What this music, these sounds project is a message. It screams about fighting to be positive, and gently pulls you into the world of trying to connect to things that are deeply inside you. When that happens, we can truly be free.
Chiaroscuro : Yun - Rykov - Jamnik - Müller - Hahnfeldt explores June Yun’s mind, music, and world full of messages about the importance of self-finding, consciousness, the understanding of feelings and emotions, to be able to be free. Together they make sound, music, and stories that engage listeners.
The project takes inspiration from Chiaroscuro—the artistic technique that uses the contrast between light and dark to create depth and dimension. Instead of painting or drawing, this project features musical compositions that embody these contrasts and abstract concepts - painting with sound. Through her compositions, June Yun explores the dynamic interplay of light and darkness, translating these evolving forms into sound. Together these creative musicians explore the personal nature of light and darkness, recognising that it is incredibly challenging to fully understand and directly interpret another person’s feelings and emotions towards their own experiences of light and darkness.
Light and darkness coexist. They do not stay in one place; just as time flows, light and darkness move and evolve.
As explained by jazz critic Adam Baruch, Yun’s music “is quite surprising and far from what one expects from a vocalist at the early stage of her career, who rather than follow a familiar path of singing Jazz standards, choses to perform a highly original, inventive thread, which combines modern Jazz and Avant-Garde vistas of Free Improvisation, mixing vocals and vocalese effectively and ambitiously, and as such presenting a solid aesthetic statement, which is a rare phenomenon on today’s vocal Jazz scene.”
Yun’s influences of “free music” came from renowned vocalist and improvisor Fay Victor who was her performance teacher at the New School for Jazz and award winning pianist and composer Sylvie Courvoisier who blends jazz, improvised music and classical music who was her ensemble instructor. Yun has become one of the most fearless improvisors blending all genres and influences that made her project her true self in music.
June Yun, is an up-and-coming vocalist, composer, educator based in New York, Seoul and Berlin. Yun was born in South Korea and moved to the U.K. when she was five and spent her childhood in London. After graduating from college, Yun released a collaboration project debut single with a famous Korean singer from the 90s, Seunghwa Park. The whole project was sponsored by KBS, the biggest national broadcasting TV & Radio channel in Korea. After the release, she received many calls from record labels in Korea but she thought there was something missing in herself and her music so she moved to NYC to learn jazz, a new concept. Yun has explored and built up her own repertoire in jazz and composed originals, mostly influenced by traditional and modern jazz, free jazz and her very first music influence, classical music.
June Yun has studied and performed with some of the most influential musicians including Jean Baylor, Theo Bleckmann, Shai Maestro, Joel Ross, Ingrid Jensen, Amy London, Mike Moreno, Jeremy Manasia and Dr. Richard Harper. She has been writing and performing a wide range of music including her original music, traditional and modern jazz, contemporary pop and R&B, K-pop, classical music, Korean traditional music, film music, and musical theater. Yun has performed at some of the most well-known jazz clubs and halls in NYC including Dizzy’s Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz club, John Tishman Auditorium, Mercury Lounge, and more.
