▶ Dr. Jeongseok Lee’s ‘LJS Music Story’
▶ Sonata da Chieza · Leading the way in popularizing classical music through music classes
Sonata da Chieza members.
▶First concert at Long Island New York Central Church on November 9th
▶Performing with a 20-person string chamber orchestra
New York is a city where culture, including art and music, shines brilliantly. There was a time when Koreans flocked to face-to-face music classes in places like this for the entire New York metropolitan area. The purpose was to listen to the ‘Classical Music Odyssey’ course that Dr. Lee Jeong-seok, a music doctor, opened in each region before the coronavirus outbreak.
That’s how popular Dr. Lee’s lecture was. However, when this class was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak, many Koreans could not forget the longing and charm of the lecture, so the music class was re-established as a Zoom lecture via computer. The classes are still being held by region and day of the week.
The number of people enrolled in this course is still increasing. This passage shows the extent of Dr. Lee Jeong-seok’s knowledge of classical music and his ability to interpret it.
Dr. Jeongseok Lee is lecturing at the Classical Music Odyssey music course.
Sonata da Chieza is playing at Manna Church (left photo) & founding members of Sonata da Chieza.
Sonata da Chieza Octet.
Dr. Jeongseok Lee established the non-profit organization “LJS Music Story” last September and began full-fledged music activities. The goal was to spread classical music to the public through concerts and lectures.
To this end, 24 directors have been appointed, and Ms. Bang Mi-sook was elected as chairman. As a sign of its first birth, LJS Music Story will hold a concert at Central Church in Long Island at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 9th. It is a concert where you can enjoy various genres of music along with explanations, and it is also a concert where you can see how this group will grow in the future.
Dr. Jeongseok Lee is confident that this concert, featuring a 20-member string chamber orchestra and collaborators, will definitely be fun and moving.
It is said that it took a considerable amount of experimentation to establish this organization. The first is Sonata da Chieza, a music performance group that Dr. Jeongseok Lee has been leading with passion for a while, and the second is music lectures.
Sonata da Chiesa (Director Lee Jeong-seok, Doctor of Music) was founded in 2003 with nine members. Sonata da Chieza means ‘church music’, but it is a genre of classical music that was popular during the Baroque and Classical periods. However, it disappeared with the passage of time.
Sonata da Chieza was founded with several goals. In other words, let’s play church music outside the church. And let’s show people how to play chamber music in an easy and fun way. And the most important thing was the goal of holding a free concert so that people could come without burden.
Since its founding, Sonata da Chieza has held regular concerts more than five times a year with special support from the New York Hankook Ilbo. We also held sponsored concerts such as a concert to help youth, a concert to support cancer patients, a family concert, and a Thanksgiving concert, as well as concerts for the Korean community.
The most notable concert was the narrated series of concerts held continuously from 2006 to 2010. This became the beginning of a very easy and fun concert.
The concert continued until 2015, but was not performed frequently and became less frequent. The biggest problem was financial difficulties.
There were limits to the ability of director Lee Jeong-seok to continue on his own without significant support. The bigger problem was that the number of audiences was gradually decreasing.
Dr. Lee Jeong-seok makes a different decision. The goal was to educate people about classical music directly rather than through concerts. As part of the humanities lecture series hosted by the New York Hankook Ilbo, a 15-week course on classical music will be held at New York Manna Church in March 2015.
A surprisingly large number of people gathered for this course, and the 15-week course was successfully completed. There have been many requests to continue this course, so the course will be continued in Great Neck. The title was ‘Classical Music Odyssey’.
The course continued until 2006, expanding to Bayside, New Jersey, Westchester, and Manhattan.
As classes could no longer be held due to the coronavirus outbreak that spread in New York in March 2020, Zoom classes began in June of that year. The number of applicants for Zoom classes has increased due to various conveniences such as time.
Now, Dr. Lee Jeong-seok, a doctor of music, recognizes the limitless scope of expansion of this course, and as his first project, he started the ‘Baroque Art Department’ in early October. In the future, we plan to gradually expand into areas such as art, literature, history, philosophy, and science.
Now, Dr. Jeongseok Lee has the following business plan to spread classical music to the Korean community in New York by combining music concerts and lectures. In addition to concerts for the public twice a year, home concerts will be held four times a year when conditions allow.
He is working hard to popularize classical music by delivering music to numerous places every morning using KakaoTalk, and plans to further specialize it and expand his target audience.
Advisor Yeo Joo-young>
