With an enriching program lined up for the evening, prize-winning guitarist Bo Byun is paying tribute to the great traditions of Spanish romanticism and the classical guitar.
The Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra is set to perform at 8:15 p.m. tonight in the Amphitheater with School of Music Artistic Director Timothy Muffitt guest conducting and soloist Byun, transporting the audience into the heart of Spain.
The program will include Maurice Ravel’s Alborada del gracioso; Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aruanjuez; Manuel de Falla’s El sombrero de tres picos, Suite No. 2; and Emmanuel Chabrier’s España. The arrangement bookends two French works inspired by Spanish themes, and then the middle two are by actual Spanish composers, Muffitt said.
Falla was the most distinguished Spanish composer of the early 20th history; in 1907, he moved to Paris where he met Ravel, whose influence can be heard in Falla’s orchestration. The entirety of the musical score was built around the guitar as “the guitar is the quintessential Spanish instrument,” Muffitt said.
Rodrigo went blind as a small child but demonstrated a natural talent on piano; he composed Concierto de Aruanjuez toward the end of the Spanish Civil War while abroad; it takes on a nostalgic feel for an earlier time in the nation’s history. Chabrier was considered a child prodigy, his first composition created at 8, however he studied law for around 20 years. Three years after resigning, he created España — which brought him lasting fame.
Muffitt enjoyed constructing tonight’s program, centering the guitar. Music is a “natural form of expression” for him, and conducting reminds him that “music just grabs us and doesn’t let us go.”
Performing in the Amp for the first time is Byun – winner of the Avery Fisher Career Grant, a prestigious award that recognizes potential for major careers in music, and the first female winner of the esteemed JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition. Byun entered The Juilliard School at the age of 16, earning her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees before completing her Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the University of Southern California.
Byun enjoys featuring fresh, contemporary music alongside traditional repertoire. Her hope for the audience is that they leave the performance with new experiences.
“I think people deserve to hear music that’s representing the time they’re living in at the moment and guitar is a great tool for that because it’s just very versatile,” Byun said.
Byun first knew she wanted to play guitar at 6 years old when she was folding laundry with her mom and a guitar popped up on the television – she simply knew she wanted to play it. She took the stage for her first solo recital at 11 and rose to national attention in Korea in her teens. It was a lot, she said, but she feels lucky to have lived in a smaller town in Korea where she could keep a “healthy balance.”
One of Byun’s goals is to expand what it means to be a 21st-century musician and to think “about what we can do with the music rather than just the music itself.” Even as she figures out what that means for her, she is saving space for growth and aims to tell stories through music, always trying to convey a larger meaning.
“I try to make (performances) more than just listening to music,” Byun said.
“My concert program is very much focused on music by composers who immigrated to the States, raising awareness or bringing more attention to matters I care about,” Byun said about prioritizing a diverse program. Her 2024 season will be more personal to her, centered around home and family.
In 2020, Byun founded GuitarLab, an online learning platform for young professionals around the world, as her passion project. Because she grew up in Korea, she knows “people don’t realize that if you are not from the States or Europe, it’s really hard to attend festivals, and there’s very limited opportunities for people.” Her focus is providing opportunities for, and connecting, guitarists around the world; an additional benefit, she said, “is finding people who are like you – it can be isolating to be a solo artist.”
Another passion project of hers is Sounding Board: The New Music Initiative for Guitarists and Composers; its focus is promoting collaborative relationships between composers and musicians to create new works for the guitar. The main reason Byun co-founded Sounding Board “is because some composers who don’t play the guitar are hesitant to write for the guitar, because the idiomatic playing is just so different from any other stringed instrument.”
Traveling and performing as a solo artist can be somewhat lonely, Byun said, so she is looking forward to having the CSO on stage with her. When she performs with an orchestra, “it just feels like I’m inside of the music.”
“The first time I played with an orchestra was just so inspiring, because it’s almost like acting in a way. You have to kind of put yourself in that emotional state,” Byun said. “But with the orchestra, they kind of provide that for you, and it’s just very inspirational to me.”
