Korean classical innovator Jin Hi Kim to perform multi-media “Digital Buddha” at the Met (Video)

Jin Hi Kim has an upcoming performance of Digital Buddha January 31 at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Konchog Norbu
16 January 2014
Image via the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Riding a cheeky/respectful line, the article says, “Jin Hi Kim is no Kpop star, but she would have been 400 years ago.” True enough. The invention of Kim’s instrument, a flat, seven-string zither called a komungo, dates back to the fourth century CE, but Kim has taken it in decidedly modern directions. She’s credited with inventing the first electric komungo, for example, and has performed internationally in collaboration with musicians of many different genres.

Kim will bring all these innovations and more together for the meditative Digital Buddha, her original 70-minute, multi-media composition. The performance, augmenting the Met’s ongoing Silla: Korea’s Golden Kingdom exhibit, will feature her mastery of both the traditional and electric komungo, the sounds of percussionist Gerry Hemingway, and a constantly morphing backdrop of digital imagery, including a “video mandala”. Click below to see excerpts from a prior performance:

Visit the Met’s website for details about Jin Hi Kim’s January 31 performance of Digital Buddha.

 

Konchog Norbu

Konchog Norbu

Konchog Norbu became a Buddhist in 1990 and ordained as a monk in 1993. Since then, he has overseen communications and media relations for several dharma organizations, authored the widely-read blog Dreaming of Danzan Ravjaa during a four-year stint in Mongolia, and filled his begging bowl on occasion with freelance writing and editing gigs.