Feb 3, 2025 10:49 PM
The Essence of Emily
In the April 1982 issue of People magazine, under the heading “Lookout: A Guide To The Up and Coming,” jazz…
“Why, being a classically trained musician, do I have to only play the obvious themes?” asks Kristin Lee.
(Photo: Kevin Hsu)Kristin Lee was just 7 years old and didn’t speak a word of English when her family left Seoul, Korea, emigrating to the U.S. Once here, she embraced the violin taking refuge in it from the teasing and racism she faced. She let her instrument become her voice. And what a voice it became.
Now an internationally acclaimed soloist, Lee has performed with many of the world’s greatest orchestras on revered concert stages from Carnegie Hall to the Kennedy Center to the Louvre Museum in Paris. She’s also a prolific chamber musician who’s appeared at festivals around the globe, as well as working as a devoted educator, currently in residence at the Cincinnati College Conservatory of Music.
Drawing on this well of experience in her adopted country, Lee has released her debut album American Sketches (First Hand Records), an homage to the music that helped shaped this country’s heritage — from Scott Joplin-style ragtime to George Gershwin to Thelonious Monk, along with less well-known composers who caught Lee’s ear. It was recorded in collaboration with pianists Jun Cho and Jeremy Ajani Jordan, who also arranged several pieces.
“When I was still in school at Juilliard, I was asked to give a recital in Maryland that delved into American music,” Lee recalled about the album’s evolution. “That gave me the opportunity to really do a deep dive. I knew all the big names, but there was this whole list of people whose music I’d never heard.
“So I started to think more rebelliously. Why, being a classically trained musician, do I have to only play the obvious themes? Maybe I can tap into some other genres. Then I started to meet more folk musicians and jazz musicians, and the more people I met, the more I deeply delved into their music, and my heart said something’s gotta change. That’s how this whole thing came about.”
That’s just the beginning. The following conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Cree McCree: You have such a wealth of musical projects and experiences, I was surprised to learn this was your debut album.
Kristin Lee: Most of those projects were led by other people, which helped me to gain a lot of different perspectives and understand my own passion and interests. I’ve always been such a curious person and really struggled to pinpoint exactly what I wanted to do. So it took me a long time to understand exactly what that is and find the courage to put something out there.
McCree: The American music catalog you drew from is very deep and wide. Was it hard to zero in on what you wanted to do?
Lee: I knew all the big names, like Scott Joplin and Gershwin and Monk, of course. But there was this whole list of people whose names are less familiar. Amy Beach was the very first American female composer; her Gaelic Symphony premiered in 1896. And Henry “Harry” Thacker Burleigh came on my radar because of the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak, who wrote New World Symphony and American Quartet. Harry Thacker introduced Dvorak to a lot of the American spirituals and folk tunes when he moved to Iowa.
McCree: I love the rags. Scott Joplin was the big originator, but there are lots of other rags on the album.
Lee: Those are all written by my friend John Novacek, an amazing pianist and composer, who’s been a big scholar of Scott Joplin’s life and his music. We’ve played together in a lot of summer festivals, and he introduced me to these pieces a while back. So when this project came about I immediately reached out to him.
McCree: Your collaborators on this album are also wonderful. Jeremy Ajani Jordan is like the mad improviser, right?
Lee: He really is. He’s also a huge part of why I chose these particular pieces on this album. Jeremy arranged Scott Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” J.J. Johnson’s “Lament” and George Gershwin’s “But Not For Me.” By arranged, I mean I basically play the tunes and get to improvise a little bit, and he’s just back there improvising. I’ve already gotten inquiries asking for access to the sheet music. And I say, I’m sorry. It doesn’t exist. [laughs]
McCree: I love that you were audacious enough to pay tribute to Thelonious Monk, but you didn’t try to channel his piano on your violin. You went for the way Coltrane sounded like when he and Monk played live together at Carnegie Hall. And it’s uncanny Kristin, really rich and full. You must be very pleased with that.
Lee: Yeah, I am. Thank you. It was a challenge for me, because so much of classical training is based on how fast we can play and how much we can memorize. And I’ve always been such a fan of music that shows vulnerability in the sound.
McCree: You’re also really interested in new American composers, like the two on your album.
Lee: I had no idea who Jonathan Ragonese was until Jeremy introduced me to his music. He’s primarily a jazz saxophone player who recently began writing music that combines several genres into one composition, which is very much in line with this project.
The other one is Kevin Puts, who’s one of the most well-known classical composers today. Last year he won a Grammy, and then had his opera premiered at the Met. I’ve always been very drawn to his music, which is extremely harmonically dense, tonal and melody-driven, and very suitable for the violin. This particular tune on the album is short, but just so beautiful.
McCree: What would you most like people to take away from listening to American Sketches?
Lee: I’m trying to break the boundaries of what music can really stand for, in order to understand what this country’s about.
I’m a second-generation American myself, and I’ve been given a voice through my music. Music is not about being divisive. So I want the people who listen to this to get a sense that music is about celebrating what’s good in this country. DB
“She said, ‘A lot of people are going to try and stop you,’” Sheryl Bailey recalls of the advice she received from jazz guitarist Emily Remler (1957–’90). “‘They’re going to say you slept with somebody, you’re a dyke, you’re this and that and the other. Don’t listen to them, and just keep playing.’”
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