- Artwork by Makenna Parks
Earl Kim - Now and Then
Art as a vessel for social change
About Earl Kim and Now and Then
Earl Kim (1920-1998) was born in Dinuba, California, the son of Korean immigrants. He was educated at Los Angeles City College, UCLA, and Harvard. His principal teachers included Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch, and Roger Sessions.
Kim received considerable recognition as a composer, including commissions from the Koussevitzky Foundation, the University of Chicago, and Boston University and grants from the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also active as a pianist (including lieder recitals with Bethany Beardslee, Benita Valente, and Dawn Upshaw), vocal coach, and conductor, and was a co-founder and past president of Musicians Against Nuclear Arms.
The composer provided the following note:
While serving as a combat intelligence officer in the U.S. Army Air Force, I flew over Nagasaki on August 10, 1945, just 24 hours after the bomb was dropped. On August 8, 1981, some 36 years later almost to the day, Now and Then was complete in its first version for voice and piano. Although each of the songs was conceived in a day, the years that intervened between their completion and Nagasaki seemed to have been necessary before they could be set down.
The texts which I finally settled on cover a range of poetic images dealing with the death of friends, the innocence and vulnerability of daffodils, the loneliness of one's final moment, and Chekhov's prophetic vision of an earth which for thousands of years… has borne no living creature.
The present version of Now and Then for soprano, flute, harp, and viola received its first performance in Chicago on January 22, 1982, with soprano Elsa Charleston and the Chicago Contemporary Chamber Players conducted by Ralph Shapey. It was commissioned by the Department of Music of the University of Chicago and dedicated to Paul Fromm in celebration of his 75th birthday. The dedication is uniquely appropriate for a man who gave lifelong support to the creation and performance of new American music.
Program Book
Interviews
We conducted interviews with those that were close to Earl Kim over Zoom. These interviews give an insight into who Kim was as a teacher, composer, and husband. Included are interviews with Kim’s former students: Dr. Anthony Brandt, composer, Janice Hamer, composer, Paul Salerni, composer, and his wife Martha Potter Kim, violinist.
Educating Youth
With every program we do, we make sure to bring our knowledge of music to children in the greater Boston area. Convergence Ensemble’s Interactive Music Education Performances (IMEPs) do just that, by bringing music education to underserved communities, for free, in order to invest in the community and build a space for culturally diverse and enriching experiences.
Kim’s piece is just one example of how we can learn about history through art—and indeed, history is dynamic, interdisciplinary, and emotional! By presenting this piece to students, our hope is twofold: to emphasize history as an emotional subject, and to show students that they are living through history right now, and one of them could be the next to write a poem, a song, or a painting that records their rich experience of the world we are living in.
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Please help us create this recording project and IMEP so that we can bring the exceptional quality music to our audience.
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