Insider Interview with Shea-Kim Duo ("All Roads")
The award-winning Shea-Kim Duo - violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim - have just released a new album on Blue Griffin Recordings. “All Roads” features music by Schnittke, Beach, Schumann, and Beethoven. We spoke to the duo about the new album, what they’ve been up to since we last spoke with them (fresh off the release of “The Sound and the Fury”), and more.
Last time we spoke, you had just released your debut album The Sound and the Fury in 2021. What has kept you busy in the years since, both professionally and as a family?
Yerin Kim: We’ve been busy with our two kids and balancing our personal and professional lives. We recently joined the roster of Parker Artists, I started my tenure track position as Professor of Music at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington. Brendan is concertmaster at the Boise Philharmonic and serves as Artist in Residence at the College of Idaho. It’s been very busy, but also very rewarding.
Brendan Shea: Our move to the Pacific Northwest from Indiana was a big change. It's where I'm originally from, so it is great to be back.
How does All Roads differ from your previous duo album? What throughlines run between the two?
Y: Our previous album, “The Sound and the Fury” focused on the spectrum of emotions and colors that we personally felt connected to. A wide range of human expression was at the heart of it. This new album, we focused on the wide range of colors and fashion that is connected to the heart of Viennese classical and romantic styles; iconic duo works by Robert Schumann and Beethoven, the humorous evocation of late baroque/early classical style by Schnittke, the high romanticism depicted by Amy Beach.
B: All Roads was an opportunity for us to continue to explore unusual ways composers from different times and places are connected. We wanted to create a soundscape that showed how wildly different styles are connected. Vienna is an incredibly important city for classical music, and it was fun finding works we felt really connected the composers to this idea.
What did you learn through your experiences recording your first album that you applied towards creating All Roads?
Y: I really have to thank our sound engineer and producer Sergei Kvitko. This is actually my third album with him as he was the engineer for my solo debut album “First and Last Words-Schumann and Schnittke”. I can’t say enough how grateful I am to have trusting ears behind the scenes, empathizing with every sound and emotions that we go through. Recording is a very personal experience and to have someone like Sergei listening with all of his senses giving honest feedback and support was so special.
B: Yes, Sergei and his cats and dogs and his husband James all endured our bloopers, so special thanks to them! I think we’ve also always loved programming recitals, and programming for “The Sound and the Fury” and “All Roads” felt really natural to what we do every time we pick repertoire for our tours and concerts. The hardest part is not packing too much onto the concert!
What does the title, All Roads, refer to? What attracts you to the mystique and culture of Vienna?
Y: We love the idea of taking something that evokes an image or an idea, and framing it in a musical context. With our first album there is the quote from Macbeth and the Faulkner novel of the same name. With All Roads there is the connection to the saying coined by the 12th century theologian and poet Alain de Lille “All roads lead to Rome, '' which has seen frequent use since its inception.
B: I travelled to Vienna for lessons in high school, and it was an incredibly important part of my development as a musician. Being there, making music, going to the same places that so many of my favorite composers had been to, it really felt like an almost religious experience. I wondered often afterward if the mystique of the city had that effect on others who had gone before me, and that was a big part of my own connection to the title.
The album’s most recently composed piece is Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style. What is the old style he refers to?
Y: Schnittke is such an interesting composer, he created a style of music that seems to travel through different times and styles. He described his identity as:
tied to Russia, having spent all my life here. On the other hand, much of what I’ve written is somehow related to German music and to the logic that comes out of being German, although I did not particularly want this…Like my German forebears, I live in Russia, I can speak and write Russian far better than German... My Jewish half gives me no peace: I know none of the Jewish languages, but I look like a typical Jew.
I think that his ability to perceive all these different cultures had a profound effect on his writing. Vienna was where he took piano and theory lessons at a young age so it was only natural for us to include his piece in this album. As for the piece, “Suite in the Old Style” gives us the comfort of familiarity in the form and texture mixed with unexpected punches in pitches and dynamics.
B: A suite is a collection of movements, usually dances, written for various instruments to perform. The 6 Suites for solo cello by J.S. Bach comes to mind. The old style is referring to the styles he is using, which were frequently used during the baroque. The minuet, fugue, and pastoral are particularly evocative of popular forms from this time period. Like Stravinsky and Prokofiev, Schnittke inserts moments of humor and his own musical language. What’s wonderful about this piece is often we hear different moments where audience members hear Schnittke making a joke, or putting something in an unusual spot.
What do you bring to your performance of Beethoven’s Violin Sonata No. 3 that is uniquely your own?
