June 18-20, 2026
Performance #1: 6:00 - 8:30 PM
Performance #2: 7:30 - 10:00 PM
When pianist Min Kwon first conceived America/Beautiful, the country was in a moment of fracture – pandemic isolation, racial reckoning, political unrest. Looking at her two daughters, whose birthdays fall on Presidents’ Day and the Fourth of July, she began asking a simple, urgent question: what does America mean, and what kind of nation are we becoming?
From that reflection came an extraordinary undertaking: America/Beautiful. Kwon commissioned almost eighty leading composers across the United States to each write a variation on America the Beautiful, producing a vast mosaic of voices, aesthetics, identities, and histories. No two variations are alike. Some are tender and lyrical, others bracing and dissonant; some meditate, others protest. Together they form a living portrait of a country in conversation with itself.
Now, as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary, Kwon returns to the Catacombs with music from this monumental project – timed to the release of her complete recording of all 76 variations. What began as a question has become a document of its time: a sonic archive of how America's leading creative voices, in all their diversity, heard this moment in history.
A true expression of E pluribus unum, Min Kwon's project offers a powerful musical portrait of the United States at 250. It doesn't shy away from the division, despair, rage, and regret of our present moment, but it also looks toward the hope, humanity, optimism and empathy that has always guided our better angels.
What You Can Expect
The pre-show reception takes place in the modern chapel of Green-Wood Cemetery, where you'll enjoy both alcoholic and non-alcoholic libations, as well as charcuterie and snacks (all included in ticket price - it's enough food to stave off starvation, but you'll still probably want a bit more of a meal before or after the show). Then we'll take a 25 minute stroll through the cemetery (or a trolley ride if you so please) to the Catacombs for the concert - seating is general admission, but there are no bad seats given the intimacy of the space! After the concert, we'll have a moonlit walk back to the front of the cemetery (though once again, a trolley is available if you prefer).
The following works will be performed at all concerts, with additional pieces and guest performers being announced from the stage:
Augusta Read Thomas: FUSION
Bruce Adolphe: Contemplation
Donneca Dennehy: New Jersey
George Lewis: America, the changing same
Jake Heggie: Undiscovered
John Harbison: Getting the Upper Hand on America
John Musto: Habanera
Lei Liang: America the Beautiful… devastatingly quiet…
Miya Masaoka: Praying for a Sign
Nico Muhly: Refine
Reena Esmail: America/Desh
Richard Danielpour: Fantasy Variation
Stephen Hartke: O Genus Infelix Humanum
Viet Cuong: Echo Chamber
Vijay Iyer: Crown Thy Good
Korean-born American pianist Min Kwon excels in a versatile career that encompasses concerti, solo recitals, and chamber music appearances, while in high demand around the world as pedagogue, arts advocate, and administrator. She has held professional engagements in over 60 countries on seven continents and all 50 U.S. states.
Professor of Piano at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University since 2002, Dr. Kwon is also the founder and director of the Center for Musical Excellence (CME), a non-profit dedicated to mentoring and supporting gifted young musicians. To date, CME has awarded 12 international performing arts grants, each up to $10,000, and currently features 20 young artists on the 2019 CME Young Artists Roster. CME’s alumni/ae list includes more than 100 young artists from 22 countries. As Artistic Director of Music Made Here, a concert series inaugurated in 2018, and CME in Harding Homes, Kwon brings world class talent to intimate venues. She has also served as Co-Director of Vienna ConcertoFest, a two-week festival that provides extraordinary opportunities for young artists to appear as soloists with the Viennese International Orchestra in prestigious venues in Austria.
As soloist, Min Kwon has performed extensively in Europe, North and South America, and Asia, with such orchestras as Philadelphia, North Carolina, Atlanta, New Jersey, and Fort Worth, Aspen Festival Orchestra, Orquesta Estaudo Mexico, Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela, Wiener Residenz Orchester, Bacau Philharmonic, as well as all major orchestras in Korea on several nationally televised concerts. Since her Avery Fisher (now David Geffen) Hall, Lincoln Center debut in 1992 with the Juilliard Orchestra, she has appeared with many of New York’s leading ensembles, including New York Classical Players, Manhattan Chamber Orchestra, and the New York Sinfonietta. Among the distinguished conductors with whom she has collaborated are James Conlon, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Alan Gilbert, Vaktang Jordania, Gerhardt Zimmerman, and Xian Zhang.
As recitalist, Kwon has performed at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, where she returns each year as Artistic Director of critically acclaimed, themed concerts featuring Rutgers pianists. Additionally, she has appeared in such major cities as Boston, Copenhagen, London, Madrid, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Seoul, Singapore, and Sydney. The New York Concert Review wrote of her Weill Recital: an “impassioned performance, in full technical command, she allowed for both simplicity and opulence, and the results were gratifying…Ms Kwon made the trek with enviable ease and calm but gave plenty of horror-film drama amid booms of sonic thunder and pianistic lightning.”
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Ticket sales are final. No exchanges or refunds unless the event is canceled.