Soo Yeon Lyuh, who plays a haegeum, or Korean two-string bowed instrument, will perform in concert on May 7. (photo courtesy of KCCLA)

The Korean Cultural Center Los Angeles and University of California, Los Angeles are presenting a special online concert, “Haegeum Evolution: Various Approaches to Korean Music,” on Friday, May 7, at noon on the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music YouTube channel.

South Korean Haegeum musician Soo Yeon Lyuh shares her musical journey from performing traditional Korean music genres to her more-recent explorations in composing and her collaborations with the Kronos Quartet. She will participate in a “Meet the Artist” session on Zoom following the concert, moderated by Katherine In-Young Lee, a UCLA professor of ethnomusicology. The virtual concert is co-sponsored by the Korean Cultural Center of Los Angeles and the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music.

Lyuh plays a haegeum, a Korean two-stringed bowed instrument, and is a composer and improviser currently based in the Bay Area. Her work aims to combine traditional Korean music and improvisatory experimental music, as exemplified in her pieces “Yessori (2017)” and “Moment 2020,” which were commissioned and premiered by the Kronos Quartet. Trained in court and folk repertories from a young age, Lyuh is known for her masterful performances of new compositions for the haegeum. Lyuh received her Ph.D in Korean Musicology from Seoul National University, where she taught for six years. More recently, she has organized workshops and lecture concerts in collaboration with composition and ethnomusicology faculty at UCLA, UC Berkeley, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, Mills College, Stanford and the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Lyuh seeks to continually expand contemporary haegeum possibilities by regularly commissioning new works from composers worldwide and engaging with new media and technology.

For reservation and information, visit schoolofmusic.ucla.edu/event/haegeum-evolution-various-approaches-to-korean-music.