Meet Hee-Young Lim

If it isn’t already, the name Hee-Young Lim is one you should have on your radar. This young, South Korean cellist is quickly establishing herself as one of the leading musicians of this generation. Her passion for music is evident when you listen to her play. She has a tremendous command over her instrument and her virtuosity and musicality shine through in her debut recording that was released in November 2018 with Scott Yoo and the London Symphony Orchestra. Following the release of her album, I had the privilege of getting to know Hee-Young and learning a little more about why she chose exclusively French repertoire for this new release.

The concertos on Hee-Young’s album with the London Symphony are less commonly recorded than something like the Dvorak Cello Concerto.
 

The Saint-Saëns and Lalo concertos are some of the first pieces Hee-Young learned as a child. She told me what it was like to revisit them as an adult.
 

Hee-Young does not come from a musical family and the story about how she came to play the cello is somewhat amusing.


And the rest is history! During her recording session with the London Symphony Orchestra at Abbey Road studios, Hee-Young encountered a freak accident with her bow.


Hee-Young Lim’s album with the LSO includes cello concertos by Saint-Saëns, Lalo, and Milhaud, in addition to Offenbach’s “Les larmes de Jacqueline” and the famous Meditation from Thais by Massenet. We’re loving this new hit in the WGUC library and hope you do, too!

Celebrating Bach!

J.S. Bach has a birthday this month and WGUC is celebrating with a Bach-themed playlist! Enjoy!

Meet Matthew Lipman

Matthew Lipman is considered one of today’s leading young violists, and he recently released his debut solo album, Ascent, with Cedille Records in collaboration with pianist Henry Kramer. What a privilege it was when I received an invitation to chat with Matthew about how this album came to be.



The process of commissioning a new piece of music fascinates me. I asked Matthew to delve a little deeper into how he went about choosing a composer for the new work on his album.



Ascent contains another world premiere recording – the Impromptu for Viola and Piano, Op. 33 by Dmitri Shostakovich. It’s not every day that someone gets the opportunity to record the premiere of a newly-discovered work. Matthew told me the story about how he first heard about this piece.



There’s significance to the title he chose for his album.



Musicians know that the viola is often the target for music jokes. So I was curious how Matthew decided that the viola would be his instrument of choice. Turns out, it wasn’t.



I think it was meant to be that Matthew was assigned the viola in his fourth-grade orchestra! Before ending the interview, I had one more question. When he isn’t playing the viola, what is it he enjoys doing in his free time?



Check out Ascent and enjoy a variety of fantasy pieces for the viola and a superb performance from Matthew Lipman.

Meet Lloyd Bryant

Ever wonder what the radio personalities you listen to on WGUC each day do when they are not in the radio studio? Or how did they landed their first radio gig? Learn more about your friends at 90.9 as we “Meet the Host” here in Clef Notes! This month features an interview Suzanne Bona did with WGUC’s Sunday night host, Lloyd Bryant. Enjoy!