Min Kwon: America/Beautiful 250
Presented by Death of Classical
June 18-20, 2026, 7:00 PM & 8:30 PM
(Pre-concert receptions at 6pm and 7:30pm)
The Green-Wood Cemetery Catacombs
(500 25th St., Brooklyn, NY 11232)
Tickets: $90
For her project America/Beautiful, Korean-American pianist Min Kwon commissioned almost eighty leading composers across the United States to each write a variation on America the Beautiful, producing a vast mosaic of voices, aesthetics, identities, and histories. No two variations are alike. Some are tender and lyrical, others bracing and dissonant; some meditate, others protest. Together they form a living portrait of a country in conversation with itself. Now, as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Kwon returns to the Catacombs with music from this monumental project – timed to the release of her complete recording of all 76 variations. What began as a question has become a document of its time: a sonic archive of how America's leading creative voices, in all their diversity, heard this moment in history.
▲ Program
The following works will be performed at all concerts, with additional pieces and guest performers being announced from the stage:
Augusta Read Thomas: FUSION
Bruce Adolphe: Contemplation
Donnacha Dennehy: New Jersey
George Lewis: America, the changing same
Jake Heggie: Undiscovered
John Harbison: Getting the Upper Hand on America
John Musto: Habanera
Lei Liang: America the Beautiful… devastatingly quiet…
Miya Masaoka: Praying for a Sign
Nico Muhly: Refine
Reena Esmail: America/Desh
Richard Danielpour: Fantasy Variation
Stephen Hartke: O Genus Infelix Humanum
Viet Cuong: Echo Chamber
Vijay Iyer: Crown Thy Good
▲ Min Kwon
“That very rare kind of talent that unites the most exceptional technical ability with profound musical sensitivity.”
– David Frost, 25-time Grammy-winning producer
Distinguished by a wide expressive range and dynamic presence, Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels as a soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, artistic director, arts advocate, and educator.
As a soloist, Kwon has performed extensively throughout Europe, the Americas, and Asia. In the US, she has appeared as a soloist with The Philadelphia Orchestra, the New Jersey Symphony, the North Carolina, Fort Worth, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, and with many of New York’s leading ensembles. An avid chamber musician, Kwon has performed in numerous duo and chamber recitals around the world, frequently with her sister, violinist Yoon Kwon Costello.
In 2020, Kwon embarked upon her most ambitious project to date: America/Beautiful, a compendium of 76 solo piano variations on the patriotic song “America the Beautiful” that she commissioned from a diverse cohort of American composers. Delos releases a five-disc box set of the project in May 2026.
Kwon has served on the faculty of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts since 2002, where she is Professor of Music and Head of Piano. She is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a non-profit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young artists. Since its founding, the organization has awarded 12 international performing arts grants, each up to $10,000.
Kwon, a Steinway Artist, holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, and a Bachelor of Music degree from the Curtis Institute of Music.