Eunhye Jeong

Eunhye Jeong is a pianist and composer with a critical mind that keeps expanding her musical world with diligent research. Recently, she released her fourthalbum [The Colliding Beings, Chi-Da] — a recording of her Seoul concert with Pansori master Il-dong Bae, which is selected as one of the Best Album of 2020 by Sequenza 21 magazine. And she soon released another record [Abyss] under Mung Music label in the same year. She currently performs two major projects: Chi-Da and TVV Quartet, as well as a new work called KM-53 with visuals and electronics.

She has performed with legendary Wadada Leo Smith, a multiple awards-winner including UCLA medal of 2020, a Pulitzer Prize nominee and an innovative composer/trumpeter, as a pianist of NDA ensemble which performed one of ECM's most celebrated albums at the third CREATE Festival. She also performed duo with highly acclaimed cellist/ improviser/composer Okkyung Lee. She also performed in renowned places such as Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), UN Headquarter (NY), colleges such as Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, Boston College, etc.

Jeong recently presented her talk as one of the panels in the colloquium hosted by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) in British Columbia University in Vancouver, Canada.

Turtle Suite (2014), Chi-Da (2018) and 2 Begets 3 (2018) are all in disparate musical languages on the surface and show the traces of her musical transformation. Yet, her seemingly elusive musical directions remain firm and strong, as the artist states. It is one of Jeong's ongoing themes since 2011, the year she began her research on traditional music of Korea, to revive the historical and cultural continuum that is being disrupted both forcefully and voluntarily over time. She founded Sigimsae – Berklee Korean Traditional Music Society after participating in International Gugak Workshop in National Gugak Center in 2011 and contributed to the cultural diversity in the Berklee community through concerts and workshops. These activities culminated in the title track Jindo Arirang of her debut album Turtle Suite, released in 2015. The music and album were introduced through Korean media, such as SBS Love FM, Gukak FM and magazines like MM Jazz, Jazz People. Jeong’s understanding of Korean traditional music has deepened after learning Pansori and its principles, vocalization and philosophical meanings from Pansori master Il-dong Bae. The study took place every summer between 2015 and 2019, enabling her to not depend on the formal aspect of the traditional music but to boldly seek originality by operating her own musical protocols based on the fundamental principles of Korean traditional music.

Jeong owes the timeless beauty of their existence to many musics and musicians. She had a chance to be mentored by the living greats such as award-winning film composer George S. Clinton known best for his scores for Austin Powers series, and Mortal Kombats, international jazz pianist-composer Vadim Neselovskyi, and the MacArthur “Genius” fellowship award recipients Vijay Iyer and Tyshawn Sorey, whom she met through Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music in 2017. Having discovered the world of "creative music" mainly of AACM and other musicians in the lineage, she began to explore the musical vehicle that better conveyed her inspirations.This has contributed to her recently published project Three Voices from the Valley (TVV).

She has written music for a number of films, including two short films, such as an award- winning film Payphone (2014) and Ancestry (2015) for which she co-wrote a score with percussionist Munyungo Jackson, formerly of Stevie Wonder.

Eunhye Jeong is currently living in Boston, traveling back and forth between the US and Korea, where she creates, performs, improvises, writes and teaches. Show less