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Min Kwon

America/Beautiful

May 12

Performance Dates

  • Tue May 12 2026 7:30 PM

Venue

Meany Hall – Katharyn Alvord Gerlich Theater

Pianist Min Kwon presents a selection of pieces from her America/Beautiful project, which commissioned 70 American composers to create a variation on “America the Beautiful.” Out of this, Kwon paints a sonic and visual picture of her adopted country in all of its sprawling complexity, and ultimately looks for the beauty at the core of the American experiment and its credo of e pluribus unum (out of many, one). 

 

A monumental statement, both about contemporary America and contemporary music, that will surely establish itself as one of the major musical works of this century.

 

…moving, inspiring and uplifting… Kwon’s performances are always committed, polished and expressive and her presentation imaginative, attractive, and suitably varied... the performances are outstanding. 

— International Piano 

 

PROGRAM 

The program will feature selected works from the repertoire listed below. The final selection will be announced from the stage.

REENA ESMAIL: America/Desh 

SAMUEL WARD: America the Beautiful

SAMUEL ADLER: Celebration of Our Beautiful Nation

HUANG RUO: Meditation on America 

RICHARD DANIELPOUR: Fantasy Variation (The Visible Enemy)   

NICO MUHLY: Refine

GEORGE LEWIS: America, the changing same

VIJAY IYER: Crown Thy Good 

LEILA ADU-GILMORE: United Underdog

AUGUSTA READ THOMAS: FUSION 

DONNACHA DENNEHY: New Jersey

GYAN RILEY: Endure

JOHN HARBISON: Getting the Upper Hand on America 

VICTORIA BOND: Sea to Shining Sea 

TEXU KIM: America the Dream & America the Polarized 

LIBBY LARSEN: Amber 

SEBASTIAN CURRIER: 23 Variations on America 

LEI LIANG: America the Beautiful... devastatingly quiet...

AVNER DORMAN: American Toccata 

 

Piano Series generously underwritten by Sven & Melinda Bitners and Sally Schaake Kincaid​

 

Support Comes From

Graphic logo for the National Endowment for the arts. On the Right, a graphic reads America 250