First United Methodist Church’s new music director, Heejung Park, will lead a Community Christmas Concert at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 15, featuring the church choir and orchestra, as well as several professional guest musicians.
The concert will be the first opportunity for many community members in Hopkinsville to enjoy Park’s talents as a conductor and composer. The South Korea native and his wife, Sorae Kim, began working with First United Methodist in June. They reside in Madisonville with their four children. Kim is a soprano vocalist and serves as a music associate at the Hopkinsville church.
Park’s musical journey began when he was 26 years old and was employed as a math teacher in Seoul. Although his father was a Presbyterian minister, Park says he had become agnostic.
One day he was sitting in the sanctuary thinking about his talent for music and lack of formal training. He made a deal with God to show him a sign and he would return to the Christian fold. He believes the sign came after he applied to the most prestigious music school in Korea, the Korean National University of Arts, and was accepted in 2004.
It is unusual to begin a music career as an adult, he explained. He completed the five-year bachelor’s program in orchestra conducting. He met Kim during this time, and they moved to Finland for Park to attend a master’s program in conducting. While he was there, he returned to God, and “He spoke to my heart telling me that I need to compose music.”
Park then went to Yale University and obtained his artist diploma, which focuses on practical performers. He also was an instructor of music during his time at Yale and led two orchestras. He had the opportunity to serve widely as a guest conductor.
At this time, he found “my talent in writing and arranging music.” He was fortunate to join a private professional orchestra as a part-time composer. The orchestra then offered him a slot as a resident composer.
Around 2020, Park ceased pursuing a career as a conductor and focused on composition of classical music. Following in the footsteps of his role model, Johann Sebastian Bach, who grew up in small-town Leipzig, Germany, he decided to look for a rural area in America to serve a church and compose music. That’s how he and his family came to reside in Madisonville.
Growing up in Korea, Park heard about contributions the U.S. made to modernize Korea, which had been one of the world’s poorest countries. He feels that he owes a lot to the U.S. because of the “grace” South Korea received through American investment in his country.
Park said he demonstrates his gratitude and “pays forward” by bringing his orchestra to nursing homes to provide concerts for residents.
After he began his work in Hopkinsville, he discovered that the “people here want to experience quality classical music.” The choir he leads at the church has about 34 members. He has started a chamber orchestra consisting of 12 members, including a string quartet, flute, clarinet, bassoon and trombone.
Park wanted to organize the Community Christmas Concert to showcase the church choir and orchestra. He has invited several of his professional musician friends to participate. Park met the guest pianist, Kaisar Anvar, and the guest clarinetist, Amy Hur, at Yale. Tenor Jonghyun Park sings with the Metropolitan Opera.
The program will include two compositions written by Park. “The Little Blue Bird Suite” was performed at Carnegie Hall in 2024. The second piece, titled “Goksan,” is about events in that town in North Korea in 1972 when the dictatorship was a threat to churches.
Park is excited to share the musical talents of the Hopkinsville church’s choir and orchestra with the community. The featured musical guests and church choir and orchestra also will present a Christmas Cantata during the worship services on Sunday, Dec. 14, which he welcomes the public to attend.
The church, at 1305 S. Main St., has two Sunday services — modern worship at 9 a.m. and traditional worship at 11 a.m.
Julia Crenshaw is an attorney at White, White & Crenshaw in Hopkinsville. She lives on a farm in Todd County with her husband John. They have two adult children and two grandchildren.
