Full Circle by Seunghee Lee (Album Booklet)

Life’s journey is never a straight arrow but a set of continuous circles. Just as we are full of anticipation before embarking on a new journey, we soon find ourselves looking forward to coming back home with more gratitude, appreciation and a deeper understanding of what was already there. While my debut album was centered around core clarinet repertoire, in the three albums that followed, I ventured out into mainstream classical music, transcribing and arranging some of my favorite classical works that were originally written for other instruments. Through this experiment, I trained myself to sing through my clarinet like an opera singer, phrase long melodies like a concert pianist and play like a virtuosic violinist. It also created opportunities to reach out to modern day composers of different styles, accumulating many new clarinet pieces and a few of them are included here. Taking on different paths allowed me to stretch my imagination and collect wonderful musical ideas. Coming back full circle, I am delighted to present to you some of my favorite clarinet classics from a fresh perspective. Cheers! ~Seunghee Lee

Life’s journey is never a straight arrow but a set of continuous circles. Just as we are full of anticipation before embarking on a new journey, we soon find ourselves looking forward to coming back home with more gratitude, appreciation and a deeper understanding of what was already there. While my debut album was centered around core clarinet repertoire, in the three albums that followed, I ventured out into mainstream classical music, transcribing and arranging some of my favorite classical works that were originally written for other instruments. Through this experiment, I trained myself to sing through my clarinet like an opera singer, phrase long melodies like a concert pianist and play like a virtuosic violinist. It also created opportunities to reach out to modern day composers of different styles, accumulating many new clarinet pieces and a few of them are included here. Taking on different paths allowed me to stretch my imagination and collect wonderful musical ideas. Coming back full circle, I am delighted to present to you some of my favorite clarinet classics from a fresh perspective. Cheers! ~Seunghee Lee