House Music Ep 107: Impromptuo Duo
Violinist Katherine Kyu Hyeon Lim and pianist Joey Chang have known each other since their undergraduate days at The Juilliard School, but it wasn’t until 2019 that they connected on their current passion—free improvisation. Chang had gotten into improvisation much earlier than Lim, but when Lim started to become intrigued by improvisation, the two musicians began to jam together. From those low-key sessions, their duo, Impromptuo, was born. For the House Music series, they present an improvisation titled Some Etude.
Both musicians have collaborated with Metropolis in the past, and each have presented a solo House Music series video. But as a duo, they share one special memory of Metropolis: In October 2020, they presented a series of improvisations alongside animations by the artist Marie Lavis as part of Free Assembly, Metropolis’s debut digital festival. Since that performance, they’ve continued to explore the possibilities of musical improvisation and animation, and even continued working with Lavis.
Some Etude, which they recorded at Chang’s apartment, taps into the duo’s humorous side. They don’t take themselves too seriously in general, they’d rather make music that’s lighthearted and exploratory. Some Etude was born from ideas they’d been floating around for a while, and even takes some inspiration from a Lady Gaga-type bass line. And in addition to their House Music performance, the two are excited to begin working on improvisation with multi-instrumentalist and MacArthur Fellow Tyshawn Sorey as part of the Ensemble Forward program at Chamber Music America. -- Vanessa Ague
