Christian Baldini, music director and conductor
UC Davis Professor of Music

Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte

Christian Baldini: Unequal Freedom, an Exploratory Concerto (premiere)

Sungji Hong: Erat lux vera (premiere)

Ravel: La Valse

Unequal Freedom is a new work by music director and conductor Christian Baldini, which features violinist Celine Jeong Kim from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and who is the winner of numerous concerto competitions.

Erat lux vera (“That Was the Truth”) is also a new work being written as part of a larger symphonic cycle, Inluminat, written by University of North Texas Lecturer in Music Sungji Hong.

$12 Students and Children, $24 Adults (Assigned Seating)

* Complete list of Taproot New Music Festival concerts. *

Violinist Celine Jeong Kim graduated from Seoul National University of Music in Korea and has won numerous Korean music competitions, including the 2011 Hankook News Paper Music Competition, the Haydn International Competition, and the Busan Munhwa Broadcasting Music Competition. She was also selected as a winner of the Korea Division of the Mozart International Competition, the 2013 KRB New York Radio International Competition, and the 2012 Osaka International Music Competition. Kim has been invited to perform solos with the Russian Symphony Orchestra, the Mozart Hankook Symphony Orchestra, and the Yongin Philharmonic Orchestra. Additionally, she has participated frequently in the Tanglewood Music Festival, Moritzburg Festival, and the Seoul International Music Festival. While at Seoul National University, Kim was active in leading the Agnus Dei Ensemble in an effort to raise awareness for pediatric cancers. In 2013, she performed as concertmaster of the World Bridge Symphony Orchestra with Deutsche Oper Berlin. She is currently studying violin in the Concertmaster Track Program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with Professors Alexander Barantschik and Chen Zhao.

University of North Texas Lecturer in Music Composition Sungji Hong has over the last decade had her music performed by leading players and ensembles in over 44 countries and 205 cities. Her creative output ranges from works for solo instruments to full orchestra, as well as choral, ballet and electroacoustic music. Her music has been widely broadcast in more than 17 countries (37 channels) and has been recorded and released on Soundbrush, Elektramusic, Atoll, Dutton label and by ECM Records. Her music is published by Da Vinci Edition, SEEMSA and Tetractys Publishing. In 2019 (and 2004) she received a commission from Harvard University’s Fromm Foundation. She has also received awards and commissions from the Texas Flute Society, the National Flute Association, the Tongyoung International Music Festival (2005, 2007), the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Keumho Asiana Cultural Foundation, the Foundation for Universal Sacred Music, the International Isang Yun Music Society (Germany) and the MATA Festival.