Background: |
As conductor Kimo Furumoto
closes his second season with the University Orchestra at
California State University, Fullerton, the program has seen
exciting growth in both enrollment and in performances offered
this year. The closing concert is a varied one saluting
our American heritage in with Copland’s “Lincoln
Portrait,” narrated by Cal State Fullerton President,
Milton A. Gordon. In choosing Copland’s “Lincoln
Portrait” and it’s narrator, Furumoto suggests,
“I think it is fitting that President Gordon, as the
leader of our University, deliver the eloquent words of Abraham
Lincoln which speak of the highest ideals of society and arouse
a sense of patriotism in the listener.” Also offering
performances are this year’s winners of the Music Associates
annual Performance Awards competition—soprano Suzanne
Ma and pianist Soon Mee Kwon, and a special premiere of CSUF
graduate composer, Kenneth L. Field’s, “Song of
Ascent: A Spiritual Journey.”
Soprano Suzanne (Kyung Mi) Ma
is a senior studying voice with Andrew Parks at Cal State
Fullerton. A two-year recipient of a Lotte Johnston Scholarship,
Ma has performed with the Women’s Chorus under the direction
of Vance Wolverton has regularly with the Opera Theatre program
directed by Janet Smith and Mark Salters. Graduating this
May, Ma has received a graduate fellowship scholarship from
the University of Michigan where she plans to continue her
studies in vocal performance.
Pianist Soon Mee Kwon, 21,
is a student of Eduardo Delgado at CSUF. The second recipient
of the Alicia de Larrocha scholarship, she has met and performed
for the prestigious pianist. She has been described as "a
gifted interpreter of Mozart's music," by Palos Verdes
News, and has won numerous awards including the Young Artist
Guild Competition, the Southwestern Youth Music Festival,
the Long Beach Mozart Festival, the Los Angeles Liszt Competition
and the California Association of Professional Music Teachers'
Bartok and Honors Audition. As a chamber performer she is
a member of the KwonLam Trio, which has competed in the finals
at the Coleman and the Fischoff competitions.
Graduate student Kenneth Field
first studied composition in high school at Interlochen Arts
Academy in Michigan. He is currently completing his Master
of Music degree at Cal State Fullerton after graduating from
the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Ph.D. in
linguistics in 1997. Recent works include Suite for Right
Hand Piano (2000); Passacaglia (2000) for harpsichord, string
quartet, and bass guitar; Meditation: Ex Nihilo (2001) for
piano and string quartet; fifty seven one (2002) a choral
piece for sixteen vocalists which incorporates extended vocal
techniques and linguistics dedicated to the victims and survivors
of 9-11; The Beatitudes (2002) for electronics; and Mass for
Choir and Percussion Ensemble (2003) - part of which will
be premiered May 19th at his Master’s Composition Recital.
As a composer, he has been influenced Krzysztof Penderecki,
Henryk Górecki, John Taverner, and Arvo Pärt.
Of his compositions, Field says he “sees composition
as a form of prayer—listening and then speaking the
eternal Word in sound ikons or images.”
Furumoto, in addition to his
teaching responsibilities at Cal State Fullerton, is also
music director/conductor of the Huntington Symphony Orchestra
in West Virginia. Previously, he held the director of orchestral
activities and chair, string division at Ohio University,
and music director of the Concert Orchestra position at the
University of Cincinnati, College Conservatory of Music. After
completing a one-year position as conducting assistant with
the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he was invited to return
as a guest assistant conductor. He has also served as associate
conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestra and the
Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra. He has appeared as guest conductor
with orchestras both in the United States and Europe, and
has worked with noted conductors such as Leonard Bernstein
and Robert Shaw. |