Kang to present faculty piano recital

Dr. Juyeon Kang, assistant professor of music at Northwestern College, will present a faculty recital on Friday, Feb. 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Christ Chapel. The concert, which was originally scheduled for Jan. 25, is free and open to the public.

The recital will feature piano pieces from Kang’s just-released CD, Joyful Noise. A reception will be held following the concert to commemorate the accomplishment. Recordings will be available for purchase, with a portion of the proceeds going toward scholarships for Northwestern students.

The CD was funded by the $10,000 Endowed Research Fellowship Kang received from Northwestern last year. For the recording, she selected pieces that sound joyful as an expression of praise to God. The CD’s program notes include information she discovered about the composers’ spiritual beliefs.

Kang’s recital repertoire includes Samuel Adler’s Thy Song Expands My Spirit; Johann Sebastian Bach’s Italian Concerto, BWV 971; Johannes Brahms’ Variations on a Theme by Paganini in A minor, Op. 35, Book II; Claude Debussy’s Four Preludes From Preludes Book II and Alexander Scriabin’s Sonata No. 5, Op. 53.

Kang’s 70-minute CD is being released by Fleur De Son Classics, based in Buffalo, N.Y. It was recorded last August at Blue Griffin Studios in Lansing, Mich.

The recording was Kang’s first experience at producing an edited CD. She spent 14 hours recording, two weeks selecting the best tracks, and 15 hours in the editing process. “It was a very interesting and meaningful experience,” she says. “It was a lot of work and stress, but I feel good about the final outcome.”

Kang, who joined Northwestern’s faculty in 2003, has performed recitals throughout the United States and in Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Spain, Taiwan and Thailand. She is preparing for a spring break tour in March that will include concerts in Omaha and at Fort Hays State University, Oklahoma City University, and the University of Nebraska at Kearney. She will present a July recital in her home country of Korea.

Kang has also appeared as a soloist with numerous orchestras, including the Sioux City Symphony Orchestra, South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, Augusta Symphony Orchestra and Korean Symphony Orchestra. Her performances have been aired on television in Korea and on National Public Radio in Georgia, Iowa, Massachusetts, New York and South Carolina. 

A Doctorate of Musical Arts graduate in piano performance and literature from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., Kang also received the prestigious Artist Diploma in piano performance from the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, where she was on the faculty in the college division.