To celebrate artistry in all its forms, Chamber Music | OC’s Artist-in-Residence program offers Southern California audiences a unique opportunity to engage with emerging visual artists from diverse ethnic backgrounds. As part of this initiative, Chamber Music | OC commissions a distinguished visual artist to create new works inspired by both our performances and our mission, in honor of significant milestones.

The inaugural 2020/2021 Artist-in-Residence was award-winning Korean painter Seung Yoon Choi. Known for his abstract work, Choi explores the theme of paradox: the contraction and expansion of the heart, the daily meeting of light and darkness, and the balance of opposites in the natural world. His art features precisely controlled lines and spaces, with distinctive blue brush strokes that evoke the emotion within these contradictions.

Choi’s commissioned piece was inspired by Cristina Spinei’s “If Beethoven Danced Merengue”, a work written for Chamber Music | OC’s Ensemble-in-Residence Trio Céleste in 2016. To commemorate the opening of Chamber Music | OC’s new facility in Lake Forest, the organization commissioned 20 limited edition prints of Choi’s artwork, which were featured throughout the 2020/21 season. To learn more about Seung Yoon Choi, please click here.

Check back soon to learn who will be our next Artist-in-Residence!