SEJONG SOLOISTS RETURNS TO LOS ANGELES
WITH A FREE PERFORMANCE AT
THE UCLA HERB ALPERT SCHOOL OF MUSIC

Music by Schumann, Lera Auerbach & Tchaikovsky 

Internationally renowned New York-based chamber orchestra Sejong Soloists returns to Los Angeles, 15 years after its most recent appearance in southern California, on Saturday, June 20 at 4:00 pm in Schoenberg Hall at The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. The program showcases the ensemble’s commitment to presenting core string classical repertoire alongside exciting contemporary work for strings.

The concert opens with an arrangement for orchestra of the Adagio from Schumann’s String Quartet in A minor. This is followed by Lera Auerbach’s Dialogues on Stabat Mater, which Auerbach describes in her composer’s note as “a dialogue not so much on the differences of cultural and harmonic esthetics between the 18th and 21st centuries, but rather on their similarities, which is much more challenging.“  The work was commissioned by Gidon Kremer for Latvian-Ukrainian vibraphonist Andrei Pushkarev; with Sejong, it is performed by Korean-born percussionist Ji Hye Jung, aptly called “spectacular” by The Los Angeles Times, which describes her as “a centered player who can give the impression of being very still yet at all places at once.” The two string soloists are Frank Huang, concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic and former concertmaster of Sejong Soloists, and award-winning violist Che-Yen Chen, who is Professor of Viola Performance and Chamber Music at UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music and a longtime member of Sejong Soloists.

The program is anchored by Tchaikovsky’s Serenade, a large-scale work specifically for string orchestra that balances the more intimate works on the first half of the concert. Where the Schumann and Auerbach focus on smaller, more individual textures and solo lines, the Serenade brings the full string orchestra together in a more unified sound. Its structure, especially the well-known Waltz and the Russian folk-inspired finale, shows how string writing can shift from something personal and inward to something more expansive and collective. Written in 1880, the Serenade was one of Tchaikovsky’s most personal works, written as a tribute to Mozart, and preferred by the composer over his more famous “1812 Overture.”

This free concert is made possible by a generous grant from The Andrew B. Kim and Wan Kyun Rha Kim Family Foundation Inc. which has made a five-year, $1 million commitment to Sejong Soloists. Foundation president Ty Kim said, “My hope is that the Sejong Soloists keep the tradition alive of crafting great classical music while innovating to embrace change. Our investment reflects our respect and love for its founders, the team behind the magic, and most of all the artists whose lives have been changed forever.”