Jazz pianist, educator, composer, conductor and School of Music alum Mina Choi ’15 (M.M. music performance) will release her debut album “Stories” on Feb. 21. The recording features an ensemble of 12 CSUF alumni and two jazz legends, pianist George Cables and drummer and percussionist Alex Acuña. “Stories” was co-produced by Choi’s mentor, Grammy Award-winning musician and School of Music faculty member Bill Cunliffe.
Born in South Korea, Choi blends jazz and classical influences with her Korean heritage to create richly textured, emotional, modern jazz compositions. Through the cross-cultural dialogue of music, she reflects on her personal journey through beautiful melodies, intricate rhythms and colorful harmonies where each composition tells a story.
She composed four of the album’s seven tracks, including “You’re Still Here.” The song honors the 10th anniversary of the tragic Sewol ferry disaster in her native country of South Korea, where 304 people, mostly children, died at sea.
Choi has performed at renowned venues across the United States, including Segerstrom Center for the Arts, the Queen Mary and Catalina Jazz Club.
In 2016, Choi was named Outstanding Performer of the Year at the Reno Jazz Festival and received the 38th Graduate Jazz Outstanding Performance Award from DownBeat magazine in 2015.
Jazz journalist and historian Scott Yanow described her “inventive arrangements” as “both unpredictable and logical” and possessing a “knack for telling tales through music.”
In addition to performing, Choi is a faculty member at Soka University of America and Concordia University, Irvine, where she teaches and mentors students in jazz performance, composition and music theory.
The Mina Choi Orchestra will perform at Campus JAX on March 12 to celebrate the release of “Stories.”