European premiere

For the first time in Europe, Okkyung Lee presents her Yeo-Neun Quartet, which elegantly binds modern classical composition and freely improvised music with the emotive drama of Korean traditional music and popular ballads. A vital force in the contemporary global landscape of experimental music, Okkyung Lee is widely regarded for her solo and collaborative improvisations and compositions. Yeo-Neun (2020), recorded by Yeo-Neun Quartet – an experimental chamber music ensemble founded in 2016 and led by Lee on cello, featuring harpist Maeve Gilchrist, pianist Jacob Sacks, and bassist Eivind Opsvik – represents the culmination of one of longest and most intimate arcs in her remarkable career. Its 10 discrete works are born of the ambient displacement of the musician’s life: from her early days spent away from home studying the cello in Seoul and Boston, to her subsequent move to New York and the nomadism of a near-endless routine of tours.

Okkyung Lee's Yeo-Neun Quartet performs on Sunday 9 April.