Call For Singers: Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom

In honor of the tenth anniversary of Lee Mingwei’s Sonic Blossom, Crystal Bridges is inviting opera singers and students to audition to be one of ten performers selected for this transformative, performance-based art project’s installation at the museum from September 6 through October 2, 2023. Performances will be held in the museum galleries, tentatively running between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Thursday through Monday, with some variation.

The idea for Sonic Blossom came to Lee Mingwei while caring for his mother while she was in the hospital. Lee would play Schubert’s Lieder (songs) for his mother while she healed, just as she had done for him when he was a child, coming full circle in caring for each other across different life stages. Sonic Blossom captures the heart of unconditional care by having singers offer a gift of song to museum guests who accept the interaction.

Auditions will be held in the Great Hall at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art on Friday, March 31, 2023, from 2 to 7 p.m., with an open rehearsal hour from 1 to 2 p.m. for singers to warm up before auditioning.

Lee Mingwei and Crystal Bridges staff members will serve as the audition panel. Dr. Hyun Kim, vocal coach and piano professor at the University of Arkansas, will provide live accompaniment.

During the 21-day exhibition run, performances will be scheduled in two-hour shifts. Singers who can commit to four to five shifts throughout the exhibition are strongly encouraged to audition. A performance assistant will be available to support singers during the exhibition.

To audition for the role, you will need to do all of the following:

• Prepare at least one of the below Schubert pieces listed below.
• Prepare a separate song of your choosing.
• Send a PDF of your audition pieces in the key you will sing in by email, due March 25.
• Reserve a ten-minute audition time slot using the Google Form below.
• Perform your prepared pieces on March 31 during your selected time.

Music

Please prepare to present at least one of the following five Schubert Lieder, along with a separate song of your choosing:

• Du bist die Ruh, D. 776 “You are Peace, the Mild Peace”
• An den Mond, D. 193 “To The Moon”
• Frühlingsglaube, D. 686 “Spring Faith”
• Nacht und Träume, D. 827 “Night and Dream”
• Auf dem Wasser zu singen, D. 774 “In the Middle of the Shimmer of the Reflecting
  Waves”

Singers will perform the five Schubert songs from memory during the exhibition in September.

Please send a PDF of your audition music in the key you will sing by March 25 to Dr. Hyun Kim at hk018@uark.edu. Selections do not have to be memorized for the audition, but please do bring sheet music for the additional song you have chosen.

Headshots and resumes are not required to audition, but you may share them in advance or bring them with you if you prefer.

Audition Registration

Please fill out this Google form to select your 10 minute audition time slot.

Lee Mingwei

Born in Taiwan in 1964 and currently living in Paris and New York City, Lee Mingwei creates participatory installations, where strangers can explore issues of trust, intimacy, and self-awareness, and one-on-one events, in which visitors contemplate these issues with the artist through eating, sleeping, walking and conversation. Lee’s projects are often open-ended scenarios for everyday interaction and take on different forms with the involvement of participants and change during the course of an exhibition.

Lee received an MFA from Yale University in 1997 and has held solo exhibitions internationally, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Queensland Gallery of Modern Art, Mori Art Museum, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Tate Modern and has been featured in biennials in Venice, Lyon, Liverpool, Taipei, Sydney, Whitney, and Asia Pacific Triennials.

Lee’s mid-career survey exhibition Lee Mingwei and His Relations: The Art of Participation was presented at Mori Art Museum (2014), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (2015), and Auckland Art Gallery (2016), and he has participated at the 57th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, “Viva Arte Viva,” curated by Christine Macel. His European survey exhibition Lee Mingwei: Li, Gifts and Rituals was on view at Gropius Bau (2020) and Museum Villa Stuck (2021). In the spring of 2024, the de Young Museum will present a retrospective of his work.

Hyun Kim

Pianist Hyun Kim frequently engaged in performances and master classes in the US, Asia, Europe, and South America. Renowned artists seek and acclaim partnerships with Kim because of her wide range of repertoire and her evocative and authentic interpretation of music.

Her passion for chamber music leads Kim to collaborate with musicians from prominent orchestras, including the Cincinnati, Colorado, Atlanta, Dallas, New World, São Paolo Symphonies, Hong Kong, and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, as well as string quartets such as Amernet, Cavani, Takács, Tesla. Kim‘s performances take her to international venues such as Salle Pleyel, Eglise Saint-Philippe du Roule, Salle Cortot, IBK Chamber hall, Seoul Art Center, Harris Concert hall, Wheeler Opera house, Auditorium Ancol, L’Heure Musicale, Auditorium Marcel Landowski, Hamilton hall, Corbett Auditorium, Souers hall, Elli Caulkin Opera house, Boettcher Concert hall, Florianópolis Municipal Theatre of Santa Catarina, Porto Seguro theater, Praça das Artes of São Paulo, Teatro SESI Campinas, Municipal Theater José de Castro Mendes, Belvidere Theatre. Her performances and interviews have been broadcast on KBS, KVOD-FM Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS, and NGT São Paulo.

Kim’s passion for vocal music has been a significant part of her musical journey. She coaches singers from the Weimar National, Metropolitan, Minnesota, Houston Grand, Seattle, Aspen, Colorado, Central City, and Kentucky Opera companies. She has fellowshipped and performed at renowned music festivals such as Aspen Music Festival, Tanglewood Music Festival, Grandin Music Festival, Agassiz Chamber Music Festival in Canada, the Festival de Musique de Sully et de Loiret in France, and the Lucca Opera Festival in Italy.

Before joining the University of Arkansas faculty, Kim taught piano, chamber music, and coached opera productions at several music institutions as a faculty member, such as Metropolitan State University, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Miami University.

She has also been appointed internationally as an artist and visiting professor at the Federal University of Santa Catarina and the University of Campinas in Brazil. Kim is active in international scholarly organizations.

Her recent projects include Song of the New Generation, an organization she founded to promote research and performance of art songs. She serves on the board of the Sintonize Produtora Cultural-International Music Festival in Brazil. After early education in Korea, Kim earned degrees from the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati, the University of Colorado Boulder, and the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris.