In an environment imbued with misleading perceptions, fostered largely by the American media, we must strive to break out of convenient and simple notions of the “rogue state” and be willing to see North Korea through new, albeit challenging perspectives. I believe improvisational music can serve as a tool to explore and reflect on the cultural, social and political aspects of North Korea in a way that promotes dialogue and helps to deconstruct passively accepted and unexamined perceptions of the country. Through performance of improvisatory pieces I have composed that provide historical background and act as metaphors for North Korean idiosyncrasies, I hope to convey an alternative viewpoint to that of North Americans and spur dialogue on the legitimacy of different perspectives. In doing so, I seek to construct a new framework to examine North Korea.

For more details, please scroll down and click "View flyer" to open the program notes. For a brief history of North Korea, click "Play audio" below to listen to me sing & play "Society Red" (Dexter Gordon/ Joyce Kwon), following along with the lyrics in the program notes.

Featuring the following improvisers:
Joyce Kwon, voice
Amy Shen, saxophone
Charles Chen, piano
Jesse Engel, guitar
Marié Abe, accordion
Stephanie Shih, vibraphone & percussion

Also featuring special guests:
April Paik & Jessica Ling, violins
Jeff Kuo, viola
Brady Anderson, cello
Joe Costantini, bass
Benny Amon, drums

We presented this as a work in progress on April 4th, 2009 but I hope to perform a more complete version of this project, sometime in my artistic career. A couple video clips are available on youtube.com/voicekwon

Also, you can read my article on North Korea in hardboiled, the Asian Pacific American newsmagazine at UC Berkeley, here.