House Music Ep 108: Christine Lee

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When the COVID-19 pandemic began one year ago, cellist Christine Lee found herself in her home country, Korea. She hadn’t spent this much time in Korea since she was a little girl—she had moved away while she was still very young. But this past year has been a time of rumination, and she’s reconnected with her heritage. For the House Music series, she performs a traditional Korean folk song titled Arirang, which tells a story of self discovery.

Lee first became involved with Metropolis Ensemble right before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, where she performed as part of the Ciranda concert, which found connections between Nuevo Latino music and New York’s contemporary classical music scene. She had a wonderful time at the concert, and in particular enjoyed playing music by the composer Clarice Assad, who she’d worked with before. After that concert, she hoped for more; the House Music series is her second collaboration with the group.

When Lee first came across Arirang, she thought it was about a woman mourning lost love. But the more time she spent with it, she discovered its true meaning: that joy comes from self-acceptance. This meaning is significant for her because it’s precisely the journey she’s taken over the past year. In this rendition of Arirang, Lee adds her own flair to the music by exploring some traditional Korean musical styles, like Pansori, which uses 30 different types of vibrato and different bow speeds to create different musical textures. Some sound more resonant, while others sound hollow. Here, she performs Arirang from her apartment in New York. -- Vanessa Ague

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