Date:
Location:
Kim Koo Forum
Cecilia Heejeong Kim
Professor of Composition and New Media, Sangmyung University; Kim Koo Visiting Professor of Theater, Dance and Media, Harvard University
Recognized by the Asia Society as one of the "Asia 21 Young Leaders Initiative" and through the Minister’s commendation of Arts & Culture Achievement Award in Korea, Cecilia Heejeong Kim is one of Korea's most innovative composers, stage directors, and production artists. Dr. Kim's work, cross-genre music and mixed-media productions have been performed in over 20 countries, including Switzerland, Hungary, New Zealand, Germany, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Paraguay. In particular, her works delivering anti-war messages aired on WNYC in New York, BBC in the U.K., CBS in Canada, and CCTV in China. Her solo program with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra in 2016 was received highly and praised as "exotic, spiritual, vigorous Korean music" by the Straits Times.
While serving as a chief director of the prestigious Asia Culture Center, a national center for arts & culture, from 2016 to 2018, Kim produced over 80 projects in theaters, musicals, operas, and mixed-media stage works, which were also distributed to Iran, the U.K., UAE and Japan.
As an artistic director, Kim has directed over twenty international mega-events, including the 2023 World Delphic Games, in which more than 5,000 participants and national and international VIPs attended. Her most recent large-scale transmedia stage work, <Thinking Hands – Dance of Earth and Thread>, was invited to Berlin in 2023 and received critical claims from Tagesspiel and Berliner Zeitung.
As a representative arts leader in Korea, Kim actively works as a board and steering member in government organizations and is dedicated to developing policies for artists and youth education. Those organizations include ARKO (Arts Council of Korea), KOFICE (Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange), Gugak (Korean Traditional Music) Broadcastings, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, and Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
Kim graduated from the Yonsei University and completed her master's and Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Kim has been invited as a resident artist and lecturer to many universities abroad, including National Yang-Ming Chiao Tung University in Taiwan, Singapore National University, Burapha University in Thailand, and Muenster University in Germany. Kim has been a Composition & New Media professor at SangMyung University since 2000. She is currently Kim Koo Visiting Professor at Harvard University.
Chaired by Sun Joo Kim, Harvard-Yenching Professor of Korean History, Harvard University
Abstract:
Personal poetic experiences become concert material when they are trans-mediated with performative imaginations. Intrapersonal and ineffable messages provide a media experience when they are carefully collaged with mixes of images and voices. Professor Cecilia H. Kim observes everyday movements and expressions of people around her and experiments with their voices and actions, transforming them into a performative spectacle. She has produced multimedia, mixed media, and transmedia works that transcend genres and media boundaries, mainly to raise awareness of forgotten histories and experiences of marginalized people, especially in the rapidly growing Korean society. Professor Kim believes everyday utterances and actions of ordinary people can induce powerful imaginations when properly staged in a transfigured theatrical time and space. Four selected works are presented with her narrations of production plans and directing notes.
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Generously supported by the Kim Koo Foundation