. Here, he indicated the East Asian culture of woman that always had been on lower position than man. Basically this poem is all about her grief and yearning for her husband.

Susie Koh, a 13-year old student of Almita Vamos and Marko Dreher, began her violin studies at the Rubin Conservatory of Music (Israel).  Susie was the grand prize winner in the YeHang International Hymn Competition, and she has won first place in the SAI String Scholarship Competition, the Illinois Music Teachers National Association String Competition, the Huntington University Annual Concerto Competition, and the Society of American Musicians Competition.  She has twice been the recipient of the Keren Sherett Music Competition and the Max Varon Music Foundation Awards. She has appeared as a soloist in Carnegie Hall, and she performed with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra when she was seven years old, in addition to performing on Israeli national television in a program titled “Wunderkids.”