Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20
Jinjoo Cho, photo by Kyu-Tae Shim available in high resolution HERE.
Emerald City Music Presents Violinist Jinjoo Cho
in Two Immersive Multimedia Performances on April 19 and 20
Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm
415 on Westlake | 415 Westlake Avenue N | Seattle, WA
Tickets (Seattle)
Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm
The Minnaert Center for the Arts | 2011 Mottman Rd SW | Olympia, WA
Tickets (Olympia)
“[Emerald City Music is] creating a welcoming and more inclusive environment for intimate music-making”
– The Seattle Times
Seattle & Olympia, WA – Emerald City Music (ECM), deemed “the beacon for the casual-classical movement” by City Arts Magazine, presents two concerts featuring South Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho in immersive, multimedia performances on Friday, April 19, 2024 at 8pm in Seattle at 415 on Westlake (415 Westlake Avenue N) and Saturday, April 20, 2024 at 7:30pm in Olympia at The Minnaert Center for the Arts (2011 Mottman Rd SW). A charismatic soloist, dynamic chamber musician, dedicated teacher, artistic director, and published writer, Jinjoo Cho is a versatile classical virtuoso of the 21st Century. Her program for Emerald City Music is anchored by artistic and historical contrast, featuring the music of Baroque masters Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Johann Sebastian Bach alongside a new work dedicated to Cho by Korean-American composer and pianist Juri Seo with projections created by visual artist Changyeob Ok
Emerald City Music is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Known for its casual environment combined with performances by award-winning musicians, ECM encourages attendees to enjoy its flagship “date-night experience” at 415 on Westlake, which features an open bar and a “wander-around” concert setting with no stage dividing the audience from the musicians. The Seattle Times calls ECM’s programming “very different,” praising its “nontraditional atmosphere” which allows for “artists [to] mingle with the audience during the intermission.” To reach audiences beyond its live presentations, all of ECM’s concerts are recorded and made available on Emerald TV, ECM’s subscription-based streaming platform for performances and additional video content.
“We are thrilled to welcome the dynamic and thrilling virtuoso violinist Jinjoo Cho to the ECM stage for the very first time! Not only is Jinjoo a mesmerizing violinist, but her creativity in sculpting innovative and eclectic programs is what makes her an outstanding artist,” says Emerald City Music Artistic Director Kristin Lee. “I am especially excited for her performance of Toy Store by composer Juri Seo which will be presented with multimedia visual art by artist Changyeob Ok. These will be one-of-a-kind evenings, which reinvent our venues at 415 on Westlake and the Minnaert Center as immersive multimedia experiences!”
The three vastly different works on this solo violin program create a “circle of life” narrative over the course of the evening. Beginning with the wandering mysteriousness of Biber’s Passacaglia for Solo Violin (1670) – one of the world’s oldest surviving solo violin works – the night gives way to Bach’s stately Chaconne from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1717-20), widely considered the apogee of violin repertoire. The centerpiece of Cho’s program is Juri Seo’s multimedia work Toy Store, a reflective journey through the various experiences of childhood that live on in our minds as adults. Drawing inspiration from punk jazz, John Adams, 19th century presto movements, and video game music, the first movement, Jack-in-the-Box, is a dramatic portrayal of surprise, humor, and obsession as experienced in a childlike mind. The second movement, Monster Truck, combines heavy metal and 18th century Chaconne to create a musical narrative that is at once violent and hilarious. Mobile, explores the feelings of comfort and fear associated with falling asleep, as one experiences a taste of death. In the penultimate movement, Roller Skates, resolution begins to take shape as the violin and prerecorded track participate in multi-part canonic unison. Finally in “Bubbles,” the ethereal soundscape of pizzicati, harmonics, and tremolo evokes lightness and release.