Y: We didn’t hold back! It is such a fun piece to play. It was a complete headache to learn it because it is not an easy piece, but once it is “in your system”, it is such a ride. I love the heartfelt second movement that allows you to soak into his sound world and the contrasting energetic outer movements that makes you feel like you’re the most fit person in the world (I am not).
B: Beethoven is always so fun to work on in this setting. With any piece you come with your own ideas and feelings, but Beethoven is somehow always more intense to dig into. I felt like where we started was completely different by the end. This piece is notoriously difficult for piano, and considering none of these sonatas are ever easy for anyone that’s really saying something. The challenge resides in the juxtaposition between balancing the classical style and Beethoven's unrelenting style of writing. Early Beethoven also has an extremely wide range of emotions and colors, and deciding what to bring out is a wonderful intense process. This Sonata in particular feels like it’s super charged in all directions, technical complexity, emotional depth, everything.
Shea-Kim Duo's "All Roads" out June 16
The Shea-Kim Duo's “All Roads” features composers connected to the musical Mecca of Vienna
Violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim's second album includes music by Beethoven, Schumann, Schnittke, and Beach
Released June 16, 2023 on Blue Griffin
“Shea and Kim work exquisitely as a team, overlapping their lines so seamlessly they become inseparable. ” — Strings Magazine
In “All Roads,” the duo explores the evolving musical styles and sounds that passed through the cultural Mecca of Vienna. “We wanted to present composers who were connected to Vienna in increasingly distant ways, like travelers along a long road,” they wrote in the liner notes. “One cannot help but imagine generations of people from all different backgrounds living along a road that spans the world, but inevitably leads back to Vienna.”
Ludwig Beethoven’s Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 3 pushes the boundaries of the forms common at the time. Robert Schumann’s Sonata for Violin and Piano No.1 in A minor takes us through layers of precious colors and implosive emotions; Alfred Schnittke’s Suite in the Old Style is an homage to the past with his inevitable sense of humor; and Amy Beach’s Romance is a re-imagination of a genre that was already two centuries old.
Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical CD or digital copy of this recording.
"This duo is very reluctant to hold back…they frankly play the bejeezus out of it.” — American Record Guide
All Roads
Shea-Kim Duo
Brendan Shea, violin
Yerin Kim, piano
Blue Griffin Recording (BGR643)
Release date: June 16, 2023
TRACKS
Ludwig van Beethoven
Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 3 in E-flat major, Op. 12
[01] I. Allegro con spirito 09:00
[02] II. Adagio con molta espressione 06:37
[03] III. Rondo: Allegro molto 04:30
Alfred Schnittke
Suite in the Old Style for Violin and Piano
[04] I. Pastorale: Moderato 04:17
[05] II. Ballet: Allegro 02:17
[06] III. Minuet: Tempo di Minuetto 03:48
[07] IV. Fugue: Allegro 02:29
[08] V. Pantomime: Andantino 05:26
Robert Schumann
Sonata for Piano and Violin No. 1 in A minor, Op. 105
[09] I. Mit leidenschaftlichem Ausdruck 08:13
[10] II. Allegretto 04:05
[11] III. Lebhaft 05:57
Amy Beach
Romance for Violin and Piano, Op. 23
[12] Andante espressivo 06:10
The award-winning SHEA-KIM DUO, formed in 2014 by violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim, has been praised for “[creating] a rich and intimate atmosphere, as they navigate the thrills and spills” by BBC Music Magazine, and for their “lively, ebullient, and spikily accentuated performance” by Calgary Herald.
Shea and Kim are the founders and artistic directors of Washington’s Chamber Music in the Bend. The Duo regularly appears at music festivals, including the Anchorage, Annapolis, Harborfront, InterHarmony International, and Zephyr International Chamber Music festivals
The Shea-Kim Duo has toured the world, performing in Belgium, Italy, South Korea, Canada and the United States, and their performances have been broadcast on Klara Continuo (Belgium), PBC (South Korea) and WUFT (USA). Their awards include a Gold Medal from the Manhattan International Music Competition, the Ackerman Chamber Music Award, finalist at the Salieri-Zinetti International Chamber Music Competition, and the Boulder International Chamber Music Competition. The duo is managed by Parker Artist Management.
Insider Interview with Shea-Kim Duo
The award-winning Shea-Kim duo - violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim - have been performing together for over a decade. They have toured across North America, Europe and South Korea, and have won gold medals at the Manhattan International Music Competition and the Ackerman Chamber Music Competition. On November 12, 2021 their new album, The Sound and the Fury, was released on Blue Griffin Recording. We spoke to them about the album, the changing role of pianist as accompanist, maintaining a healthy work-life balance, and so much more.
