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A Masterclass with Min Kwon, pianist
Presented by Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Masterclass Series, Princeton University Music Department
date & time
Sun, Nov 3, 2024
Masterclass — 2-4 PM ET
Concert — 5-6 PM ET
ticketing
Free, Unticketed
- This event has passed.
The Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Masterclass Series presents a masterclass with acclaimed pianist Min Kwon on Sunday, November 3rd, at 2PM. The Series provides students from across campus the unique opportunity to connect one-on-one with renowned performers in a workshop format that is open to the public.
Korean-born American pianist and arts advocate Min Kwon will perform works from her ambitious project, America/Beautiful, which has commissioned over 70 leading American composers to each craft a variation on the song “America the Beautiful.” Kwon’s hope is to paint a sonic picture of her adopted country in all of its sprawling complexity, and ultimately try to find the beauty at the core of the American experiment and its guiding principle, e pluribus num(out of many, one).
“As an immigrant, America has so many different meanings to me. These past few years have left us so deeply divided, and I have often asked myself what kind of a country I will be leaving to my two daughters – whose birthdays happen to fall on President’s Day and the Fourth of July.
Ultimately this project is about embracing our diversity, and remembering that by understanding, appreciating, and celebrating our differences, we become stronger both as individuals and as a country. The fact that 70 composers can hear the same song in a completely different way is, to me, something truly beautiful.” – Min Kwon
***
Sun, Nov 3, 2024
Masterclass — 2-4 PM ET
Concert — 5-6 PM ET
Participating students include:
Brianna Dai ’28
Isabelle Bruening ’27
Charlie Ku ’26
Kasey Shao ’25
Program
Samuel Adler (b. 1928) America the Beautiful Theme
Samuel Adler (b. 1928) A Celebration of Our Beautiful Nation
Peter Boyer (b. 1970) Still Beautiful
Pierre Jalbert (b. 1967) Endeavor
Leila Adu-Gilmore United Underdog
Juri Seo (b. 1981) America the Beautiful - "sotto voce"
Viet Cuong (b. 1990) America the Beautiful: Echo Chamber
Donnacha Dennehy (b. 1970) New Jersey
Augusta Read Thomas (b. 1964) FUSION
Scott Ordway (b. 1984) Toccata in Miniature
Justin Dello Joio (b. 1954) Playing with Fire
Sebastian Currier (b. 1959) 23 Variations on America
Lei Liang (b. 1972) America the Beautiful... devastatingly quiet...
Avner Dorman (b. 1975) American Toccata
Min Kwon, piano
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states, and currently is the Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002. Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians, and it is through CME that she has commissioned the composers for America/Beautiful. Min is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where she later served as a member of The Juilliard Council, the first alumnus to be invited to do so. Min Kwon is a Steinway Artist.
Donna Weng Friedman
Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer, filmmaker, and app developer. Donna was selected as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of 2024 for her outstanding contribution to the performing arts. She was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023, for her “passionate commitment to teaching and inspiring young people in music” – Gavin English, President of Steinway & Sons Americas.
Donna wrote, directed and produced the award winning documentary
short, NEVER FADE AWAY featuring Chun Wai Chan, the first principal dancer of Chinese descent in New York City Ballet’s 75-year history. NEVER FADE AWAY is the true story of how a radio and a waltz changed her immigrant father’s life. History-making dancer Chun Wai Chan portrays her father as a young man and dances a riveting pas de deux -choreographed exquisitely by Ariel Grossman- with Xiaoxiao Cao. The short film premiered
at NYU”s Jack Crystal Theater in celebration of AAPI and Immigrant Heritage Month in May, and has since won forty-four laurels from film festivals worldwide. Here is the teaser for Never Fade Away.
Never Fade Away is archived at the Bob Hope Memorial Library at Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island in perpetuity by the National Park Service for use in permanent and temporary exhibits, for loan to other institutions, and for research by historians and others interested in the Statue of Liberty and American immigration.
