Kid Stuff: Soli for Piano with Percussion Orchestra McCormick Percussion Group

• John Liberatore: This Living Air:
• 1 I. For Scraps of Manna 04:18
• 2 II. Mandrake 03:12
• 3 III. This Light That Pours 06:03
• 4 IV. It Is Not the Mold 03:10
• Chrissy Seunghee Lee:
• 5 Pung-Kyung 06:39
• Hilary Tann:
• 6 Solstice 14:23
• Ciro Scotto:
• 7 Dark Paradise 13:06
• Matt Barber: Kid Stuff:
• 8 No. 1, Chimera 05:23
• 9 No. 2, Night Owl 04:55
• 10 No. 3, Quench 05:43
• 11 No. 4, Cuddleys 02:04
• 12 No. 5, Goofball 04:42
• Total Runtime 01:13:38

Info for Kid Stuff: Soli for Piano with Percussion Orchestra

Juxtaposing the loud and abrasive with the soft and subtle, the McCormick Percussion Group balances tumult and tender in KID STUFF. Led by director Robert McCormick, Professor of Music at the University of South Florida in Tampa, the percussion orchestra re-imagines original compositions from five key contemporary classical composers.

The first series of compositions come from John Liberatore. Titled This Living Air, the four-movement composition is a collage of percussion instruments played with the sort of delicacy and innocence that is reminiscent of childhood. The experimental compositions feature the circular frolic of glockenspiel and marimbas with Ko’s piano melodies dancing in the center.

Seunghee Lee composed the second track, Pung-Kyung. Experimental in nature, Ko’s piano treads curiously along as the percussion group accentuates sudden strikes of sound in the xylophone, hand drums, and wood blocks. The next track Solstice, originally penned by Hilary Tann, features five acts, starting with the solemn, melancholic “Breakup ‘Imperceptible Dissolution’” following through three acts to the epic conclusion of the ‘Freeze-Up “Icy Silvers and Darts.”

The McCormick Percussion Group rounds out their album with the moody, sullen Dark Paradise by composer Ciro Scotto, followed quickly by the erratic chaos of Matt Barber’s Kid Stuff: Five Figments for Piano and Percussion. Like all children, KID STUFF can seem rough around the edges, but inside there is a big heart.

Eunmi Ko, piano
McCormick Percussion Group
Robert McCormick, director

Eunmi Ko
Recitalist, piano pedagogue, and chamber musician, pianist Eunmi Ko recently appeared in the Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Seoul Arts Center, Festival de Musica Contemporanea, Madrid, Festival Cervantino Internacional, Mexico, San Francisco International Piano Festival, Chautauqua Music Festival, Women in Music Festival (Rochester, NY), Music Center of Christchurch in New Zealand, , Siam Ratchada Auditorium (Bangkok, Thailand), Kumho Art Hall (Seoul, Korea), Consorzio Liberti Musicisti Series (Rome, Italy), CLUSTER Series (presented by CLUSTER, Lucca, Italy), Auditorium di Maccagno (sponsored by Sconfinarte, Maccagno, Italy), 2016 World Piano Conference (Serbia), Music Since 1900 Conference (UK), among others. Praised for original interpretations, abundances of piano technique, and interesting programming, she performs a wide range of piano repertoire from premieres of new works by living composers to the traditional and rarely played piano works. Ko frequently communicates with young pianists through recitals and master classes at conservatories and universities. She was a guest artist at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Musica de Madrid, EAFIT University (Colombia), Eastman School of Music, University of Maryland, Shenandoah Conservatory, Iowa State University, West Virginia University, University of Richmond, Ohio University, Drake University, Lynn University, University of Florida, University of Tennessee, Ying Wa College in Hong Kong, among others.

From 2009 to 2012, Ko and violinist Sini Virtanen played chamber music of over twenty composers in the twentieth and twenty-first century through concert series “Music After 1900”. Currently, she is co-founder and co-director of new music ensemble Strings & Hammers, which has the unusual instrumentation of violin, piano, and double bass. Each year, Strings and Hammers collaborates with different composers for their project and gives several premieres nationally and internationally. In 2016 and 2017, the ensemble presents music of Fabio Massimo Capogrosso, Michael Frazier, David Liptak, Eduardo Costa Roldan, Alejandro de la Barrera, Alejandro Roman, and Baljinder Sekhon at COMA’16 in Madrid, Eastman School of Music, and Spectrum (NYC), among others. For more information, please visit ensemble’s Facebook page: facebook.com/StringsHammers

From 2015 to 2017, she collaborates with McCormick Percussion Group for the Concerti for Piano and Percussion Project. The project includes co-commission of piano concerti from Matt Barber, Seunghee Lee, John Liberatore, Ciro Scotto, and Baljinder Sekhon; five premiere concerts during the year of 2015,2016, and 2017; and a commercial recording release. The disc of Concerti for Piano and Percussion KID STUFF will be published on Ravello label and distributed by Naxos in 2018 spring.

Ko holds a BM degree from Seoul National University and graduate degrees (MM and DMA) from the Eastman School of Music. Her primary teachers have included Ick-Choo Moon and Rebecca Penneys. Currently, she teaches at the University of South Florida as Assistant Professor of Piano and serves as co-advisor of the New-Music Consortium at USF. Since 2013, she is on the faculty at the Rebecca Penneys Piano Festival. In 2011, she was the Assistant Director of Women in Music Festival (Rochester, NY), which hosted 35 composers and involved over 150 performers annually.

Ko may also be heard on the recently published CD release of Musical Landscapes of Hilary Tann (Centaur Records, “I am captivated by the program and recommended it to you who seek new avenues in tonality today. It charms consistently without pandering in the slightest.”– Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review), She Rose, and Let Me In (Centaur Records, “This is an unusual but beautifully assembled program…The performance is superb.”- Fanfare), and PLOT: MUSIC FOR UNSPECIFIED INSTRUMENTATION (Ravello Records, “Earle Brown’s exquisite December 1952, nine minutes of poetry played from an iconic example of graphic notation…”– Gramophone Magazine).

This album contains no booklet.