Exeter, NH (May 5, 2008)—On Tuesday, May 13, 2008, 7 p.m., the Phillips Exeter Academy Music Department will present a faculty composer recital with music instructor Jae Hyeok Jang at Phillips Church, located on the corner of Tan Lane and Front Street. The concert is free and open to the public.

The theme of the evening’s performance will be the Korean traditional concept of han, a unique combination of human emotions translated to mean deep bitterness or sorrow. The recital will include chamber works and selections performed by faculty, students and friends. Among the selections will be “Nocturne,” for a whispering violin (2001); “Echo,” for clusters (piano) and voices (2008, world premiere), with PEA senior Andrew MacFarlane on piano; and “Heavenly Peace,” for flute and piano (2007), performed by instructors Peter Schultz, flute, and George Lopez, piano.

Described as an emotion pent up so deeply in one’s heart that it cannot be fulfilled, han may encompass love, bitterness, regret, respect and sublimity, all of which emerge from a deeper, more general source that is the essence of han.

“The oppressed emotions, often deeply hidden scars that cannot be assuaged by human effort, are regarded as a burden. However, I consider han a blessing. Rather than lament the lamentable life, if we accept life as it is and hope for Heaven, if han can lead our hearts to be passionate for God, then han is a source of a blessing. In some of my pieces, I express han through an explosion of strength, as would be done in a traditional shaman ritual. In other pieces, han is expressed in a mitigated submission and internal control. I do not stop at merely describing han, but rather attempt to direct it toward God and His blessing, as a mechanism that leads us to Heaven,” Jang says.

Jang is a Korean-born composer and conductor who studied music composition and received his undergraduate degree in 1995 from KeiMyung University in Korea, a graduate degree from Manhattan School of Music in 1998, and a doctorate from Boston University in 2007.

Jang has written commissioned works for Boston University Tanglewood Music Institute, Da-ism Contemporary Music Festival (South Korea), and Parkway Concert Orchestra. The most recent of these works, “Awakening Dawn,” which was commissioned and premiered by Parkway Concert Orchestra, will be performed by the Phillips Exeter Symphonia student ensemble on May 23, in the orchestra’s regular concert series.

Jang studied both orchestral and choral conducting, and was the off-stage conductor for Mahler’s Second Symphony at Symphony Hall in Boston; Fontainebleau String Ensemble; and conducted the New England Korean Church Festival Choir and Orchestra. Currently, he is the music director of the Korean Presbyterian Church in Greater Boston, and is a member of the music faculty at Phillips Exeter Academy.

For further information, please contact Patrice Baker in the music department at (603) 777-3453. A complete list of upcoming events is available on the Phillips Exeter Academy public events line at (603) 777-4309 and on the Academy’s musical performances website page at http://www.exeter.edu/news_and_events/news_events_2990.aspx. For directions to the Academy, call (603) 777-4330.

Phillips Exeter Academy is a coeducational, independent preparatory school that was founded in 1781 and originated the system of instruction known as Harkness teaching in 1931. In the spirit of its charter to foster both goodness and knowledge, a Phillips Exeter Academy education will now be free to any admitted student whose family income is $75,000 or less. Committed to educational excellence, the school meets all demonstrated financial aid needs of its admitted students, making the Academy effectively “need blind.” The diverse student body comes from a wide variety of geographic, economic, racial and religious backgrounds approximately from 45 states, the District of Columbia, the Virgin Islands and 23 foreign countries.