Portrait of Younghi Pagh-Paan. Composition commissions issued to Jin-ah Ahn, Jamilia Jazylbekova and Ali Gorji

E-MEX e.V., Essen, Germany

The E-MEX Ensemble in Essen is very familiar with New Music of Korea and has developed this over the past decade into a focus point of its work. Numerous trips to the country have enabled an intense exchange and a multi-faceted musical collaboration with Korean composers and performers. For E-MEX, this opened the path to a musical understanding which can penetrate European musical sentiments through contrasts and creativity. For the 20^th anniversary of the ensemble in 2019, the musicians are planning a wide-ranging celebration of Younghi Pagh-Paan, which will likewise provide a reference point shortly prior to the Korean composer’s 75^th birthday in 2020. Two concerts consisting of Younghi Pagh-Paan’s own works as well as those dedicated to / inspired by her will take place in Cologne and Essen. The programme spans over three decades of Pagh-Paan’s works. The value of her teaching-engagements is likewise reflected in three new works by prominent young composers: Jin-ah Ahn (South Korea), Jamilia Jazylbekova (Kazakhstan) and Ali Gorji (Iran), who have all been inspired through their studies with Y. Pagh-Paan and have found great acclaim. A commission for a short composition has been given to all three. The interest of other institutions such as Deutschlandfunk and the label Wergo has helped not only to make Y. Pagh-Paan’s importance as a composer within Korea clear, but E-MEX hopes to leverage this project to bring New Korean Music to an international audience.


April 7, 2019
Karl Ernst Osthaus-Saal, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

November 22, 2019
Kunst-Station St. Peter, Cologne, Deutschland


Weitere Informationen:
e-mex.de