London-based daegeum (대금, Korean bamboo flute) soloist and composer Dr Hyelim Kim takes Korea’s oldest flute where it has never been — from sanjo to free improvisation, from court ritual to noise. Trained in Korea’s traditional repertoires, with a PhD in ethnomusicology from SOAS, she positions Korean traditional music as a living, evolving force within contemporary global culture. She also performs on the danso, the small Korean bamboo flute, and often sings within her own compositions.
Doors 7.30 | music 8pm | £10 cash on the door
A daegeum virtuoso, Kim was selected as an ’emerging artist’ by the Korean Arts Council and as the Kumho Young Artist. She has performed a live session with Nils Frahm on BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, premiered a daegeum concertino as soloist with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris. Her competition accolades include the Gold Medal at the Korean National Taegŭm Competition and 1st Prize at the Korean National Chongro Music Competition. Kim has appeared at festivals worldwide, including the London Jazz Festival, Holland Festival, Helsinki Festival, Wiener Festwochen, AKBANK Jazz Festival (Istanbul), and the Oranjewoud Festival (Netherlands).
Alongside her traditional practice, Kim is an active improviser in London’s experimental music scene, performing regularly at Cafe OTO and Mopomoso. Her improvisation- and noise-based albums include Eclectic (with Steve Beresford and Ute Kanngiesser), Sensitive to Light (with Mark Sanders and John Edwards) and Out of Time (with Simon Barker) — first-meeting encounters that push the daegeum’s buzzing membrane voice from breathy ritual calm into raw distortion.
