Rising classical guitar star to play standards, push boundaries in Kansas City concert

Speaking with guitarist Jiji is like being bathed in sunshine. She fairly burbles over with joy as she talks about her love of music, especially guitar music.

In 2014, when she was known as Jiyeon Kim, she performed the Concierto de Aranjuez with the Kansas City Symphony in a memorable concert. Now the Harriman-Jewell Series will present Jiji in a free livestream concert from the 1900 Building on Feb. 20.

She’ll play both acoustic and electric guitars. The program will feature classical favorites, as well as new works, including her own compositions.

Raised by parents who made sure she was exposed to the arts, the Korean-born Jiji demonstrated a rather advanced taste in music from a young age. She says she was obsessed with electric guitars and blues and rock music, listening to heavyweights like Eric Clapton and Jimi Hendrix. When she was 9, she begged her parents to buy her a Fender Stratocaster, just like her heroes played.

“They were like, OK, maybe we’re not ready to have such a loud instrument in the house,” Jiji said. “There were classical guitars on sale, so they told me if I played classical guitar for a year, they’d buy me an electric. One year, can you believe it? But they never bought me an electric guitar. So I bought my own later in life.”

Jiji says she fell in love with the classical guitar, however. Demonstrating an extraordinary aptitude for the instrument, she was accepted to the Korea National University of Arts when she was only 14. She also attended the Cleveland Institute of Music and in 2011 began studies at the Curtis Institute, one of the first two guitarists accepted there.

She has since become one of classical music’s rising stars and has been acclaimed as the epitome of a 21st century guitarist, a musician fully comfortable with the standard repertoire while also performing new works that push the boundaries of classical music. Her concert in Kansas City will give a taste of both.

One of the pieces Jiji will perform is the well-known Asturias by Isaac Albéniz. She says that when she first performed that piece, she knew she had arrived as a guitarist.

“I remember the first time I heard it, I wanted to play it so badly,” she said. “My teacher told me, ‘No, no, no you’re not ready, you’re not ready.’ After three years he finally gave the piece to me and I remember feeling, oh, my gosh, I’ve always wanted play this piece! I had that youthful feeling. It’s one of my favorite pieces to play.”

Jiji will also play a work by Claudia Sessa, an Italian Renaissance composer.

“It’s really gorgeous,” Jiji said. “Claudia Sessa was a nun in the early 1600s, and she was such a talented instrumentalist and vocalist and composer. The kings and royalty wanted to hire her, but she said, ‘No, I just want to write for God and the church.’ She never went for the fame thing.”

A champion of new music, Jiji will also perform pieces written for her by Tania León and Hilary Purrington. Asked if 21st century music has a distinctive style, like the baroque music of the 18th century or the romantic music of the 19th, Jiji says she has a special name for 21st century music.

“I call it iTunes shuffle,” she said. “Nowadays, you can listen to everything from baroque music to renaissance music. You can hear pop music or jazz music, overwhelming styles of music. And I think that’s what the 21st century musical language is. It’s a mix of everything. We have the internet so we’re more global and more connected.”

Jiji will also play two of her own works. She says her music is influenced by her “dual nature” of being Korean and American.

“I have this very American side of me, but I have this Korean upbringing, so there’s always this conflict,” she said. “When I talk to my parents, it’s very different than my American persona. One of the things I try to incorporate into my music is a lot of personas and feelings. You’ll hear these two electric guitar pieces and I think they are drastically different. I’m a very happy person, but I write music that’s so sad. I don’t know why.”

Jiji has certainly found her happy groove. In her spare time, she loves DJing, which she looks forward to returning to after the pandemic is over. And in 2018, she accepted a professorship at Arizona State University in Tempe.

“This is my third year living here, and I am such a desert girl,” she said.

“I love it here. I love it. The resilience of the plants enduring such harsh weather really inspires me. They get no water for the whole year, and get a little bit of rain in the winter, but the plants are so gorgeous and so green because they’re getting all this sunlight and capturing all the moisture they can. I feel so humbled by nature. Oh, nature is brilliant!”

7 p.m. Feb. 20. Free livestream concert at hjseries.org, followed by a conversation with the artist.

You can reach Patrick Neas at patrickneas@kcartsbeat.com and follow his Facebook page, KC Arts Beat, at www.facebook.com/kcartsbeat.