A short clip of Never Fade Away was shown on the big screen at Times Square on May 1st in honor of AAPI Heritage Month. Donna has since been featured
on CBS Morning Newscast with Cindy Hsu, ABC Eyewitness News, NBC News 4 NY, WPIX 11 News with Magee Hickey, WCBS News Radio and Asian American Life.
Donna is the inaugural winner of the Women Who Innovate Grant 2023, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in Music, Global Initiatives committee for her “impactful and meaningful” work.
Her album Heritage and Harmony: Silver Linings, featuring exclusively AAPI/BIPOC artists, garnered two Silver Medals at the 2022 Global. Music Awards. Intended as a response to the wave of violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) individuals, her pandemic EP aims to promote understanding and tolerance among people of all backgrounds.
In collaboration with WQXR, Donna created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Her story was featured on Asian Americans of New York & New Jersey | WLIW21, a segment of which has been aired on PBS numerous times.
Donna was awarded a 2022 New York Women Composer’s grant. She is the co- creator and co-host of HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY with soprano Allison Charney, a mini-series on WQXR as well as a concert series that shines a light on women composers, past and present. She was the guest speaker on TEDx Santa Barbara’s series Making Waves: Conversations with Influencers and Disruptors. Donna is the Artistic Advisor of Ariel Rivka Dance, an all-female dance company.
Donna was the featured guest artist on the National Women’s History Museum’s series NWHM Presents: Sundays@Home, honoring women whose activism and talents serve to inspire others. On March 8th, 2022, she launched a virtual education program in collaboration with the National Women’s History Museum called Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice, featuring leading female BIPOC role models in the arts who share their stories of heritage, their challenges and their triumphs, as they seek to inspire and empower future generations of groundbreaking young women.
Donna has performed in concert halls worldwide, and appeared as soloist with major symphony orchestras, including the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. She has collaborated with world-class artists including Carter Brey, Anthony McGill, Elizabeth Mann, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Paul Neubauer, Marya Martin and Kelly Hall- Tompkins.
The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Master Class Series at Princeton University, she is also a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council. Donna is currently serving as Vice Chair to the Friends of Thirteen Advocacy Board/WNET. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University Scholar and a Master’s of Music Degree from the Juilliard School where she was a winner of the highly coveted Gina Bachauer Piano Competition as well as the William Petschek full scholarship award. Donna had the honor and privilege of studying with the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and the inimitable pianist Radu Lupu. She is on the piano faculty of the Mannes School of Music.
Donna was the music supervisor and recording artist for the award-winning film documentary “Frames of Life” as well as for the documentaries “Living Liberty” and “Morris Engle: The Independent”. Ms. Weng Friedman created “The Music Bee Club” interactive classical music app series for children ages 2-8 featuring principal cellist of the NY Philharmonic Carter Brey and flutist Elizabeth Mann, produced by twenty-five-time Grammy Award winner David Frost.
Min Kwon, piano
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states, and currently is the Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002. Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a nonprofit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians, and it is through CME that she has commissioned the composers for America/Beautiful. Min is a graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School, where she later served as a member of The Juilliard Council, the first alumnus to be invited to do so. Min Kwon is a Steinway Artist.
Donna Weng Friedman
Award winning pianist Donna Weng Friedman enjoys a distinguished career as a soloist, chamber musician, educator, curator, producer, filmmaker, and app developer. Donna was selected as one of Musical America’s Top 30 Professionals of 2024 for her outstanding contribution to the performing arts. She was inducted into the Steinway & Sons Teacher Hall of Fame in 2023, for her “passionate commitment to teaching and inspiring young people in music” – Gavin English, President of Steinway & Sons Americas.
