Dear Festival Participants and Attendees,

안녕하세요!

It gives me great pleasure to welcome each of you to the 2025 Korean Composers Festival hosted by St. Olaf College. 

I hope this festival will serve to bring new perspectives and inspirations of works by Korean and Korean diaspora composers. I am eager to celebrate this continued growth, diversification and energy that today’s artists are bringing to their own communities. I hope at the conclusion of this festival we will leave with renewed energy and enthusiasm to continue this work in our respective communities and to share the depth of repertoire through our future collaborations and artistic expressions.

Many thanks to all the participants for sharing their talents and expertise; thank you for bringing to light these important works.

Whether you are a participant or attendee, each of us can play a part to advance this rich and intricate collection of works that is nearly untapped by the general fine arts audience. Your presence truly helps to ignite curiosities and create unrealized opportunities for the next generation of artists from the inside out.

Once again, thank you for joining us. I hope you enjoy your time during the festival, and I look forward to meeting you all!

감사합니다!

April Ryun Kim, DMA