The experience of taking the photo above reminded me of school picture days. I hated school picture days. They always made you move your head and body in some wierd stiff pose and you ended up looking wierd and stiff. Ditto for the above. Except the photographer spoke as if he were at a Vogue fashion shoot, "Oh yes, that is just lovely...a little higher...beautiful...smile a little more...perfect!" Oh well. They just sent me the results via email and sent some hard copies in campus mail. At least I have some photos to give when I have to fill out applications for things--have the drivers license, etc. but it seems like every time I turn around I am being asked for a photo. In the print photo, they don't show the card with my name and dept; that's just so they can keep track of who I am and where I am located. It is evident they did some touching up. In the photo on the left, I have a few less wrinkles and my hair is a bit less wild than in the photo on the right. But the fly-aways and the eye crinkles and are just so au natural; still, glad they 'smoothed me out' and erased the hair halo (dang humidity).
You can see another, equally lovely : 0 )' photo of me on our department's page:
We had a composer's showcase in my department. Here I am with several faculty (from the composition dept and traditional music dept) and a few others. The tall caucasian in the back is a Belgian composer, Baudoouin de Jaer, who did a lecture and workshop here. He composed a series of kayagum (12-string zither) pieces and premiered two of them at the concert. He was very nice. Also, next to me at the end is a Korean composer I admire: Ku Bonu. He is very creative and some of his work is way out there, but he's not afraid to experiment. Yi Ji-young is next to me in the front and next to her is Baek Byeong-dong, a very famous contemporary music composer. Hwang Byung-ki (famous kayagum performer and composer) is wearing the hat in the front. Hwang mentored de Jaer as he learned the ins and outs of the kayagum and prepared his compositions. It took him 4 years to study and compose the pieces. Compositions of de Jaer, Ku, and Baek were performed at the concert. The students did an amazing job playing these very difficult pieces. There was also a competition. In June, several of the students are headed to Europe for a showcase in Luxembourg, Paris, and Spain (I believe; they auditioned for the spots), and the night of the composers' showcase two students premiered their work. The best one was to go to Europe. I guess the composition professors could not decide, as it was announced that night that both students were going to Europe. The students are simply amazing. I feel very blessed to be in this department at Seoul National.
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