Different cultures, pain and joy came together at the “Han & Heung Festival: Exploring the African American and Korean Diasporas Through Music” concert held on Jan. 27 at LSU’s School of Music Recital Hall.
The main mastermind behind the event, LSU Professor of Clarinet Dr. Cecilia Kang, said that she wanted to display the repression faced by both African American and Korean communities, as well as the happiness derived in both cultures.
Dr. Kang expressed that she wanted the music to be a catalyst for emotions and social change.
The concept of the festival was to express cross-cultural dialogues through music. Dr. Kang said she hopes the music provides unity.
“Han and Heung,” when translated from Korean to English, means “suffering” and “happiness,” respectively. The pieces of music highlighted the way the words coexist through the experiences of the people who are part of these cultures.
The tone of the performance was set by hosts Terrance McKnight, who is a weekday evening host for WQXR New York, and Dr. Ju Yong Ha, an ethnomusicologist from the University of Hartford.
McKnight and Dr. Ha expressed the goal and meaning of the festival and explained the background of the pieces before the audience heard them to add to the experience.
As told to the audience by the hosts, Han and Heung represent human experiences and emotions. Together, they are disciples of life. In a broader sense, African Americans also relate to this sentiment, which is why the two cultures were able to come together so seamlessly for the festival.
Several guest artists, the LSU Gospel Choir and LSU School of Music professors and staff members performed pieces throughout the concert. Each of these musicians earned a roar of applause from the audience with each piece.
Among the musicians at the event, New Orleans clarinetist and local celebrity Doreen Ketchens made an appearance and amazed the audience with her skills.
Ketchens’ husband, Lawrence Ketchens, accompanied her on sousaphone and her daughter, Dorian Ketchens-Dixon, joined Ketchens on stage with a few solos of their own.
The piece “Take Me to the Water” was performed by Nina Simone and was arranged by Dr. Ashley Jackson. This is a common piece of music for baptisms in predominately black churches. The song represents rebirth in Christian culture and in African culture as well as a means to escape to the water.
Dr. Jackson drew upon the emotions of the audience with her harp arrangement. Together with the LSU Gospel Choir, Dr. Jackson tugged on the listeners’ heartstrings.
“Nolda Very Much” by Joo Won Park was premiered at the festival by Dr. Kang. The piece is based on distinctive Korean traditions. The crisp articulations of the clarinet and the accompanying electronic sound effects urge audiences to find playfulness.
The next piece premiered was “Swell” by Do Yeon Kim. Not only did she compose this piece, but Kim also performed it on the traditional Korean instrument, the gayageum.
The blend of the gayageum with more familiar instruments, such as the piano, saxophone and clarinet, lead to an almost overwhelming sound that perfectly encapsulates a “swell” of sound.
The song “No peace,” by LSU Associate Professor of Experimental Music & Digital Media Dr. Jesse Allison, did not use typical instruments you might expect at a festival like this.
The interactive piece included a QR code that took members of the audience to a website where they were asked to allow access to their microphones. The room got dark as everyone in the audience listened to recordings from protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd in 2020.
The demonstration brought attention to the calls for change following high-profile cases of police brutality. It didn’t last longer than a few minutes, but the audio of everyone’s phones overlapped each other and captured a feeling that left chills down the audience’s spines.
Dr. Allison said that he and Kang have tried to work together before, but not to the scale that they wanted. Allison said that he made the recordings in 2020 and had not had the motivation to use them for anything until he was given the opportunity to use them for Kang’s festival.
The other pieces performed at the festival were “Airing Fantasy” by Eun Chul Oh, “Ah-Dee-Dong Blues” arranged by Oscar Pettiford, “We Wear the Mask” by Brian Nabors, “Han for String Quartet: Movement I” by Jungyoon Wie and ”I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to be Free” by Billy Taylor.
To conclude the festival, McKnight performed “Demonstration” by Langston Hughes set to Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata Op. 27 No. 1.”
This concluding work allowed for the audience to reflect on the status of society and how life is for those whose families may not be from the United States.
Following the performance, there was a panel discussion where audience members could ask some of the special guests questions about their music and their compositions.
Overall, every single one of these pieces was phenomenal and after each piece finished, the audience was filled with emotions elicited by the musicianship of the performers.
The audience had nothing but glowing reviews for the festival, and the excitement with which attendees flocked to the performers at the afterparty was a testament to Kang’s hard work. It was a thought-provoking display of culture that had an effect on everyone in attendance.
Avery Barber, a student of Cecilia Kang, said that the reason she attended the festival was to support her professor, who she knew took a long time to curate it. Barber loved the festival and was happy to see her professor’s hard work expressed in such a beautiful way.
Audience member Gabriella Hendricks said she felt “fantastic” after experiencing the concert. Hendricks said that because she is Chinese and Jewish, the cross-cultural theme of the festival was special to her.
The Han & Heung Festival was a representation of having an emotional tie that transcended into multiple cultures. Even for those who have never experienced the hardship of being separated from their home, they got a night of music they will never forget.