Richard conducting sandstone(s) at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre, June 16, 2023
Richard’s Music inspired by Korean Gugak Music
The Mill
For violin and piano, up to 30 minutes.
Commissioned by the C.J. Gross Foundation
Individual movements can be performed separately.
Score available from PSNY.
Seongeum
For violin , 6 minutes,
Score available from PSNY. Audio available from lanterne CD on all streaming platforms.
sandstone(s)
For Ajaeng, Gayageum, Haegeum, Flute, Violin, Cello, 7 minutes
Audio available from lanterne CD on all streaming platforms.
Sarang Ga
For bass clarinet and piano, 9 minutes
Audio available from lanterne CD on all streaming platforms.
Danga
For cello and piano , 1 minute
Score available from PSNY. Audio available from lanterne CD on all streaming platforms.
Namdaemun
Written for New York Philharmonic Biennial 2014
For large chamber ensemble, 6 minutes
Audio available from Cycles of Evolution CD on all streaming platforms.
Korean Gugak
Richard has been collaborating with Korean Gugak music and musicians since his first visit to Korea in 2010, developing the Very Young Composers program of the New York Philharmonic in Seoul. He visited Korea six times, working with hundreds of teachers and students, and attended the International Gugak Workshop in 2015 in Seoul. He has been collaborating with preeminent Korean Gugak musicians Gamin, Kang Eun-Il and Jin Hi Kim, in improvised and notated musics in concerts in New York City and Seoul.
During his Guggenheim Fellowship, he began adapting Gugak music rhythms and sense of melody into his compositions, beginning with Seongeum for violin (2016), which began a fruitful collaboration that has been welcomed and encouraged by Korean musicians and institutions. He currently has a number of chamber works based on Pansori melodies and Gugak concepts, a full list of pieces is available below.
Beyond Borders
On June 16, 2023, Richard Carrick was the featured composer for the Korean-US Alliance Concert at Sanders Theatre at Harvard University, a celebration of the 70th Anniversary of the South Korean and US Alliance organized by the Korean Consul General of Boston and The Korean Cultural Society of Boston.
Combining traditional korean and western instrumentalists with dance, the program included Carrick’s compositions Seongeum for solo violin, and sandstone(s) for western and korean traditional instruments (conducted by the composer), his premiere of a new arrangement of traditional Korean songs Arirang and Ganggangsullae and US Delta blues songs by Robert Johnson and Elvis, and a number of Korean traditional works featuring performers from throughout the US and South Korea. Musicians included Jae Cosmos Lee, violin, Jacques Lee Wood, cello, Sooyun Kim, flute, Hyunchae Kim, gayageum, Jeonghyeon Joo, haegeum, Yoona Kim, Ajaeng, and Ji-won Bang, percussion. The New Chamber Ballet (of NYC) danced for a number of the pieces including the festive closing arrangement.
The concert was featured in Korean Newspapers and Television and was incredibly well received by both the full house as well as the larger Korean community.
Concert program available here