You’ve been living together as a married couple, and playing together for many years. How and when did you decide to form the Shea-Kim duo?
Brendan: Yerin and I have been in trios since we were undergraduates at Oberlin and have always enjoyed playing together. When I was accepted to the 2015 Queen Elisabeth Competition, Yerin agreed to play with me since there was so much repertoire to learn and it was very difficult. We realized we actually really enjoyed learning duo repertoire and that there was a lot of depth to the process.
How do you manage balancing the different components of your life as musical partners, life partners and parents of two young children?
Brendan: Our kids have already spent much of their life backstage, or playing while mom and dad rehearse. We can thankfully rehearse and record very late (2-3 am sometimes) without waking them. That being said, it takes careful and meticulous schedule planning when we have concert tours, as well as ability to improvise when needed. It is definitely difficult to separate work from life sometimes, but luckily we love our work and feel privileged to be able to spend so much time together and as a family.
Yerin: Brendan and I have known each other for 16 years now. We met as young college kids and have had the luxury of dreaming and building our lives together. I am very grateful for that and all the steps that come with it. It’s definitely challenging to balance so many components in life that we share but I think the sense of partnership over ownership allows us to balance things with more serenity and ease. Both Brendan and I also have full time university jobs which makes figuring out schedules even more complicated but we are lucky that we love what we do, love our jobs, and have wonderful children who seem to not mind their parents playing music all the time.
The fact that you chose to call your collaboration a ‘duo’ points to the role of the piano as an equal partner. How do you, as an ensemble, approach the repertoire differently than a solo instrument with piano accompaniment?
Brendan: Certainly the past century has treated sonatas and other repertoire for violin and piano as a soloist with an accompanist. I think this attitude has been steadily changing, especially recently. The truth is the composers of this incredible music were primarily pianists, and the music must be learned and understood from the piano score to be played to their full effectiveness.
Yerin: We played in a trio for many years before playing our first sonata together so our approach to working together was largely influenced by our chamber music experience before we started playing as a duo. There is such a rich body of duo works, old and new, that we love playing so it’s fun choosing repertoire that speaks to us. Usually those works tend to have an equal partnership and create synergy. We also both tend to get obsessive over what we like so inevitably everything we play becomes very personal. There’s not much opportunity for one of us to be “accompanimental” for the better or for the worse...both in music and in life!
In the liner notes you write “this recording is a reflection of our personalities and character through the great works of [Grieg, Janacek, and Dvorak]”. Tell us a little more about that.
Brendan: Picking repertoire for a concert is very difficult, and picking repertoire for our inaugural studio recording was even more so. There is so much great music, and music that feels personal. Yerin and I are opposite in many ways, which makes for intense and passionate rehearsals. I also think it makes us better musicians; that the intensity of the process creates a product greater than the sum of its parts. What these pieces have in common is that they are full of color, contrast, and passion. They are works that have come in and out of our repertoire since we formed, and have stuck out as works we feel reflect our energy on stage.
Yerin: One of the things that I love most about playing with Brendan is listening to how he expresses things so differently even when we feel similarly. Brendan and I have very different tastes in style, personality, character, and yet we somehow think and feel alike.
It’s quite amusing to me. When we can’t come to an agreement in rehearsals, we try going back to understanding the composer as our third partner. That usually does the trick. These works that we chose in our first album highlighted these differences and similarities of our colors, emotions, and also our love for these great works.
Each of the works on this program incorporate folk melodies in some form. Tell us about the different styles and ways that Janacek, Grieg, and Dvorak incorporate the folk melodies.
Brendan: Each composer lived during a time when national and individual identity were intertwined in a very substantial way. Using folk, or common melodies had been around for centuries earlier, but these composers opted to actually make these folk traditions an important part of their musical language. Janacek’s language feels more connected to linguistic syntax, a musical reflection of spoken word. Dvorak takes his folk melodies and dresses them down to motivic size so they are well camouflaged in his harmonic language. Grieg will often use a direct quote, somewhat closer to the way Bruch might, and then allows it to germinate and fill out.
Yerin: Now that I have children and have heard more children's songs than I had ever imagined I would, I fully understand the power of an earworm. It’s wonderful how all three composers incorporate folk melodies as ingredients that we can easily taste and transform them into a totally different pallet.
What non-musical activities/hobbies do you do to unwind?
