Seoul music: The adventures of Jared Redmond
March 18, 2021
by Phil Radoff and Jack Curley
It was Thursday morning in Boston and late Friday night in Korea when the Banner paid a virtual visit to pianist/composer and popular BOLLI SGL Jared Redmond. Last year Jared and his artist wife, Mallo, took up residence in Seoul where he is currently a Lecturer in Music Composition and Theory at Seoul National University, after two years teaching as Visiting Professor at Hanyang University.
Jared was born in California in the 1980s and comes from a background he says was “neither artistic nor educated.” Punk and Funk were the music of his early teen years, with The Ramones a favorite band. He credits the beginnings of his interest in classical music in part to time spent experimenting with an electronic piano and, more importantly, to the early training he received under the tutelage of a remarkable piano teacher (“a crazy Israeli, full of fire and brimstone”), who remains an important person in his life. Vladimir Horowitz was an early favorite, and he recalls purchasing the pianist’s albums for a dollar at local Goodwill Stores and yard sales. At the precocious age of fourteen, he became an impassioned fan of composer Alexander Scriabin (“a gateway drug to Russian music”), whose work led Jared to a lifelong interest in both composition and theory to accompany his budding love for performance.
After his 2007 graduation from the University of California at Berkeley, Jared’s enthusiasm for classical composers, particularly Scriabin, led him to enroll in Brandeis’s graduate music program. He was drawn to Brandeis by the Music Department’s “long and illustrious history,” established in years past by renowned composers such as Arthur Berger, Irving Fine, Alvin Lucier, David Rakowski, and Yehudi Wyner and more recently by eminent musicologists such as Eric Chafe. Lucier’s 1970 work, I am Sitting in a Room, particularly influenced Jared’s studies and career path. He believes it’s a “touchstone piece” in the evolution of musical composition. While at Brandeis, Jared was the recipient of a 2011-13 Presidential Fellowship and twice participated in Norway’s Edvard Grieg Piano Competition. He was introduced to BOLLI by his friend and fellow Music Department classmate, Gil Harel, who had previously served as a popular BOLLI SGL and lecturer. Jared began offering courses at BOLLI in 2012.
Jared’s love of performance inspired him to spend what he calls a non-academic “Bohemian Year” in Germany, composing and playing piano, supported by a grant from the University of California at Berkeley. During and following his graduate years, Jared also spent time in Korea as a researcher of traditional Korean music, first at the Academy of Korean Studies, and later at the Seoul National University Kyujanggak Institute, which fired a passion for eastern music and instruments. He completed his doctoral dissertation on Scriabin’s Sixth Piano Sonata (the “Netherstar Sonata”) and was awarded a Brandeis 2016 Dissertation Year Fellowship. He has, of late, been writing western avant-garde music to be performed on traditional Korean instruments, such as the daegum (large bamboo flute) and the geomungo (six-stringed zither), as well as modern compositions for solo piano. Jared is currently the artistic director and a member of the ensemble Geori, which specializes in new music played on traditional Korean instruments.
It should come as no surprise that, given his many activities and interests, Jared refers to both his career and his life as “non-linear,” with many “tangents and distractions.” If forced to choose among composition, teaching, and performance his clear first choice would be performance. He is, as he puts it, a “capital ‘M’ Musician who will always need to play the piano.” Jared says that his life thus far has been an “interesting journey,” which has made him a “perpetual student” who delights in learning as well as conveying musical information.
When the conversation inevitably turned to the pandemic, Jared noted that Korea’s excellent public health system and more cautious public behavior have allowed some performance spaces to remain open, thereby providing opportunities for musicians. His recent undertakings include performances of chamber music and contemporary music, along with studio work. With far fewer international performance opportunities available, he was pleasantly surprised when early last year he received a message from Avi inviting him to pay a virtual return visit to BOLLI. The resulting class was Fin de Siècle Vienna: Music, Art, and Cultural Ferment, 1900-1918. In the current semester Jared is leading a course on Russian Music and Culture: from Glinka to Gorbachev. While he enjoys the experience and is pleased with the quality of the virtual platform, he greatly misses the opportunity available to him at previous BOLLI visits to “walk over to a piano and demonstrate something in person.” He looks forward to “stretching his legs over the pond again sometime soon” to pay a return visit to BOLLI in a classroom setting.
Jared has taught at Brandeis, MIT, and Korean universities but admits to having the most fun teaching at BOLLI, since unlike many undergraduates most lifetime learners enroll in courses because of a pre-existing interest in the subject matter. In contrast to his experience with some American undergraduates, he finds that Korean students are typically well-prepared to read and perform music from an early age and are always quite serious about their work.
While his peripatetic life has been personally and professionally rewarding, Jared soon hopes to put down long-term roots. Boston’s concentration of universities places it high on the list of possible landing spots. When asked about future career plans, Jared says that, first and foremost, he aspires to be a lifelong lover of music, able to “embrace it in its totality,” which includes a deep appreciation and understanding of the work of other composers and musicians. He quotes a favorite author, Jorge Luis Borges, who expressed similar thoughts about his literary career: “Let others pride themselves about how many pages they have written; I’d rather boast about the ones I’ve read.”
Prior to heading off to teach his class in Russian music, Jared left us with this final comment: “I’m really gratified and enriched to live a life where I can make some interesting music and play some good concerts and study and teach great music. For me, it’s enough.” We applaud him and look forward to his continuing involvement with BOLLI.
To learn more about Jared and listen to recordings of his music, visit his website.