About Jinjoo Choo: Jinjoo Cho is the First Prize Winner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and Concours Musical International de Montréal in addition to the Buenos Aires, Schoenfeld, and Stulberg Competitions. She has toured the world since the age of 11 and continues to perform at distinguished concert halls and festivals including the Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Aspen Music Festival, Gilmore Festival, La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest, Banff Centre, Festival de Lanaudière, La Seine Musicale, Aigues-Vives Music Festival, Kronberg Academy, Schwetzingen Festspiele, Herkulessaal, Teatro Colón, Seoul Arts Center, and more. Cho has appeared as soloist with leading orchestras such as The Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, Deutsche Radio Philharmonic, Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de Madrid, Ensemble Appassionato, Seoul Philharmonic, and the North Carolina, Phoenix, and Charlotte symphonies. She is the founding Artistic Director of the ENCORE Chamber Music Institute and an Assistant Professor of Violin at the Schulich School of Music at McGill University. She previously served as faculty at the Cleveland Institute of Music and Oberlin Conservatory. Jinjoo is deeply passionate about sharing her love of music, in whatever form that it takes. Her creative explorations range from commissioning new works by composers Juri Seo and Andrew Rindfleisch to collaborating with artists of other disciplines including choreographer Jinyeob Cha. A consummate recording artist, Jinjoo Cho has recorded four albums on the Azica, Naïve Classique, Analekta, and Sony Classical labels. In 2021, her first book, Would I Shine Someday, was listed as a bestseller on major book platforms in Korea. For more information, visit www.jinjoocho.com.
About Kristin Lee, ECM Artistic Director: Emerald City Music’s founding Artistic Director Kristin Lee is a violinist of remarkable versatility and impeccable technique who enjoys a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, and artistic director. “Her technique is flawless, and she has a sense of melodic shaping that reflects an artistic maturity,” writes the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and The Strad reports, “She seems entirely comfortable with stylistic diversity, which is one criterion that separates the run-of-the-mill instrumentalists from true artists.” As a soloist, Lee has appeared with leading orchestras including The Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Louis Symphony, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony, Hawai’i Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Ural Philharmonic of Russia, Korean Broadcasting Symphony, Guiyang Symphony Orchestra of China, and Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional of Dominican Republic. She has performed on the world’s finest concert stages, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, the Kennedy Center, Kimmel Center, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Ravinia Festival, the Louvre Museum, the Phillips Collection, and Korea’s Kumho Art Gallery. An accomplished chamber musician, Kristin Lee became a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center after winning The Bowers Program audition and completing the program's three-year residency. In addition to her prolific performance career, Lee is a devoted educator. She is on the faculty of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music as an Assistant Professor of Violin. Kristin Lee’s honors include an Avery Fisher Career Grant and top prizes in the Walter W. Naumburg Competition and the Astral Artists National Auditions. Born in Seoul, Lee moved to the United States and studied under prestigious teachers including Sonja Foster, Catherine Cho, Dorothy DeLay, Donald Weilerstein, and Itzhak Perlman. Lee holds a Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Lee’s violin was crafted in Naples, Italy in 1759 by Gennaro Gagliano and is generously loaned to her by Paul & Linda Gridley. For more information, visit www.violinistkristinlee.com.
About ECM
Emerald City Music (ECM) is the Pacific Northwest home for eclectic, intimate, and vibrant classical chamber music experiences. Deemed "the beacon for the casual-classical movement" (CityArts), ECM hosts world-renowned musicians in unique concert experiences. Founded in 2015, Emerald City Music produces and tours seven productions annually, with each tour visiting Seattle’s South Lake Union (415 Westlake, a chic contemporary venue with an open bar), Olympia’s Minnaert Center (a 495 seat modern concert hall), a once annual concert at the Bellingham Music Festival, and an annual concert in New York City.
ECM has gained recognition regionally and nationally as a major player in the chamber music scene. Emerald City Music made a name for itself beginning in its second season with a national collaborative commission with Grammy-winning composer John Luther Adams, and has continued to press the boundary of chamber music with accolades like a tour of Steve Reich’s iconic and rare Music for 18 Musicians, a pitch-black performance of Georg Haas’s “In the Dark” quartet, and the West Coast debut of the Danish folk group The Dreamers’ Circus.
ECM values real, authentic connection and holds the belief that music possesses the innate power to connect people, inclusive of varying backgrounds and perspectives. Over eight years, artists from every corner of the globe have visited Emerald City Music to prove just that: there exists a special connection between artist and listener that only music can facilitate.
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