An Evening with Violinist Jinjoo Cho

Emerald City Music presents eclectic music in an intimate, open bar setting. This month: violinist Jinjoo Cho.

South Korean violinist Jinjoo Cho – first prizewinner of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis, Concours musical international de Montréal, and more – joins Emerald City Music for our first-ever full length concert for only the solo violin. Three vastly different works bring into vision a “circle of life” narrative. Beginning with the wandering mysteriousness of Biber’s Passacaglia – one of the world’s oldest surviving solo violin works – the night gives way to Bach’s stately Chaconne, widely considered the apogee of violin repertoire. Juri Seo’s Toy Store – a multimedia work dedicated to Jinjoo Cho – is not music for children, but rather a reflective journey through the various experiences of childhood that live on in our minds as adults. Drawing inspiration from punk jazz, John Adams, 19th century presto movements, and video game music, the first movement, “Jack-in-the-Box," is a dramatic portrayal of surprise, humor, and obsession as experienced in a childlike mind. The second movement, "Monster Truck”, combines heavy metal and 18th century Chaconne to create a musical narrative that is at once violent and hilarious. “Mobile," explores the feelings of comfort and fear associated with falling asleep, as one experiences a taste of death. In the penultimate movement, "Roller Skates,” resolution begins to take shape as the violin and prerecorded track participate in multi-part canonic unison. Finally in “Bubbles,” the ethereal soundscape of pizzicati, harmonics, and tremolo evokes lightness and release. 

THE TUNES:
Heinrich Ignaz Franz BIBER: Passacaglia for Solo Violin (1670)
Johann Sebastian BACH: Chaconne, from Partita No. 2 in D Minor, BWV 1004 (1717-20)
– interval –
Juri SEO: Toy Store for Violin and Fixed Media Electronics (2022)