Written for pianist/composer Mei Fang Lin's Piano and Electronics concert. Pianist is playing with the prerecorded sound. The tune is based on Milyang Arirang. 

Berkeley Arirang

Block chords played by me while flute, percussion, 2nd piano explode ..then evaporate..

Salt Improv - 30sec

Froggy Concert

Salt began its life long time ago, when I was obsessed with a six-note chord. I experimented with all the possibilities opened up by this one chord. These experimentations eventually led to many works such as “Ornament” for two pianos, “Salt doll” for solo electronics, “Salt” for orchestra, and “Salt” for piano and improvisers.
 
The idea of transforming a single chord without losing its fundamentals, combined with the sparkling image of the ornaments by the improviser, reminded me of the properties of salt.
 While the piano part is fully written out, the solist is musing on her ideas of 'salt'.

Salt_haeguem_Berkeley

Written for East Coast Chamber Ensemble. Premiere 2010, France.
This recording is from Earplay 2014.

ADGC is the four strings of the viola and cello. The piece centers each pitch and later introduces the hidden hymn.

ADGC_excerpt

I was never a fan of the haegeum. I thought the sound was too exaggerated, until two years ago, when Sooyeon visited my musicianship class and jammed with the students. Students played a variety of instruments -- three students were even playing inside the piano -- and Sooyeon's haegeum was making the most delicate sounds with them. Since then, I have collaborated with her numerous times, and every time I am in awe of her instrument.

With only two strings, the haegeum produces a wide range of dynamics, pitch, and mood. Nothing can beat the intensity and versatility of these two strings, made of thick woven silk thread. This piece is a tribute to those two strings. The perfect fifth interval (the tuning of the two strings) and 'string crossings' are the main motives of this piece. The inner string, usually less used due to its softer volume, gets more spotlight here. I wanted to bring out the quiet, intrinsic beauty of the inner string as much as the exterior power of the outer string. The orchestra plays a clear role, accentuating ornamentation or doubling resonance. The percussion is always an interruption, an extension of the usual cadential gesture that the drums play in Korean vocal music.

I dedicate this piece to Sooyeon Lyuh and the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, who have been the inspiration for this piece.

wovenSilk.2ndDay

This piece was written for Berkeley Symphony when I was one of the Emerging Composer–in-Residence (Under Construction Program) with them in 2012 Given the time of the year, I wanted to celebrate Democracy. When I think of democracy, I think of Berkeley. The piece is to celebrate the city’s incessantly active and live democratic scene, which makes me being proud of. The beginning motive derives from Stravinsky’s Rakes Progress, my favorite fanfare of all.

Berkeley Fanfare

Performance Note

This piece is open to any instrument (or instruments) with piano. The improviser(s) will ornament the piano while  piano plays six-note chord in a very regular rhythm. The ornaments from other improviser(s) gradually get active and explode at the coda.

Heather Frasch, flute/ Jason Levis,  marimba/Myra Melford, piano 1/ Jean Ahn, piano 2
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Salt for improvisors

Gangwondo Arirang

Orlando Lasso was an international figure compared to any other composers around his time. I played with this fact and explored the possibilities of ‘La-sol’. Lasso's bicinia is paraphrased several times in the piece. The performer should play in the style of 16 century Renaissance music.

Performed by Forty/sixty

Lasso, Lassus (Jean Ahn)

TRIO

TRIO 2

Baetulga (Korean Folksong Revisited)

Commissioned by Leftcoast Chamber Ensemble
LCCE Goes to the Museum Series

"Lapis Reprobatus" means "Rejected Stone." 
“lapis quem reprobaverunt aedificantes factus est in caput anguli”
[“The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. “]  Psalm 118:22

Cornelia Parker’s sculpture, Anti-Mass, was the inspiration for this piece. The statue consists of the charred remains of 
an Alabama Southern Baptist Church that was destroyed by arsonists. We are all broken before God, but through this 
brokenness we see God.
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Lapis Reprobatus for flute, clarinet and cello

Commissioned by SF Choral Artists
Inspired by the interactive vocal outburst map created by UC Berkeley researchers.

https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/vocs/map.html#
Image from "Mapping 24 Emotions Conveyed by Brief Human Vocalization" by    Alan S. Cowen, Hillary Anger Elfenbein, Petri Laukka, and Dacher Keltner

Jean Ahn

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