The great Scottish-American actress and voice teacher Kristin Linklater dedicated her life to the poet Shakespeare. She tells of the joys and sorrows of love with a selection of 23 sonnets and is heard on CD for the first time. The turbulence of youth, the shame of betrayal, the wisdom of maturity – the flute joins the song in the middle of the concert of passions: the exiled Korean composer Isang Yun (1917–1995) contemplates the drama of life from the East. His Chinese Images masterfully played by Martin Gonschorek and the epic song of Sori unite Eastern tradition with Western modernity. This atmosphere gives way to turmoil and tranquillity with music and language side by side – it is as if the composer suddenly began to speak and the poet burst into song.
Prof. Kristin Linklater teaches at the Columbia University School of the Arts in New York. Her works Freeing the Natural Voice (1976/2006) and Freeing Shakespeare‘s Voice (1992) are part of the established canon for international acting schools and have made her a leading figure in the theatre. She has coached renowned formations like the Peter Brooks Centre International de Recherche Theatrale and the Lincoln Center Repertory Company. In 1978 she co-founded Shakespeare & Company, which has produced numerous film and theatre actors. Her great passion as both an actress and a teacher is for Shakespeare. Kristin Linklater lives in New York and in her native Orkney.
Isang Yun comes from a Korea under alternating periods of foreign rule and tyranny. First denounced as a resistance fighter and then as a “traitor” he was forced to undergo kidnapping, arrest, torture and condemnation. After his rehabilitation he permanently settled in Germany in 1970, where his career as an artist had previously begun. He was a professor for composition at the University of the Arts in Berlin and recipient of numerous academic honors and awards. Despite his major role in Western avant garde, Yun always felt a connection with the traditional sound of his home. His music aspires to freedom and harmony with East and West finding each other in a Taoist perspective.