Pianist Jihye Chang, Continuum 88: Season IV - Program of Miniatures and Variations. Continuum 88 is a multi-year solo piano project in which she commissions, programs, premieres, and performs new works by young composers along with masterpieces of the important genres of the piano literature. She will perform four new works written for her and the series in this concert, including two works by U. C. Berkeley alumni Amadeus Regucera and Jared Redmond, along with miniatures and variations by Chopin, Kurtag, Schubert, Juri Seo, and Schumann.

Program:
Continuum 88, Part IV: Miniatures and Variations
Juri Seo (b. 1981), Doremi variations (2015)
Chopin, Berceuse Op. 57
Jared Redmond (b. 1986), “Doth” (Written for Continuum 88 project and Jihye Chang, 2019)
Jocelyn Hagen, Miniature No. 1 (Written for Continuum 88 project and Jihye Chang)
Schubert, Impromptus D. 899, No. 3
Schumann, Abegg Variations Op. 1
[Intermission]
Chopin, Variations Brillantes Op. 12
György Kurtag (b. 1926), from Játékok “Five-finger play” “Flowers We Are…(3)” “Flowers We Are, Mere Flowers..”
Amos Elkana (b. 1967), from “Eight Flowers, a bouquet for Kurtag,” “Tulip”
Amadeus Regucera (b. 1984), “Still, Life” (inspired by Kurtag’s Játékok , written for Continuum 88 project and Jihye Chang, 2019)
G. Kurtag, from Játékok "Hommage à Farkas Ferenc (2)”
Regucera, “it’ll b ok, bby boi,” “Empfindsamkeit,” “recollection of someone else’s memory” (inspired by Kurtag’s Játékok , written for Jihye Chang, 2019)
Sunghyun Lee (b. 1995), Abegg-games (inspired by Abegg variations and other masterworks of the past; written for Continuum 88 project and Jihye Chang, 2019)

Pianist Jihye Chang enjoys a diverse career as a performer, educator, scholar, recording artist, and advocate for new music in the United States and abroad. Her recent credits as a soloist include the world premiere of Robert Aldridge’s Piano concerto No. 2 with the Brevard Sinfonia as well as solo engagements with Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Fargo Moorhead Symphony Orchestra, Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, Virtuosi of Festival Internacionale de Musica in Recife (Brazil), and New Mexico State University Philharmonic. She also appeared on the Chamber Music Society of Fort Worth, Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Blue Candlelight Music Series in Dallas, Old First Concert Series of San Francisco, Ilshin Hall and Kumho Art Center in Seoul, and Tuesday Concert Series at Seoul National University. She has shared the stage with renowned musicians such as Chee-Yun, Frank Cohen, Andrés Diaz, Anton Kuerti, Inbal Segev, and Richard Young, among others. She is a recipient of the Henry Kohn Award from the Tanglewood Music Center, an Honorary Fellowship from the Montgomery Symphony Orchestra, the Aaron Copland Recording Grant, and first prize of the Mikhashoff International Pianist-Composer Competition.

Her recordings can be found on labels including Sony/BMG Korea, Albany, Centaur, and Ravello/Parma. She has appeared in music festivals such as Virtuosi X Festival and Festival Inverno de Garanhuns in Brazil, Orleans Festival in France, Nuevo Mundo Festival y Academy in Aruba, and Lowcountry Chamber Music Festival. As a dedicated performer and a researcher of contemporary music, Chang has premiered over forty solo and chamber works, many of which were composed for her. She has been invited to new music festivals and series at Studio 2021 Seoul National University, University of Louisville, Ball State University, and Brandeis University. Her specialty is piano etudes, and she has given recitals and lectures on this topic in various institutions and festivals. She collaborated on this topic with visual artist Min Oh, Hermes Foundation’s Artist of the Year 2017-8, resulting in a book entitled “Etudes,” published by Spectr Press in 2018.

Chang is currently in the midst of a multi year project entitled “Continuum 88,” an exploration of the solo piano literature in collaboration with young composers from Australia, Korea, and U.S.A., with concerts in Korea, Taiwan, and various venues in the U. S. A. The program for the 2018-2019 season focused on fantasies, and she led a short residency at University of Alabama-Huntsville as well as a guest artist concert at Georgia State College and Lipscomb University. In 2019-2020, she will focus on miniatures and variations with concerts in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Taiwan, and Seoul.

Chang also started presenting a solo piano program of works by women composers, with concerts at Texas Christian University and U. C. Berkeley, and this will continue in the season 2020-2021 at the Boston Conservatory, Framingham University, and Montevallo University, among others. Chang is also passionate about sharing music with younger audiences and has been working with the Rosemary Beach Foundation and its “Music in Pictures” project since 2012, which has reached more than 400 students every year.

Chang graduated from Seoul National University, where she received the President’s Award, and earned her Master’s and Doctorate degrees from the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the tutelage of György Sebök, Reiko Neriki, and Edward Auer. Chang served as a Visiting Assistant Professor in 2014 at Florida State University and is a Visiting Assistant Professor in lieu of lecturer since 2012. She is currently a faculty member at the Brevard Music Center and a core member of the Intersection Contemporary Ensemble. She is also the Artistic Director of “Piano Intensive at BMC,” an intensive program for young pianists to focus on techniques and physical aspects of piano playing as well as the psychological aspects of being a musician.