Three Nights with DoYeon Kim: Composition · Tradition · Improvisation
Sunday, July 26, 2026, 8:30 PM
Monday, July 27, 2026, 8:30 PM
Tuesday, July 28, 2026, 8:30 PM
Venue: Seeds::Brooklyn
(617 Vanderbilt Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11215)
Tickets: $20 (available at the door)
DoYeon Kim is a gayageum player, vocalist, composer, and improviser whose work moves fluidly between composition, Korean traditional music, and contemporary improvisation.
Across three evenings, this residency presents three distinct perspectives on her artistic practice—moving from original compositions to the living tradition of Sanjo and finally to collective improvisation. Through each program, Kim explores how musical ideas are created, inherited, transformed, and renewed through performance.
For Kim, composition, tradition, and improvisation are not separate disciplines, but interconnected ways of asking the same musical questions. Each evening offers a different setting for those questions to unfold through written material, traditional musical language, spontaneous interaction, and deep collective listening.
July 26
◆ DoYeon Kim Quartet
DoYeon Kim — gayageum, vocals
Peter Evans — trumpet
Sam Minaie — bass
Tom Rainey — drums
The residency opens with the DoYeon Kim Quartet, featuring trumpeter Peter Evans, bassist Sam Minaie, and drummer Tom Rainey.
Drawing from Kim’s album Wellspring alongside newly composed works, the performance reflects her ongoing exploration of the relationship between composition and improvisation. Rather than treating written music as a fixed structure, Kim’s compositions provide a foundation for collective discovery, allowing prepared material and spontaneous interaction to continually reshape one another.
Through the distinctive combination of gayageum, voice, trumpet, bass, and drums, the quartet moves between intimacy, tension, and release. Different musical languages meet, respond, and transform through deep listening and shared expression.
July 27
◆ Gayageum Solo: Inside Sanjo, Performance & Workshop
The second evening is devoted to Sanjo, one of the foundational traditions of Korean instrumental music.
Through solo performance, demonstration, and conversation, Kim introduces audiences to Sanjo’s structure, rhythmic development, and expressive language. Traditionally performed as an extended instrumental solo accompanied by the rhythmic cycles of jangdan, Sanjo gradually moves from spacious, meditative passages toward increasingly energetic and complex rhythms.
For Kim, Sanjo is not simply a historical form to be preserved, but a living musical practice that continues to shape her artistic identity. By examining how its melodies, rhythms, and expressive gestures unfold in performance, the program offers audiences a deeper understanding of Korean traditional music while revealing how inherited musical language can remain personal, dynamic, and continually evolving.
July 28
◆ DoYeon Kim String Trio
DoYeon Kim — gayageum
Gabby Fluker — violin
Lester St. Louis — cello
The residency concludes with a fully improvised performance by DoYeon Kim, violinist Gabby Fluker, and cellist Lester St. Louis.
Coming from distinct musical traditions and artistic backgrounds, the three performers unite through a shared commitment to openness, attentive listening, and collective creation. Rather than following a predetermined composition or structure, the trio allows the music to emerge through real-time interaction, response, and shared decision-making.
Each artist’s individual voice remains distinct while continually influencing and reshaping the others. Through this process, improvisation becomes not the absence of structure, but the collaborative discovery of form—created together in the moment.