<Réminiscence I - ce lointain si proche...> pour harpe et électronique (2021)

Noélia de Freitas, Harpe

<Réminiscence I - ce lointain si proche...> pour harpe et électronique (2021)

<Rituel au Tombeau d'Isang Yun> pour quinze instrumentistes (2021)
(Commissioned by the Tongyeong International Music Foundation)

Ensemble Modern
Ensemble TIMF

Johannes Kalitzke, direction
 ⓒTIMF

Whan RI-AHN : <Rituel au Tombeau d'Isang Yun> pour quinze instrumentistes (2021)

Seong-Hwan LEE : Suicidal Impulse / Electroacoustic

« À travers mes expériences récentes (en tant que cinéaste depuis quelques années), j'ai été fasciné par la façon dont le son peut très clairement livrer des images visuelles et narratives dans la musique électroacoustique. J'ai été particulièrement intéressé par l'utilisation de la voix et du texte dans la musique électroacoustique, car de nombreuses transformations différentes peuvent être faites, tout en conservant une certaine qualité “émotionnelle” et “narrative”. Dans cette pièce, Suicidal Impulse, en transformant les voix d'une seule personne, j'ai imaginé une figure qui rend le texte ambigu et change ses visages. Je voulais créer un certain récit ou une histoire autour de cette figure et à travers des transformations de la voix. »

"Through my recent experiences (as a filmmaker for a few years), I have been fascinated by how sound can very clearly deliver visual and narrative images in electroacoustic music. I was particularly interested in the use of voice and text in electroacoustic music, as many different transformations can be made, while retaining a certain "emotional" and "narrative" quality. In this piece, Suicidal Impulse, by transforming the voices of a single person, I imagined a figure that makes the text ambiguous and changes its faces. I wanted to create a certain narrative or story around this figure and through voice transformations."

Suicidal Impulse (Electroacoustic)

Whan RI-AHN : Suicidal Impulse / Electroacoustic (LIVE)

Conservatoire de Paris, Espace Maurice Fleuret
Feb. 11, 2022 

Diffusion : Whan RI-AHN
Sound engineer : Jean-Marc Lyzwa

Whan RI-AHN : Suicidal Impulse / Electroacoustic (LIVE)

Whan Ri-Ahn: Parole sparse per otto strumentisti (2022)
dedicated to Frédéric Durieux

이승환: 8인 앙상블을 위한 [흩어진 말] (2022)

Ensemble Proton Bern
Direction : Aaron Cassidy
Flute : Katrin Szamatulski

Recording from the premiere on March 15, 2022, at the Dampfzentrale Bern, Switzerland

2022년 3월 15일, 스위스 베른, 담프첸트랄 초연 실황

Art : Dia al-Azzawi - Scattered Words (1971)

[ Programme Note ]
I found inspiration for my recent composition, [Parole sparse], in the intersections of my experiences in filmmaking and music. In [Rituel au tombeau d'Isang Yun], I reimagined scenes from Korean funeral rituals and translated them into a multi-episode musical narrative for a large ensemble. Similarly, in the electroacoustic piece [Suicidal Impulse], I aimed to craft a story by transforming recorded voices and texts, blurring the lines of meaning and identity.
[Parole sparse] shares its creative roots with these works. The ensemble, functioning as a single entity, strives to convey a narrative composed of different linguistic episodes. The text, drawn from Alda Merini's poem "Spazio" (spazio, io voglio tanto spazio), undergoes ambiguity through the division and dissipation of its words. This composition is dedicated to Frédéric Durieux.

Parole sparse per otto strumentisti (2022)

La Trace du Papillon pour violon et orchestre (2020)

Violon : Meiko Nakahira
Direction : Pierre Bleuse
Orchestre de la HEM

Jeudi 1er Octobre 2020
Studio Ernest Ansermet, Genève

La Trace du Papillon pour violon et orchestre (2020)

Ensemble Contrechamps
Direction: Pierre-Antoine Marçais

Salle Frank Martin, Genève, Suisse

Là où les Eaux se Mêlent ... (2021) pour deux harpes, deux pianos et deux percussions

Born in 1996 in South Korea, Whan Ri-Ahn (a.k.a. Seong-Hwan Lee) spent part of his childhood in New Zealand before returning to Korea. He then left for the United States and entered the Interlochen Arts Academy at the age of 14 to study composition.
​
He studied at the Royal College of Music in London (RCM) with Kenneth Hesketh. While there, he received the James Horner Award, the Dr. Knobel Fund Award and the RCM Scholarship Award. His studies at RCM were supported by Ms Sara Horner. He continued his studies in Switzerland with Michael Jarrell, Luis Naón and Gilbert Nouno at the Haute école de musique de Genève.

Whan Ri-Ahn's compositions have been commissioned, performed and presented by renowned ensembles, institutions and musicians, such as Ensemble Contrechamps, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble TIMF, Ensemble Proton Bern, Ensemble NEXT, Radio France, Pierre Bleuse, Aaron Cassidy and Johannes Kalitzke. His composition “L’Oiseau dans le Temps II” was premiered as a world premiere at Radio France’s Festival Présences 2023.

Seong-Hwan Lee completed his Master's degree in composition at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris (CNSMDP) in the composition class of Frédéric Durieux and that of electronic music with Yan Maresz, Luis Naón and Grégoire Lorieux. The Fondation de France and the Marthe Depelsenaire Foundation generously supported his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and he was the recipient of the 2022 Prix Composition Musicale Marthe Depelsenaire.

He is currently studying at King's College London as a doctoral student under Sir George Benjamin.

Whan Ri-Ahn

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