Sun-Mi Hong: Bida Orchestra
July 2, 2026 @ 22:00 August 11, 2027 @ 23:30
John Dikeman, bass & tenor saxophone;; Mette Rasmussen, alto saxophone; Alistair Payne, trumpet; Jozef Dumoulin, piano, fender rhodes; John Edwards, bass; ; Sun Mi Hong, drums
(KR, NL, BE, GB, US, NO)
Across Europe, a burgeoning music scene is emerging, driven by a younger generation of inspiring and creative musicians, songwriters, and arrangers. One name that immediately comes to mind is South Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong, who has been based in the Netherlands for over a decade..
While devoting most of her creative energy to her quintet (with which she released her latest album Fourth Page: Meaning of a Nest last year), Sun-Mi Hong performs and records in a wide range of contexts, from tightly composed works to free improvisation. A particularly distinctive aspect of her output is the unconventional Bida Orchestra. In recent years, Hong has travelled extensively across Europe, engaging with diverse musical scenes and further expanding her artistic language; this experience directly informs the project.
It was created in 2023, when BIMHUIS Productions commissioned her to write a new work for the REFLEX series, which invites musicians to reflect on society and the world as they perceive it. Drawing on scenes from her dreams, Hong composed the highly dynamic, intense, and unpredictable opus Invisible Ropes.
She has brought together five versatile musicians – improvisers from diverse stylistic backgrounds, or rather a first-rate constellation of distinctive musical personalities. Three wind instruments, double bass, piano/synthesiser, and drums form a lineup that, partly owing to the individual voices of its members, opens up seemingly endless – at times extreme – possibilities in texture and dynamics. A whirlwind of sound that shifts the ground beneath our feet, described by Sun-Mi Hong herself as moving “from linear serenity to choppy waters and blood-curdling screams”.