Laura Keller '15

Portrait of an artist: Yowon Yoon '14

Yoon is a pianist who is currently composing a concerto to be performed by the Bowdoin Orchestra in April.

Yowon Yoon '14 stumbled unexpectedly upon his music major and honors project. Yoon came to Bowdoin thinking he would major in Biology and Computer Science but after thoroughly enjoying his piano lessons and music theory classes, he declared a music major and is now composing a three part piano concerto.
“I didn’t start doing any music theory until I came to Bowdoin,” said Yoon. “I played piano, and in order to take lessons for credit, I had to take a course, so I took intro to music theory.”
His concerto is a part of a year-long honors independent study, advised by Professor of Music Robert Greenlee in the fall and Associate Professor of Music Vineet Shende this semester. It will be performed by the Bowdoin Orchestra at the end of April.
Yoon said that he enjoys composing despite the difficulties it poses.
“The biggest challenge has been trying to write for instruments that I don’t really play…I’m trying to make sure that I don’t write boring parts for people,” said Yoon. “Each instrument is so unique in terms of its timbral quality that being able to internalize all the different characteristics and combine them—there are infinite combinations.’
His inspiration for the piece came mostly from Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff and Polish composer Witold Lutosławski.
“My goal is to emulate Lutosławski’s use of texture and textural differences as well as Rachmaninoff’s ability to incorporate a singable melody in a more complex harmonic context,” said Yoon.
Yoon, who has been playing piano since he was five, has stopped solo performances for now to focus on his project, although he still continues working with the Bowdoin chamber ensemble. He has found that composing has shifted his attitude when it comes to playing music written by others.
“I don’t really feel sad about not performing now,” said Yoon. “The biggest difference now is when I’m playing something I am much more aware of the composition itself, having spent hours and hours myself writing 30 seconds of music. When I was playing before I would just play through it...but now I’m trying to understand what the composer was intending, and then if I mess up I feel really bad.”
The faculty at Bowdoin have been instrumental in Yoon’s learning process.
“The music department in general is really strong, especially since the faculty outnumber the number of honors students,” said Yoon. “Vineet Shende, Robert Greenlee, Mary Hunter, and George Lopez--who is not a professor but teaches piano and gives concerts… They are all really supportive and they are all really good.”
Yoon argued that the strength of the department and student instrumentalists is sometimes overlooked.
“There’s a whole slew of musicians who aren’t involved with the Bowdoin Music Collective who are phenomenally talented,” said Yoon. “You’d be surprised how many instrumentalists there are at Bowdoin.”

Portrait of an artist: Ben Woo Ching ’16

Both athlete and artist, Ben Woo Ching ’16 is combining his interests into a photography project showcasing nude athletes in a celebration of the body.
Woo Ching was inspired by the annual ESPN “Body Issue” which focuses on the forms of world-class athletes.
Woo Ching, a member of the football and track teams, wants to celebrate the effort Bowdoin athletes—approximately 30 percent of the student body—put into building their bodies.
“Knowing how much work it is to put in between practice, film, lifting, conditioning in the mornings, games on the weekends and then school and or work on top of that—knowing all of that, I thought why not try to capture that in an image and really give credit,” said Woo Ching.The photo shoot will be produced entirely in black and white film. In Woo Ching’s opinion, the style is perfect for capturing the details of the human body.
“I thought that aimed more to the shadows that are cast from every muscle. You can really see the definition—not as precisely as a brand-new Canon, but I like that as well,” he said.
Visiting Artist-in-Residence Accra Shepp encouraged the idea for the project and allowed Woo Ching to make it into a semester-long study.
Working with film instead of digitals is a new creative challenge for Woo Ching, because the conditions for the photo must be set before the photographer pushes any buttons.
“You have 36 photos in a whole reel. I just developed four rolls of film, and I found 11 photos that I like,” he said. “It makes you more humble and makes you think more about what you’re taking an image of.”
The fact that Woo Ching is an athlete and knows his subjects personally helps to make the process easier. While he said it was initially uncomfortable to photograph his friends naked, Woo Ching has gotten the hang of it.
“We shower together at practice and at games, but when it’s just the two of you, music helps enormously,” he said. “The first shoot was completely silent, and that was so awkward.”
In general, students have been open to being photographed, but Woo Ching has been very sensitive to the comfort level of his subjects.
“That’s why I haven’t shot any girls yet. I wanted them to feel the most comfortable,” he said. “This is completely artistic and academic.”
Woo Ching has enjoyed photography so much that he is now considering a visual arts major or minor—something he never would have predicted when he came to Bowdoin from Colorado.
“The thing I like about art and especially about photography is that you have something tangible afterwards,” he said. “I get a photo to look at. I can give it away to someone and it means something to me.”
He hopes to compile photos of 12 athletes to represent the athlete population as a whole.“I’ve chosen people from all different sports for the most part,” said Woo Ching. “Hopefully it’ll turn out to be a fair snapshot of the Bowdoin athlete.”
Although Woo Ching does not currently have plans to exhibit the photos, the Department of Athletics has expressed interest in using the photos in its offices. He hopes the photos could be displayed with biographies, since the subjects’ stories are the focus of his project.

