CMNW's Protégé Project: one artist's experience

by Hyeyeon Park, Atria Ensemble

"Come Celebrate the Fourth of July with the Atria Ensemble!"

How wonderful it is to celebrate the Fourth of July with all the works written by American composers!

We were so excited to see our group's name written on the bulletin board outside The Woods that we even took a picture of it! How remarkable and wonderfully strange the venue and setting was: a hall which used to be a funeral house now turned into a bar. Some might have thought, “What kind of classical concert was that?!” Yet somehow the reduced space magically became a perfect fit for a beautiful nine-foot concert piano, a professional recording engineer doubling as stage crew, the best page-turner ever (thank you, Elizabeth!), and, most importantly, the numerous and passionate audience, full of anticipation. Our pre-concert worries had been gently lifted during the sound check, when the recording engineer assured us that the balance between the violin, clarinet and piano—always a tricky combination—was superb. With a sigh of relief, we realized we couldn't ask for more!

We began the concert by briefly talking about both ourselves and the first piece—you would be surprised how this little bit of communication makes us feel both closer to the audience and more at ease with the music. Romie's humorous remark was a true icebreaker: “Did you ever expect to be celebrating Independence Day with two Korean girls and a Canadian girl?" After this we let the music speak for itself: after all, music is a truly international language and, no matter where a person is from, one can always identify with the values of the American Soul, which are embedded in these American composers' masterpieces.

Libby Larsen's Slang was a perfect concert opener—its bits and pieces of Americana (wittily pastiched by the composer) range from Boogie Woogie to Hard Funk, and are a true crowd pleaser. The second piece we performed was the Trio for Clarinet, Violin and Piano by Paul Schoenfield, a piece commissioned by CMNW artistic director David Shifrin himself. A beautiful example of Klezmer music on classical stage, the work demanded every bit of Jewishness that we could muster. All three parts are full of individual technical difficulties, yet the greatest challenge for us was to fit them all together. We spent most of our rehearsal time on this piece to portray the free-flowing natural patterns of Jewish folk improvisational character throughout the movements—the humorous and brilliant first movement; the slow, grotesque march; the lamenting third movement; and the complex and exuberant final movement.

After the intensely programmed first half and intermission (when many of the audience members enjoyed the grilled sausage and we enjoyed an obligatory respite), we needed to cool off the heat a bit. A work conveying a meditative mood, spiced up with clashing dissonances, would be ideal to open the second half. The answer was Largo, by American music pioneer, Charles Ives. After the Ives, our trio held a brief Q&A, when we truly felt the connection and communication with the audience. William Bolcom's Afternoon Cakewalk, six movements in Ragtime, was the last piece we prepared. While performing, we saw a few audience members humming and dancing along with our music and we joined them in cheering for the Independence Day—what a great feeling!

The audience seemed to have enjoyed the performance, as many people approached us to show their appreciation and enthusiasm. What else does a musician need?

Just one last remark—Sunmi’s answer to the question posed by Ronni Lacroute, who supported the festival’s Protégé Project: How does it feel to play in a bar setting, not in the traditional concert hall? WE LOVE IT!