WPKN Gala for the Future
‘The Greatest Radio Station in the World’ (The New Yorker) invites you to an exclusive open house on Friday, November 19, featuring:
- A VIP “Sneak Peek” Reception with a tour of the new WPKN headquarters, 277 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport (above the Bijou Theatre).
- Composer and performer Jin Hi Kim presenting her multi-media world premiere performance of “COVID 19 Ritual” at the Bijou Theatre.
- An artist’s reception at the Trattoria ‘A Vucchella
Celebrate WPKN radio’s new station in the heart of the burgeoning Bridgeport arts district. Be the first to get a VIP “Sneak Peek” tour with a celebratory prosecco tasting, served with a selection of locally sourced cheeses. The tour will be followed by a VIP reserved table next door for patrons to attend Guggenheim Fellow Jin Hi Kim’s multimedia premiere of Covid-19 Ritual in honor of more than four million deaths globally from COVID-19. The multi-media concert will be held downstairs at the elegantly-restored, historic Bijou Theatre. The evening will be capped off by joining the artist and WPKN personalities at Trattoria ‘A Vucchella (voted one of the “Best Italian Restaurants 2021” in Connecticut Magazine) offering an array of Italian delicacies and wine.
Limited VIP Tickets Available on a First Come, First Served Basis, $150.00
General Admission (concert only), $ 50.00
Jin Hi Kim is an innovative komungo virtuoso and Guggenheim Fellow Composer who has performed worldwide including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Smithsonian Freer Gallery of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hong Kong Festival and major concert halls on five continents and forty countries. The New York Times wrote, “….virtuoso, Jin Hi Kim promises thoughtful, shimmering East-West amalgams in combinations that are both new and unlikely to be repeated.”
Kim writes “We are living in a new type of social order with new possibilities of easy access to travel, internet connections, and environmental change. In this new contemporary social system, a variety of social identities are formed instantly, which are not so much controlled by nationality, boundaries, religion or institutional affiliation. My cross-cultural work reflects American contemporary society in the twenty-first century where we need to respond to rapidly, ever-changing conditions in order to survive. My music performance in collaboration with the community is a form of social behavior of humans communicating the spirituality that can’t be described in words.”
The Los Angeles Times wrote of Kim, “This is new music/world music at its finest, beyond political correctness, into the realm of the sublime, where words and cultural postures fall away.” This interactive, multi-media community purification performance in honor of the Covid deceased was only one of two recipients in Connecticut of support from the New England Foundation of the Arts with additional support from the Connecticut Humanities Council.