Portrait of an artist

March 28, 2014

If dancing were a varsity sport, Laura Keller ’15 would be the captain. As a member of Vague (jazz) and Obvious (hip-hop) and the lead choreographer of Arabesque (ballet), Keller’s life on campus revolves around dance.

“It’s a large commitment. I’m spending like 10 or 11 hours [a week] in the studio at rehearsal and then I have to spend time outside of that to choreograph as well,” said Keller. “My friends always know that I have to run off to dance in the evening.”

She said that as big a commitment as dance is for her, it’s also an escape from the rest of her day.
“I can do homework in the afternoon and then take a break doing something that I love and then go back to doing homework,” she said.

Although she is a classically trained ballet dancer, Keller has been trying different types of dance her whole life.

“I’ve been dancing since I was three, just like every other girl, except I actually stuck with it,” said Keller.

“I started out doing jazz and then had to switch to ballet because I needed the ballet technique to advance in jazz and then just fell in love with ballet,” she added.

In high school, she picked up ballroom dancing when ballet became too much of a commitment.
However, she added, “ballet has always been my one true love.”

At Bowdoin, Keller joined Arabesque at the beginning of her first year and Vague during the spring. She was also involved in the Salsa club during her first two years. Keller was was worried about the amount of time she was spending on dance, but she could not resist joining Obvious.

“The hip-hop group just looked like so much fun so I decided to audition and join that one as well,” said Keller.

Keller is not the only student involved in all three groups.

“There is a lot of overlap, especially this year,” said Keller. “I would say two-thirds of people in all of the groups are in at least two of the different dance groups. There are a five of us that are in all three.”

Keller added that there is a growing partnership between the dance groups.

“We’re doing a collaborative piece between those three groups. We’re doing a dance to ‘Same Love’ so it’s a little bit more of a political piece but it’s been a lot of fun,” said Keller.

“The main challenge is trying to come up with choreography that seams together all of the styles, but also is something that everyone can do,” said Keller. “So, for example, the people in the hip-hop group who don’t have any ballet training, how can we add the ballet without having it be too technically difficult?”

The piece will be performed on April 30 at the student groups performance and at the Vague show at the beginning of May.

Danae Hirsch ’14, who was the leader of Vague last semester, came up with the idea for the project. Keller mentioned that the leaders of various dance groups all liked the song and were interested in working on the piece.

“We didn’t want it to be associated with any one dance group in particular, but thought it would be a really cool thing to show the union of all of the dance groups,” Keller said.

Keller said that due to the project the groups are more connected now than ever.

“We would never have been able to pull off this collaborative piece before hand, because there were people who did each different style and that was all that they did. It is really nice to see that change happening now, from the dance community being more segmented to being more cohesive.”

She also noted the positive atmopshere the dance groups provide.

“[The dance community is] definitely a smaller group of people, but we are all very tight-knit. It’s like having my own family. I love everyone that I dance with,” said Keller.

Not only is it a small community, but it does not always get as much publicity as other groups on campus, likely because of the complexities of performing.

“For dance we need a special kind of stage, and it needs to be big enough, it takes a long time for us to prepare just one dance because it’s all choreographed by us and then we need to teach it and clean it,” said Keller.

“It’s not as popular a thing for people to see but it is definitely on the rise,” she said.

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