How to Love with Eunbi Kim, Pianist, NAC Artist Fellow

“Every person is a world to explore.” — Thich Nhat Hanh, “How to Love”

Inspired by teachings from Buddhist Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh, pianist Eunbi Kim, a 2023/2024 National Arts Club Artist Fellow, performs music that explores how to love within the context of self and family. The program includes “Marigold” by Stephanie Ann Boyd (world premiere with the composer in attendance), “Mother’s Hand, Healing Hand (엄마손은 약손)” by Pauchi Sasaki, and “It Feels Like a Mountain, Chasing Me” by Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR).

Guest artists include Pala Garcia (violinist and 2023/2024 National Arts Club Artist Fellow) and cellist John Popham.

Photo Credit: Mari Uchida for Eunbi Kim, piano

Performer Bios

A winner of the 2023 Astral Artists National Competition, pianist Eunbi Kim creates intimate experiences that transcend the conventions of the piano recital. Her credits include solo programs at the Kennedy Center, a concert-meditation performance at Lincoln Center, and a TEDx Talk. She has been noted for her “creative curiosity and fearless experimentation” (New York Public Radio). Her recent album debuted at #2 on Billboard Classical Charts. Titled “It Feels Like,” the album deals with themes of childhood, family and memory, and features world premiere recordings of works written for her by Angélica Negrón, Pauchi Sasaki, Sophia Jani, and Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR). Drawing from the album and its themes, Kim created a 4-night performance and conversation series as an Artist-in-Residence at WNYC/WQXR’s The Greene Space. About her work, Kim says, “I love taking creative risks that make performances vulnerable.”

Pala Garcia was recently featured in the Washington Post’s “23 for ‘23: Performers and Composers to Watch.” She is the violinist of Longleash, an “expert young trio” (The Strad), and co-directs the Loretto Project, an annual new music workshop. Her solo album is forthcoming on New Focus Recordings this season, with support from the Aaron Copland Fund. In addition to her involvement in Carnegie Hall’s social impact programs, Pala teaches for the Juilliard School’s Preparatory Division. She is a doctoral candidate, teaching fellow, and recipient of a certificate in Women’s Studies at the CUNY Graduate Center.

Cellist John Popham is a chamber musician and teacher based in Brooklyn, New York. His playing has been described as “brilliant” and “virtuosic” (Kronen Zeitung), “warm but variegated”, and “finely polished” (The New York Times). Currently a member of Either/Or Ensemble and LONGLEASH, Mr. Popham has performed internationally with groups including Klangforum Wien, Talea Ensemble, and the Argento Chamber Ensemble. He has appeared as soloist with the Louisville Orchestra, the String Orchestra of Brooklyn, the Red Light Ensemble, and the Kunstuniversität Graz Chorus. Mr. Popham is currently cello faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program. He received his BM and MM from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of David Geber and David Soyer and was awarded the Manhattan School of Music Full Scholarship.

Composer Bios

NYC-based composer Stephanie Ann Boyd (1990) and her music are on an adventure to deeply connect the people on stages, in classrooms, and across audiences to the planet and to each other. Her current musical campaigns working on these endeavors include: 1. The Conservation Concertos which pair the solo instrument with a nearly-extinct flora or fauna. Nautilus, the inaugural concerto, is being written for New York Philharmonic Principal Clarinetist Anthony McGill. 2. Carnival of the Nearly-Extinct Animals, a new consortium work for orchestra which follows the size and structure of Saint-Saens’s iconic work. Movements talk and inspire about coral, bison, bees, whales, and other species you probably didn’t know that we’re very close to losing forever. 3. The 50 State String Orchestra Project, and the 50 State Symphonic Band Project, consortium projects through 2026 that involve writing for and coaching youth ensembles all across the US before their performances of The Lifecycle of Stars, for symphony band and Four Future Memories for string orchestra, which will receive its Carnegie Hall debut this spring. Read more at stephanieannboyd.com

Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR) is a Black, Haitian-American composer who sees composing as collaboration with artists, organizations and communities within the farming and framing of ideas. He is a prolific and endlessly collaborative composer, performer, educator, and social entrepreneur. “About as omnivorous as a contemporary artist gets” (New York Times), Roumain has worked with artists from J’Nai Bridges, Lady Gaga and Philip Glass to Bill T. Jones, Marin Alsop and Anna Deavere Smith. Known for his signature violin sounds infused with myriad electronic and African-American music influences, Roumain takes his genre-bending music beyond the proscenium. He is a composer of solo, chamber, orchestral, and operatic works, and has composed an array of film, theater, and dance scores. He has composed music for the acclaimed film Ailey (Sundance official selection); was the first Music Director and Principal Composer with the Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company; released and appeared on 30 album recordings; and has published over 300 works. Currently, he is the first Artistic Ambassador with Firstworks; the first Artist Activist-in-Residence at Longy School of Music; and the first Resident Artistic Catalyst with the New Jersey Symphony. He is a tenured Associate and Institute Professor at Arizona State University Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts. danielroumain.com

Pauchi Sasaki’s interdisciplinary approach integrates musical composition with the creation of multimedia performances, the application of new technologies, and the development of self-designed instruments. She was selected for The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative by composer Philip Glass, the Ibermúsicas grant for sound composition with new technologies at CMMAS in Mexico, the Goethe-Institute’s artist residency in Brazil and Berlin, Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Columbia University’s Institute for Ideas and Imagination Fellowship, and the Prince Claus Fund. Commissions include ACO/Carnegie Hall, Silkroad Ensemble, Pan American Games Opening Ceremony Lima 2019, among others. An active film scorer, “Pauchi Sasaki’s effective scores” [Variety 2015] are featured in more than 30 feature and short films, having received four “Best Original Score” international awards. Her work has been presented at international venues and festivals as the Tokyo Experimental Festival, Venice Biennale, Carnegie Hall, Cannes Film Festival, Walt Disney Hall, MET, The Kitchen, Gran Teatro Nacional del Perú, Festival Cervantino, the Art Basel Miami week, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, and John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

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