Donna wrote, directed and produced the award winning documentary
short, NEVER FADE AWAY featuring Chun Wai Chan, the first principal dancer of Chinese descent in New York City Ballet’s 75-year history. NEVER FADE AWAY is the true story of how a radio and a waltz changed her immigrant father’s life. History-making dancer Chun Wai Chan portrays her father as a young man and dances a riveting pas de deux -choreographed exquisitely by Ariel Grossman- with Xiaoxiao Cao. The short film premiered
at NYU”s Jack Crystal Theater in celebration of AAPI and Immigrant Heritage Month in May, and has since won forty-four laurels from film festivals worldwide. Here is the teaser for Never Fade Away.
Never Fade Away is archived at the Bob Hope Memorial Library at Statue of Liberty National Monument and Ellis Island in perpetuity by the National Park Service for use in permanent and temporary exhibits, for loan to other institutions, and for research by historians and others interested in the Statue of Liberty and American immigration.
A short clip of Never Fade Away was shown on the big screen at Times Square on May 1st in honor of AAPI Heritage Month. Donna has since been featured
on CBS Morning Newscast with Cindy Hsu, ABC Eyewitness News, NBC News 4 NY, WPIX 11 News with Magee Hickey, WCBS News Radio and Asian American Life.
Donna is the inaugural winner of the Women Who Innovate Grant 2023, awarded by the International Alliance for Women in Music, Global Initiatives committee for her “impactful and meaningful” work.
Her album Heritage and Harmony: Silver Linings, featuring exclusively AAPI/BIPOC artists, garnered two Silver Medals at the 2022 Global. Music Awards. Intended as a response to the wave of violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) individuals, her pandemic EP aims to promote understanding and tolerance among people of all backgrounds.
In collaboration with WQXR, Donna created and produced Heritage and Harmony, a virtual concert series in celebration of Asian Pacific Heritage Month. Her story was featured on Asian Americans of New York & New Jersey | WLIW21, a segment of which has been aired on PBS numerous times.
Donna was awarded a 2022 New York Women Composer’s grant. She is the co- creator and co-host of HER/MUSIC;HER/STORY with soprano Allison Charney, a mini-series on WQXR as well as a concert series that shines a light on women composers, past and present. She was the guest speaker on TEDx Santa Barbara’s series Making Waves: Conversations with Influencers and Disruptors. Donna is the Artistic Advisor of Ariel Rivka Dance, an all-female dance company.
Donna was the featured guest artist on the National Women’s History Museum’s series NWHM Presents: Sundays@Home, honoring women whose activism and talents serve to inspire others. On March 8th, 2022, she launched a virtual education program in collaboration with the National Women’s History Museum called Heritage and Harmony: Her Art, Her Voice, featuring leading female BIPOC role models in the arts who share their stories of heritage, their challenges and their triumphs, as they seek to inspire and empower future generations of groundbreaking young women.
Donna has performed in concert halls worldwide, and appeared as soloist with major symphony orchestras, including the Atlanta, Philadelphia and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras. She has collaborated with world-class artists including Carter Brey, Anthony McGill, Elizabeth Mann, Ani Kavafian, David Shifrin, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Paul Neubauer, Marya Martin and Kelly Hall- Tompkins.
The curator of the Donna Weng Friedman ’80 Master Class Series at Princeton University, she is also a member of Princeton University Music Department’s Advisory Council. Donna is currently serving as Vice Chair to the Friends of Thirteen Advocacy Board/WNET. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Princeton University where she was a University Scholar and a Master’s of Music Degree from the Juilliard School where she was a winner of the highly coveted Gina Bachauer Piano Competition as well as the William Petschek full scholarship award. Donna had the honor and privilege of studying with the great pedagogue Nadia Boulanger and the inimitable pianist Radu Lupu. She is on the piano faculty of the Mannes School of Music.
Donna was the music supervisor and recording artist for the award-winning film documentary “Frames of Life” as well as for the documentaries “Living Liberty” and “Morris Engle: The Independent”. Ms. Weng Friedman created “The Music Bee Club” interactive classical music app series for children ages 2-8 featuring principal cellist of the NY Philharmonic Carter Brey and flutist Elizabeth Mann, produced by twenty-five-time Grammy Award winner David Frost.