Jordan Bak

In 2019, Bak won the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition,^[1][2] and in 2021, he was named a YCAT Robey Artist.^[2] Other achievements include receiving a Kovner Fellowship and the Sphinx MPower Grant.^[1][3]He has performed at London's Wigmore Hall, New York's Merkin Concert Hall, Bruno Walter Auditorium, Alice Tully Hall, Boston's Jordan Hall, and Baltimore's Shriver Hall.^[1]

In May 2022, Bak released his debut album titled IMPULSE (Bright Shiny Things).^[2] The album features compositions by Tyson Gholston Davis, Toshio Hosokawa, Leilehua Lanzilotti, Quinn Mason, Jeffrey Mumford, and Joan Tower.^[2] With the exception of one work by Rebecca Clarke, each composition was written in the last four decades.^[4] Pianist Ji Yung Lee appears on the Impulse album, joining Bak on Clarke's Untitled and on Toshio Hosokawa's arrangement of Takemitsu's A String Around Autumn.^[4] The album reflects Bak's creative interest in the physical properties of sound.^[4]

Bak held a faculty position as the Professor of Viola at Bowling Green State University,^[2][5] served as a Visiting Artist and Ambassador for Music Masters in London, ^[5] and gave masterclasses at Oberlin Conservatory,^[5] Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University,^[2] University of Wisconsin-Madison,^[2] Royal Birmingham Conservatoire (UK),^[2] Conservatorio del Tolima (Colombia),^[2] and the Brevard Music Center.^[2][5] He held a faculty position with the Opportunity Music Project in New York.^[2]

Composers Eli Greenhoe, Sampo Kansurinen, Caroline Shaw, and Delong Wang have collaborated with Bak.^[6][7] Another collaboration includes Bak playing with the Takács Quartet.^[8][9] The New York Classical Review wrote that "Bak's playing was so constantly involving and impressive that one was drawn to each note and phrase."^[9] Other collaborations include chamber music tours with Musicians from Marlboro and the CAG on Tour ^[1] and being a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players.^[6][7]

Playing viola and mezzo-soprano, Bak appeared in the world premieres of Kaija Saariaho’s Du gick, flög^[6][7] and in the world premiere of Die Aussicht for string quartet and soprano.^[6] He also performed with The Juliard Orchestra in Druckman Viola Concerto at Alice Tully Hall in New York.^[7]

Composer James Ra wrote a Concerto for Three Violas and Strings that featured three soloists: Jordan Bak, Ramón Carrero-Martinez, and En-Chi Cheng.^[10] They brought varied timbres to their respective roles which often divided into three primary ranges of high and lofty, warm and tenor-like, and supportive depth and across a textural spectrum.^[10] In the second movement, the concertizers traded solos as an alternate approach to three solo violists.^[10] Jordan Bak led the consort.^[10] Bak and music director Dong-min Kim led the movement's finale.^[10]

In 2019, Jordan Bak received the Samuel Sanders Tel Aviv Museum Prize.^[1][2] In the same year, he received the John White Special Prize from the Tertis International Viola Competition.^[2][6][7]