When the composer Younghi Pagh-Paan came to Germany in the mid-1970s, she was at first deeply insecure about the gaping contradictions between Western culture and her Korean homeland. She drew a special creative force from it – influences from both worlds are combined in her music until today.

The works recorded by Ensemble KNM Berlin and the soprano Angela Postweiler here were created between 1977 and 2020 and thus offer a comprehensive view of Pagh-Paan’s work. Among them, the three world-premiere recordings deserve special attention: ma-am (Mein Herz) for female solo voice and Mein Herz I for soprano and viola as well as the string quartet Horizont auf hoher See.

The production was created as part of the Berlin Art Prize given to Pagh-Paan in 2020 by the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Younghi Pagh-Paan was born in Cheongju (now South Korea) in 1945. With a scholarship from the DAAD she came to Germany to continue her studies with Klaus Huber at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg.

With her orchestral piece Sori, she gained wide public recognition at the Donaueschingen Festival in 1980. After visiting professorships at the music academies in Graz and Karlsruhe, she was appointed professor of composition at the Bremen University of the Arts in 1994 – the first woman in all of Germany. She received numerous international awards and now lives in Bremen and Panicale (Italy).