July 2023 (for solo violin)

This is a gift for Gil Shaham,

written with loving memories of performing the Barber Violin Concerto with Mr. Shaham in the National Youth Orchestra of the U.S.A. in celebration of NYO-USA’s 10th anniversary.

This is a sonic imagination of what Barber on a walk, in the midst of envisioning his Violin Concerto, would be like, with references to the memorable melodic materials from the piece.

I hope to forever remember and cherish Mr. Shaham’s bright, heartwarming smile and magical playing through this piece.

July 2022 (for solo marimba)

A short piece written after a wonderful meting with a percussionist at the National Youth Orchestra of the USA 2022, Glenn Choe! I will never forget the way Glenn came up to me saying that he loves composers and collaborating with them. He made my day when he sent me this video today, keeping his promise that he would play this little piece for me someday. Thank you, Glenn :)

April 2023 (for solo trombone)

“In the origin, women were truly the sun, genuine human beings. Now, women are the moon. Living by the light of others and shining with a pale, sickly light, like the face of someone with an illness. We must now take back our sun that has been hidden away.”

- Hiratsuka Raichō

Commissioned and premiered by Grace Ng at her Juilliard Pre-College Senior Recital on May 6th, 2023.

illustrated by Satoko Kitagawa

『元始、女性は実に太陽であった。真正の 人であった。今、女性は月である。他に よって生き、他の光によって輝く、病人の ような蒼白い顔の月である。... 私ども は、かくされてしまった我が太陽を今や 取り戻さなければならぬ。』

- 平塚 らいちょう

April 2021 (for solo violin)

This piece is the self portrait of my brain—precisely, the 5% of it that is conscious, and the thoughts I am willing to share with the listener. It depicts the feeling of confinement that I often experience as a struggling trilingual. From the fast approaching fog that clouds my memory and steals away words and phrases of Korean and Japanese was born the notion of a glass box, an invisible force fencing me in from recalling what I once considered as basics of my native languages. It is merely a fun coincidence that my name in Korean means “glass”.

The G to A pizzicato motif is a key component that becomes the foundation of the piece, similar to breathing being the foundation of human beings.

What does the self portrait of your mind look like?

May 2020 (for solo violin)

Flutter is based on Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, a dark fantasy novel about secret societies in Yale. This piece illustrates a particular moment when the protagonist first encounters magic. She is introduced to a magical moth species that can drink or suck up ink from any surface by beating their wings, and she comes to a shocking revelation that the world is not what it seems when the moths completely erase her full sleeve tattoo by drinking the ink on her arms. The beginning of this piece conveys waves of anxiety, the protagonist’s initial reaction to the moths - not only because she experiences magic for the first time, but because she has a phobia of butterflies. Then, with a “plink” of the tremolo and pizzicato double stop half way throughout the piece, the music illustrates the wonder, curiosity, and awe that soon overwhelms her.

illustrated by Yuri Lee

Aug. 2019 (for solo piano)

Chess was later arranged into a solo piano version, where it zooms out of the same chess match, not being too specific about every move made but focusing on the tension and suspense on the battlefield. 

Winner of NYSSMA’s Call for Composers & Songwriters in 2020, and performed by Annbritt duChateau at NYSSMA’s Winter Conference Young Composers Showcase Livestream.