A Midsummer Night's Serenade

Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 7:00 pm

Colburn School Zipper Hall

The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles (Director HaeDon Lee) announced that it will host “A Midsummer Night’s Serenade” at Zipper Hall at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles, in celebration of the 80th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation.

This special concert will feature a stellar lineup of talented and accomplished Korean vocalists and classical musicians based in Southern California, presenting a high-caliber classical performance that will bring cool, beautiful melodies to the midsummer night in LA.

The event will be directed by Professor JinYoung Jang, a vocalist, conductor, and professor at Antelope Valley College who also leads a Korean classical music group. Under his artistic direction, the concert will bring together many prominent Korean artists who are active in the Southern California classical music scene and gaining recognition locally.

The performance will feature Soprano JooHye Kim and Tenor KyuYoung Lee, both currently performing with the Los Angeles Master Chorale. Other performers include Mezzo-Soprano WooYoung Kim, violinists Olivia Jung-A Kim and HeeSun Kang, violist JiIn Han, cellist WonSun Kim, pianist Somang Jegal, flutist Youngji Song, French horn player Eunjin Koh, oboist Eundo Lee, clarinetist Claire Jaeyeon Jung, and bassoonist Anne Lanzani-Makachuk.

Notably, baritone HyungJin?Son and pianist SuJin?Choi?selected for the prestigious LA Opera Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist Program from among over 800 applicants (a 100:1 acceptance rate)?will also perform in this concert.

To reflect the theme of Korea’s Liberation 80th Anniversary, the repertoire will feature a diverse mix of Korean art songs and art pop, American folk songs, operatic arias, and drama scores. Highlights include well-known folk songs like “Danny Boy” and “My Old Kentucky Home”; “Arariyo” by composer Jisoo Lee; “If I Leave”, the theme song from the drama The Last Empress; “Nemico della patria” from the opera Andrea Chenier, set during the French Revolution; “Counting the Stars at Night”, based on a poem by Korean poet Yun Dong-ju; “If Life Deceives You”, from a poem by Pushkin; and “If I Bloom a Single Flower”, based on the poem by Cho Dong-hwa. 

Each piece has been carefully selected to resonate with the significance and emotion of the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation, promising a moving and memorable evening for the audience.