{"id":190959,"date":"2022-10-11T07:30:43","date_gmt":"2022-10-11T11:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=190959"},"modified":"2022-10-06T13:50:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-06T17:50:05","slug":"uconn-wind-ensemble-director-dreaming-up-concert-series-in-red-white-and-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2022\/10\/uconn-wind-ensemble-director-dreaming-up-concert-series-in-red-white-and-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Wind Ensemble Director Dreaming up Concert Series in Red, White, and Blue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janet Song Kim describes their new position as director of the UConn Wind Ensemble<\/a> as a dream job, one that gives room for personal creativity and student instruction, along with the possibility for community outreach.<\/p>\n

The new start might explain the impetus for the four-part concert series, \u201cAmerican Dream,\u201d which begins Oct. 13, but anyone who knows Kim understands there\u2019s subtext in almost everything they do.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way I program concerts is based on what\u2019s happening in the world, and I want to create a show that\u2019s relevant,\u201d Kim, who\u2019s also an assistant professor in the music department<\/a>, says.<\/p>\n

Take for instance, last year\u2019s holiday performance at Nebraska Wesleyan University, where they headed the instrumental program before coming to UConn. In \u201cMessages From Mother Earth,\u201d Kim paired the school\u2019s symphonic band with a multimedia presentation that included TikTok videos, actors from the theater department, and the state climatologist to talk about global warming.<\/p>\n

It was a reaction, Kim says, to student remarks about how there used to be more snow in the winter than today and their noticing a decreased emphasis on simple practices like recycling in the center of the country.<\/p>\n

While \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d might give the face impression of being a celebration of Uncle Sam, its four chapters look critically at the tug of war in society today: American exceptionalism, gun and abortion rights, and the tumultuous history of Black Americans and immigrants.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not for me to dictate what people take away from the series,\u201d Kim says. \u201cThis is merely something I created and I\u2019m putting on display. You can have a reaction, or you cannot. You can walk away having deeper thoughts about one side or the other, or not. In either case I\u2019m happy to have shared a piece of myself and a piece of the students\u2019 work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kim knew the capabilities of the Wind Ensemble the moment they stepped off the podium during the practical part of their job interview, they say, and keyed into what the student musicians needed to work on and what they could be pushed to do.<\/p>\n

First came acceptance of the job offer. Next came a search for project funding, and then a grant application to OVPR\u2019s JEDI Research Initiative<\/a>, which funds projects focused on Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. Finally, came shaping a concert series to fit the grant parameters.<\/p>\n

\"Janet
Janet Kim, assistant professor of music, leads a wind ensemble rehearsal at the Music Building on Oct. 5, 2022. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing in this world aside from the arts and music that brings people together to understand how others are feeling,\u201d Kim says. \u201cI suppose if people could walk away with anything from these concerts it might be the thought that when you consider other people, beautiful things can happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first concert, \u201cAmericana,\u201d features the Wind Ensemble and UConn Symphonic Band<\/a> performing music including Morton Gould\u2019s \u201cFanfare for Freedom\u201d to depict a beautiful, idyllic country and William Grant Still\u2019s \u201cSummerland\u201d to shift from celebration to recognizing the country\u2019s dark history with slavery. Augusta Read Thomas\u2019 \u201cMagneticfireflies\u201d demonstrates today\u2019s societal divides and William Schuman\u2019s arrangement of Charles Ives\u2019 \u201cVariations on \u2018America\u2019\u201d reinforces citizens\u2019 varied beliefs, intentions, goals, and starting points.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor someone who isn\u2019t thinking too deeply about this, it\u2019s just an American concert,\u201d Kim says. \u201cBut if we delve deep into what\u2019s happening structurally in the music, we can see a lot more of what\u2019s happening in America.\u201d<\/p>\n

The second concert, \u201cOur Right to Bear\u201d on Nov. 17, uses Kenneth J. Alford\u2019s \u201cVoice of Guns,\u201d Catherine Bostic\u2019s \u201cPortrait of a Peaceful Warrior,\u201d Andrew Boss\u2019 \u201cUntil Morning Comes,” and David Maslanka\u2019s \u201cGive Us This Day\u201d to look at the emotions that go into the arguments around gun control and regulating the bearing of children.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people talk about these two issues separately, but they\u2019re very related especially in how many times these gun issues happen in school settings with young children. Look at how much money goes into advocating for or against gun rights and compare that to the supply chain shortages and how there isn\u2019t enough baby formula in the U.S. They\u2019re intertwined whether people want to admit it or not,\u201d Kim says.<\/p>\n

The final two shows \u2013 \u201cBlack History\u201d on Feb. 23 and \u201cMove Along\u201d on April 13 \u2013 consider the histories of Black Americans and immigrants, with pieces including Henry Dorn\u2019s \u201cShadows,\u201d Valerie Coleman\u2019s \u201cRoma,\u201d and Nebal Maysaud\u2019s \u201cOn the Mountains of Orphalese.\u201d The \u201cBlack History\u201d concert also will feature UConn\u2019s Ricardo Brown, associate director of bands and associate professor in residence, and UConn\u2019s Voices of Freedom<\/a> in a special performance.<\/p>\n

\"Three
Janet Kim, assistant professor of music, leads a wind ensemble rehearsal at the Music Building on Oct. 5, 2022. (Peter Morenus\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Each of the concerts is part of Kim\u2019s artistic vision, but the final is most personal, they say: \u201cMy whole life has been based on following the American dream. It\u2019s what my family left Korea and came here for. \u2018Move Along\u2019 is the most personal perspective I can provide because I come from an immigrant family.\u201d<\/p>\n

But their just being on the stage is also a personal statement.<\/p>\n

The JEDI grant \u2013 which they\u2019ll learn if they received on Nov. 1, after starting the series \u2013 would pay for expenses related to community outreach. Kim hopes to combine highlights from each concert into a single show that can bring the ensemble into public schools with primarily non-white populations.<\/p>\n

They hope to bulk up the music library shared by the Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band to include composers of color and of different genders. They also hope to hire professional musicians not just to round out instrumentation holes in the ensemble, but to give public school children a look at what they could achieve.<\/p>\n

Kim points to an American League of Orchestras 2021 guide on inclusion<\/a> that notes only 1.8% of orchestra members are Black as reason enough to make this a priority.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we have hired ringers who are people of color, if we have our diverse body of students on display in front of students in Hartford, which has a high Vietnamese population, a high Black population, and a high Latinx population, they can see what\u2019s possible,\u201d Kim says. \u201cAnd then, for them to see me, a person who is a nonbinary, gender-fluid, female-presenting Asian in a position of power, as opposed to the traditional white, male band director, is also going to be revealing to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Kim, there\u2019s always subtext.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real American dream to me, if I can define it, is all the different people and all the different experiences coming together, in one place,\u201d they say. \u201cI don\u2019t think that happens in any other country but ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The \u201cAmerican Dream\u201d concert series will be performed at 8 p.m. at the von der Mehden Recital Hall<\/a>. \u201cAmericana\u201d<\/a> will be held Oct. 13; \u201cOur Right to Bear,\u201d<\/a> Nov. 17; \u201cBlack History,\u201d<\/a> Feb. 23; and \u201cMove Along,\u201d<\/a> April 13. Tickets are available on von der Mehden\u2019s Ticketleap website<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘It\u2019s not for me to dictate what people take away from the series’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":191004,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1711,2076,1914,2235,2225],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2368],"class_list":["post-190959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-culture","category-research","category-sfa","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-30 03:10:15","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190959"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190959\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":191116,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190959\/revisions\/191116"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/191004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190959"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=190959"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=190959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}