FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 23, 2000 CONTACT: Lisa Lacher, (515) 271-3119 DRAKE WORLD MUSIC CONCERT SERIES TO FEATURE KOREAN VIRTUOSO JIN HI KIM The Drake University World Music Concert Series will present a performance on Tuesday, March 7, by Jin Hi Kim, an internationally renowned composer of major cross-cultural works and a virtuoso on the komungo, a six-stringed fretted board zither that originated in North Korea in the fourth century. The concert will start at 8 p.m. on the Jordan Stage in Sheslow Auditorium in Old Main, 26th Street and University Avenue. Tickets are $4 per person or free with a Drake ID or student ID. A noted ethnomusicologist at Seoul National University who has performed worldwide, Kim fuses old Korean and new Western concepts into a rich series of compositions celebrating what she calls "Living Tones." These "Living Tones" combine traditional Korean court music philosophy, based on cosmic principles, and Western concepts such as atomic theory, fractal geometry and chaos aesthetics. Kim has received glowing reviews in major U.S. newspapers. For example, Josef Woodard, music critic for The Los Angeles Times, described her "Living Tones" as "new music/world music at its finest, beyond political correctness, into the realm of the sublime, where words and cultural postures fall away." In addition to her concert, Kim will give a workshop and lecture on "Living Tones" at 11 a.m. Tuesday, March 7, in Bulldog Theater in Olmsted Center, 29th Street and University Avenue. This event is free and open to the public. Kim began studying traditional Korean music at the age of 13. She has performed her own work at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, Kennedy Center and the Brooklyn Academy of Music. She has composed works for the Kronos String Quartet, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Xenakis Ensemble. In addition, she is co-developer of the only electric komungo. For more information about Kim's concert and workshop, which is sponsored by The Korea Society, call (515) 271-3975.