Program Note:​

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I have been fortunate enough to be one of the co-founders of the Sounding Board Project. LA based Korean guitarist Bokyung Byun and I founded this project in 2019 to develop collaborative relationships between composers and guitarists in order to create new works for guitar. Our mission is to encourage composition for the guitar by promoting diversity and inclusion in the following ways: working with artists from underrepresented groups, cultivating collaborative relationships between composers and guitarists, facilitating workshop training for composers, performing new works in both concert halls and underprivileged communities, and producing professional quality audio/video recordings of new works to reach a broader audience.

Minty Breeze was created as a part of the Cloud Collaboration 2021 with Sounding Board Project. Cloud Collaboration aimed to bring artistic minds from all around the world to create multidisciplinary works through virtual collaboration. The extended isolation from the pandemic made collaborative art making more challenging than ever, but through virtual collaboration, the Sounding Board Project was able to provide a platform where artists can meld their creative ideas and energy together for creation of new works regardless of any distances or barriers between them.

The work was written during my ten day long residency at UCross Foundation. The beautiful and peaceful atmosphere at UCross was a big inspiration for the work.

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– Nicky Sohn