The Peabody Institute of The Johns Hopkins University

Star of the Soundtrack

There is a moment in the Korean-made horror film The Host, a favorite at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, where the main characters are running for their lives from a mutated sea creature. The dialogue goes silent and all you can hear is the music. The actors move in slow motion, the music swells, the creature gets closer…during a screening at the Charles Theatre in Baltimore, the audience was on the edge of their seats.

The Host’s impeccable soundtrack was created by Korean-born Byeong Woo Lee (GPD ’98, Guitar), who earned the Korean equivalent of an Academy Award for the score. The talented classical guitarist is now one of the most sought after film soundtrack producers in Korea.

Born in Seoul in 1965, Lee grew up listening to his older brother play the guitar. Sometimes Lee would sing along as his brother played, and one day Lee’s mother suggested that he take lessons as well. “I said, ‘Well it sounds better than taking math lessons,’ and that’s when I started to play,” he says today from his home in Korea, adding, “I still remember that special moment when I touched the strings with my finger and played a chord.”

After gaining success as a pop musician in his early 20s, Lee decided he needed more formal training and he went to Europe to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1998, he traveled to the United States to continue his studies at Peabody. It was here, Lee says, that he found his musical voice. “For me, Peabody was the best place,” he says. “I had a chance to meet many wonderful guitarists from other countries, and as a foreign student, I experienced so many wonderful sides of America.”

But it was his relationship with professor Julian Gray that had the biggest impact on his work. “A school is only great as the teachers and for me, that teacher was Julian Gray,” he says. “He was the best teacher I have ever met. We talked about life, love, and art. I always felt like my battery was recharged after we talked or had a lesson together.”

In 1998, Lee became the first classical guitarist to earn the 1st Place Award in the Yale Gordon Competition.

While he was abroad studying, Lee agreed to have his guitar music appear in many Korean short films. “I am glad I had allowed that to happen because when the time came for the directors to do feature films, I was asked to make film music,” he says.

Today his music can be heard in films and commercials and he is starting to score music for video games as well. While he loves performing, Lee says that he cherishes the opportunity to work solo in the studio. “It is the most beautiful time,” he says. “I can’t compare it with anything.”

—Elizabeth Evitts

Changing the Energy

Sifting through the postings on YouTube, you’ll find lot of band performances, many of which are forgettable. But click on a link from the Archipelago Project called The Chicken and you’re in for a treat. The video shows a band of five professional musicians—tenor sax, trombone, trumpet, tuba, and drums—belting out a funky, messy, fun, and lively piece that has the audience clapping and cheering. On tuba is Daniel Trahey (BA’00, Tuba, MusEd), and the show is for a room full of parents and students who participated in a program sponsored by Trahey’s Michigan-based nonprofit, the Archipelago Project.

Founded in 2005 by Trahey and trombone player Garrett Mendez, the Archipelago Project brings musical training to kids across the country. The concept grew out of work Trahey began during his undergraduate years at Peabody through an outreach program in the public schools.

“I started to find out that music education, specifically public school education, was lacking a lot of things,” Trahey says. “I wanted to change that energy and show that these instruments are very versatile. These are orchestral instruments, but they can be played all over the place for all kinds of different people.”

Archipelago now offers several programs, including master classes and outreach performances and workshops within public schools around the country. Trahey and the trained musicians work within a school’s band program for a week to develop a performance where the professionals and the amateurs play together. “If you are a violinist and you sit next to great violinists, you automatically are going to get better,” Trahey says. “Playing with professionals makes you better.”

Archipelago also offers in-house residencies for young musicians over the summer months. A program for economically disadvantaged elementary school students, called Twelve Trumpets, brings music to Michigan students who have never played an instrument before. Over their two weeks at Archipelago headquarters, the students are immersed in instrumental music. Many of the participants could not have afforded private music lessons. “It gives kids who don’t have cash an opportunity to play an instrument,” Trahey says. “It also shows parents that these kids can play.” About half the participants go on to play a band instrument after they leave, Trahey reports.

He estimates that some 5,000 kids have been through the in-house program since its inception, and thousands more have participated through school programs across the country and in Europe. In addition to traveling with the Archipelago Project, Trahey serves as the educational programming and outreach event director for the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. For four years, he has presented to over 30,000 children. Trahey also maintains his connection to Baltimore, working with the Music Teacher Mentoring Program operated by the Peabody Preparatory. He assists band teachers in cash-strapped urban schools with creating and managing band programs.

Trahey may be among the hardest working musicians today. But you would never know it to watch the sheer joy on stage during that performance of The Chicken.

—Elizabeth Evitts