Brendan: I would say most of our time not being spent on our work is spent with our kids. I’ve grown to really enjoy cooking in the past few years, although cooking for kids is an exercise in futility (the better the food, the less they like it).
Yerin: I remember having hobbies!! Now I just really enjoy cooking and eating with the kids and Brendan. It’s so satisfying seeing your family devour your food. I’m not much of a baker though so whenever I bake, the kids have a really entertaining time being amused at my creations that are barely edible. We also just moved to Washington state where we are surrounded by mountains. It’s so beautiful and I love staring at them! Brendan and kids like to hike.but I grew up in Seoul, Korea, so hiking is still pretty foreign to me.
Where can audiences see you next? Tell us about the duo’s plans for 2022.
Brendan: We have an East Coast tour in March 2022, as well as summer festivals and concerts in the Seattle area. For the most recent information you can follow us on Facebook or check out shea-kimduo.com!
Yerin: We have our solo concerts and projects throughout the year but as a duo we will be in the East Coast in Spring.
Shea-Kim duo: "The Sound and the Fury"
Award-winning Shea-Kim duo's new album: intimate works for violin and piano by Dvorak, Grieg, and Janacek
"The Sound and the Fury" is released November 12 on Blue Griffin Recording
The award-winning Shea-Kim duo - violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim - have been performing together for over a decade. They have toured across North America, Europe and South Korea, and have won gold medals at the Manhattan International Music Competition and the Ackerman Chamber Music Competition. On November 12, 2021 their new album, The Sound and the Fury, is released on Blue Griffin Recording (BGR593).
All of the works on The Sound and the Fury - Dvorak's Mazurek Op. 49 B.89, Grieg's Sonata for piano and violin No. 3, and Janacek's Sonata for violin and piano - are infused with folk melodies from each of the composers' home countries, and allow both instrumentalists to display their virtuosity.
Dvorak was inspired by Pablo Sarasate's the incredible technique, and dedicated the Mazurek to him, which has become a favorite concert showpiece. Grieg's third violin sonata stands out as one of his few works in the German Romantic style, and much larger in scale than his other sonatas. The piece was one of the composer's favorite works, and he often performed the piano part himself when the opportunity arose. Janacek composed his only violin sonata on the eve of World War I. The composer later wrote that he “could just about hear the sound of steel clashing in [his] troubled head.”
Yerin Kim and Brendan Shea wrote in the liner notes of the album that these selections reflect their personalities. "Between the deep, majestic fjords of Edvard Grieg, the emotional turbulence of Leos Janacek, and the joy and love of Antonin Dvorak, we found a program that reflects the full spectrum we see in ourselves, and our stories."
Contact ClassicalCommunications@gmail.com to request a physical CD or digital copy of this recording.
The Sound and Fury
Shea-Kim duo
Brendan Shea, violin
Yerin Kim, piano
Blue Griffin Recording (BGR593)
Release date: November 12, 2021
View Shea-Kim Duo's Digital Press Kit
TRACKS
ANTONIN DVORAK
[01] Mazurek, Op. 49 B.89
Allegro [6:44]
EDVARD GRIEG
Sonata for piano and violin No. 3 in C minor, Op.45
[02] I. Allegro molto ed appasionato [8:46]
[03] II. Allegretto espressivo alla Romanza [6:20]
[04] III. Allegro animato - Prestissimo [7:41]
LEOS JANACEK
Sonata for violin and piano
[05] I. Con moto [5:16]
[06] II. Ballada [4:50]
[07] III. Allegretto [2:39]
[08] IV. Adagio [4:45]
Total playing time: 47:07
About the Artists
Violinist Brendan Shea and pianist Yerin Kim formed the award winning Shea-Kim duo in 2014. The pair has toured across North America, Europe, and South Korea, and regularly appears at music festivals from Annapolis to Anchorage.
The duo are founders and directors of a sensory-friendly concert series that brings high quality chamber music to children and adults with autism in New York, St. Louis, and South Bend, Indiana. They are also co-founders of the Chamber Orchestra Intensive at Indiana University. In addition to “The Sound and the Fury”, Shea-Kim duo released a live concert album from a performance in Seoul, South Korea in 2016 on the Ark Studio label.
Shea-Kim duo was awarded gold medals at the Manhattan International Music Competition and the Ackerman Chamber Music Competition. In addition to their performance activities, Ms. Kim is Assistant Professor of Piano at the Central Washington University and Mr. Shea is concertmaster of the South Bend Symphony Orchestra. Previously, Shea was the violinist of the Euclid quartet and Professor at Indiana University, and both Kim and Shea served on the faculty at the University of Notre Dame.