As the daughter of a South Korean diplomat, Jiah Kyun (pronounced GEE-a Ken) studied and performed in countries all over the world before arriving in the United States.
Kyun, 30, will be the soloist in the Festival Orchestra concert Saturday night, playing the first movement of Béla Bartok’s, Sz 120, BB 128. She’s this year’s winner of the coveted Conservatory Concerto Competition.
Last week, Music in the Mountains judges, including Guillermo Figueroa, unanimously chose Kyun to perform with the Festival Orchestra the final weekend. Kyun also won over the audience wth her intense and stirringly lyrical performance.
Now, Kyun can add our summer festival to a long list of world performances.
Kyun’s life and travels began at birth when her father was ambassador to Australia. His diplomatic assignments account for the beginning of Kyun’s colorful résumé. She spent her high school years in Moscow and went on to receive an Honor Student Award for her undergraduate degree at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory.
“It was there that I decided to spend my life as a professional musician,” Kyun said in an interview earlier this week. “Because my father was a diplomat, I was constantly changing schools and learning new languages.”
Kyun is fluent in Korean, Russian, English – and Portuguese because of her father’s posting in Brazil. But she’s most fluent in the language of music: “A long time ago, I learned that music is a universal language – wherever I live,” she said.
“When I decided on a professional life as a musician, I was a violinist, studying in Moscow,” she said. “My parents knew the competition; in Russia, there are so many prodigies. But I persisted.”
Among her early accomplishments, Kyun performed the notoriously difficult Sibelius Violin Concerto with the Uzbekistan National Symphony. She also won an international competition in Croatia and became the laureate of the 21st Century Art Competition in Ukraine.
“When I took a year off, I got a call from Dr. Paul Phillips about joining the Meadows Symphony Orchestra at SMU (Southern Methodist University),” she said. “It wasn’t until he suggested I think about the viola that I considered a new instrument.”
With her violin, Kyun completed a master’s degree and performance diploma at SMU, studying under Emanuel Borok, the former concertmaster of the Dallas Symphony.
“He also encouraged me to think about the viola,” Kyun said, and now she’s working on a performance diploma in viola, studying with Barbara Sudweeks, associate principal viola with the Dallas Symphony.
“I’ve had wonderful teachers throughout my life,” Kyun said. “One of my dreams is to perform on the same stage with Barbara, and Saturday evening that dream will come true.”
At 30, with her international background and intense professional studies, Kyun is not a typical Conservatory student.
“I was encouraged to come to Colorado” by several SMU people, she said. Sudweeks has played in the Festival Orchestra for years and is on the Conservatory faculty. Matt Albert, former SMU faculty and Conservatory director, is now heading up a chamber music program at the University of Michigan. Greg Hustis, MitM Artistic director, has had a long association with SMU and the Dallas Symphony.
“Mr. Hustis is a great musician and artistic director here,” she said. “He encouraged me to come. The environment is so different from Texas; it’s so beautiful, open and clear.
“I’m dedicating my performance to all the people who have inspired me and brought me to this moment.”
Judith Reynolds is an arts journalist and member of the American Theater Critics Association.
Bartok’s ‘Black Diamond’
Jiah Kyun’s performance of Bartok’s Viola Concerto will be the centerpiece of Saturday’s concert. Conductor Guillermo Figueroa will open the program with Richard Wagner’s spirited Overture to Die Meistersinger. After intermission, the Festival Orchestra will play Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op 10.
Positioning the Bartok between a very bright Wagner overture and a supremely dark Shostakovich symphony makes good on the title, “Black Diamond.” Granted, the concert titles have been named after Purgatory ski runs, but the coincidence is gratifying.
Judith Reynolds
If you go
What: “Black Diamond,” Festival Orchestra Concert, Guillermo Figueroa, conductor, soloist Jiah Kyun. Works by Wagner, Bartok and Shostakovich.
When: 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
Where: Festival Tent, Purgatory Resort.
Tickets: $46 and $56, available through MusicInTheMountains.com or by calling 385-6820.
