Remember the Remembering

Remember the Remembering

Cecilia Heejeong Kim (Artist), In-Hye Park (Artist), Ileana Mateescu (Artist), Hae-Woon Kim (Artist), Hobaek Kim (Artist), Shinkyung Kim (Artist), Joo-Won Park (Artist), Roman Nowicki (Artist), Franziska Batzdorf (Artist), Martin Bewersdorff (Artist)

A Multimedia Concert , 65 Minutes
Composition and Artistic Director: Cecilia Heejeong Kim

Don’t forget the unforgettable – this is the urgent appeal of the politically charged works of Korean composer Cecilia Kim. In her series Remember the Remembering, the artist promotes the remembrance of all those women who have been subjected to repression, war and discrimination in her home country. Six pieces are performed, all of them inspired by historical events – from the Japanese invasion of Korea to the workers’ movement in the 1980s.

Interpreted by a string quartet, percussion and clarinet with Pansori vocals, the music is calm and minimalist, almost »naked«. In a dignified and subtle way, it leaves scope for the superimposed images which depict surviving female victims and soldiers going to war. Personal recollections also flow acoustically into Kim’s compositions in the form of poems written by war victims or interviews with the few surviving »comfort women«, who were forced into prostitution during World War Two, and who are now given the chance to speak.
If we consider that the war crimes committed against over 200,000 Korean and Chinese women have never been acknowledged as such by the governments, the appeal formulated in the series’ title becomes all the more urgent. It is physically tangible in the powerful and trance-like percussion performance, inspired by shamanic rituals, while flame-like beings dart across the screen.

In cooperation with Dortmunder Philharmoniker.

Cecilia Heejeong Kim (Artist)

Celilia Heejeong Kim, born 1968 in Seoul, is a composer, theatre director and educator. She graduated from Yonsei University in Seoul and the University of Arts in Pennsylvania, where she began experimenting with multimedia compositions. She received her PhD in music and then carried out research at Harvard University in Boston. Alongside her compositional work, which also embraces the areas of film and dance, Kim has organised major festivals and worked as a lecturer for television programmes. Her compositions have been presented worldwide. In 2015, she received the Culture Award from the Korean Ministry of Culture. Kim currently teaches music and new media at Sang Myung University in Seoul and has composed pieces for the Cross Sound Music Festival in Alaska, the Hong Kong Chinese Orchestra and the Opera Lab in Australia, among others.

In-Hye Park (Artist)

In-Hye Park is one of Korea’s leading Pansori singers (traditional opera singing) of the younger generation. She is heiress of Shimchung Ga, one of Korea’s five largest opera houses and has performed at many prestigious international venues and festivals. Her European tour as a cultural ambassador for peace at the World Peace Festival was documented on film and broadcast on national television.

Ileana Mateescu (Artist)

Ileana Mateescu studied singing in Bucharest, Salzburg and Mainz. During her training in Mainz, she was invited to perform at the Dortmund Theatre. Since the 2011/12 season, she has played leading roles such as Dorabella in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte or Rossini’s Angelina in La Cerenentola. She was awarded the Bajazzo Prize 2015 for her achievements at Dortmund Theatre.

Hae-Woon Kim (Artist)

Hae-Woon Kim plays the classical guitar and won first prize at the Kyung-won University in Changwon, South Korea with his instrument in 2011. He is currently studying at Münster University of Music under Prof. Reinbert Evers. He has attended numerous master classes and toured Romania, Italy, South Korea and Germany.

Hobaek Kim (Artist)

Hobaek Kim, percussionist, studied composition under Prof. Cecilia Kim and percussion under Jonghun Jo. Kim has lived and worked for the past year in Munich. This performance is his third with the Earth Songs series, having already appeared at the Sydney Conservatory and Melbourne Recital Centre.

Shinkyung Kim (Artist)

Shinkyung Kim, violinist, studied at Cologne and Berlin Universities of Music under Prof. Ozim and Prof. Zehetmair and in 1983 won first prize in the International Music Competition »Jeunesses Musicales« in Aberdeen with her piano trio. She has been the concertmaster of the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra since 1998 and since 2011 has been professor of violin at the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media in Dusseldorf. Kim performs regularly as a violinist in the prestigious Consortium Classicum.

String quartet of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker

Joo-Won Park (Artist)

Joo-Won Park, violinist, was born in Suwon, South Korea. After completing undergraduate studies in Korea, she took a diploma and Master’s degree at music academies in Dusseldorf and Detmold. Since 2006, Joowon has been first violinist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2008, she won third prize at the international »Jeunesses Musicales« competition in the chamber music category. She has performed as a soloist with prestigious Korean orchestras and the Folkwang Chamber Orchestra of Essen.

String quartet of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker

Roman Nowicki (Artist)

Roman Nowicki, violist, completed his studies of music in 1978. In the same year, he became solo violist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra having been a member of the Chamber Orchestra of Polish Radio for five years prior to this. He taught at the Dortmund University of Music from 1989 to 1998, and from 1991 to 1999 he was a lecturer at the Summer Academy of Fine Arts, Music and Theatre in Neuburg an der Donau.

String quartet of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker

Franziska Batzdorf (Artist)

Franziska Batzdorf, cellist, studied at the Hanns Eisler Music Academy in Berlin. Before she became solo cellist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, she received a scholarship to study at the Academy of the Staatskapelle Berlin and spent two years as solo cellist with the Dusseldorf Symphony. Batzdorf played regularly with her father Prof. Wolf-Dieter Batzdorf in the Berlin String Quartet. She has been a lecturer at the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media in Dusseldorf since 2010.

String quartet of the Dortmunder Philharmoniker

Martin Bewersdorff (Artist)

Martin Bewersdorff, (basset) clarinettist, studied at the Hanover University of Music under Prof. Hans Deinzer until 1995. Since 1994, he has been a clarinettist with the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra. In 1992, he won the German Music Competition Award with the Diaphonia Quintet, performing with the ensemble at many major festivals in Germany, Ukraine, Spain, Belgium and England. Since 2009, Bewersdorff has taught clarinet at the Robert Schumann School of Music and Media in Dusseldorf.