The Use of Ancient Musics in the Contemporary Choral Music Context: Unusual Instruments and Vocal Techniques in the Modern Concert Setting

GERARD J. YUN, conductor, composer, and ancient music specialist, received his Western musical training in the conducting of choirs, orchestras, and operas. He regularly conducts professional and honours groups throughout the United States, as well as in Russia, and the Caribbean. An interest in the techniques and aesthetics of unusual, ancient musics led to studies in Asian overtone/harmonic singing, Native American (Lakota) flute, Australian didgeridoo, and especially the Japanese shakuhachi. He has been featured as guest soloist on national public television in “The World’s Largest Concert,” sponsored by MENC and with the Utah Symphony Orchestra and International Children’s Choir during their “Welcoming the World Concerts” prior to the Salt Lake Winter Olympics of 2002. After initial disappointment in locating performable musical literature for orchestras and choirs that combine Western classical and ancient musics, Gerard began a promising career in composition. His works explore the techniques, approaches, and aesthetics of a number of ancient musical forms. Two of his early works, composed in conjunction with students at Southern Utah University, have won local awards. His Night chants for children’s choir, percussion, and didgeridoo was recently commissioned and performed by the Music Friends Children’s Choir of Northeast Iowa. Gerard is currently Assistant Professor of Music at Southern Utah University where he conducts the SUU Concert Choir. The Concert Choir recently appeared with the Utah Symphony Orchestra, the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and the Utah Symphony Chorus in Gustav Mahler’s Eighth symphony: The symphony of a thousand. Gerard holds a Doctoral degree in Choral Literature and Performance from The University of Colorado at Boulder and a Master’s Degree in Choral Conducting from California State University, Sacramento. His teachers include Lynn Whitten, Robert Spillman, Helmuth Rilling, and shakuhachi masters, David Wheeler and Yoshio Kurahashi.