About The Project

When I first embarked on this project, one of America’s most renowned composers — who shall remain nameless — said to me: “Forget all these other composers. Your project will go down the trash. Just pay me $$$, and I’ll write you as many variations as you want.”

It was March 2020—those desperate, desolate days. Do you remember? The pandemic, and my broken heart, fueled the idea for America/Beautiful: a vision to create new piano music in America—variations on the iconic song “America the Beautiful.” The melody, the lyrics, the sentiment, the hope, the promise, the longing—the everything.

Watching my husband (a physician) come home each night drenched in sweat and tears from the devastation, knowing there were not enough hospital beds for the growing number of COVID patients in need of oxygen, I felt utterly useless as a musician.

What is my job? What is an artist to do in the face of such desperate urgency? Somehow, playing Bach for an online audience—even as an offering of solace— just did not feel like enough. That was when I began listening—exhaustively—to the sounds of American music and its creators. I reached out to composers across the country through countless emails, phone calls, and Zoom meetings. I no longer wanted to remain in my bubble; the pandemic only amplified a sense of isolation and curiosity. Who are my musical neighbors? Who else is making music in America? Where do they come from? What inspires them? Are they like me—or different from me? Fast forward five years and seventy-six composers later, ranging in age from 21 to 96, I am still at work. The project has completely captured me. It is now an all-consuming labor of love.

Its Mission:

• To celebrate the cultural melting pot that is our country.

• To unite as many voices as possible for one purpose, one project, one question: What is America? Is it beautiful, was it ever, or will it ever be?

• To listen better. To understand more deeply.

From America, Changing the Same—with its dark, clustered, even torturedblocks of left-hand chords, while high-registered right-hand octaves struggle or scream to be heard, shifting from whispering ppp to roaring fff—to works titled United Underdog, Endure, Playing with Fire, America, NEVER Beautiful, Still Beautiful, You Are Welcome Here, Under the Same Flag… These are just a few of the variations. And the meanings beyond the music are as important as the sounds themselves.

America has changed a lot over the past five years—and so have we. Friends with whom I frequently dined are no longer living. My elder daughter Lauren, a Fourth of July baby, used to cry over her school suddenly confined to a computer screen. She now towers over me, wiser and taller. My younger daughter Sophie, then a seven-year-old, used to help me scotch-tape together endless sheets of new music that stretched across the living room floor. Both girls have spent the past five years listening to their mom practice, Zoom with composers, and try to make sense of music that—at first—was unrecognizable, senseless, dissonant… probably even ugly. But they also saw their mom working hard, making those zillions of black and white notes sound, little by little, more intelligent, impactful—and even beautiful.‍

‍Why then, when many feel that America is not beautiful, do I persist? Because, despite its ever-sprawling complexity, I believe America is beautiful. It is the country my parents chose to come to, to give my sister and me a better education so we could make music that has meaning—share music that matters. I believe in the transformative power of music. And when you listen to this thought-provoking, soul-stirring, culturally rich, and staggeringly varied collection of new works, I believe you will agree too.

All seventy-six composers who contributed to this project reflected deeply on our country. They entrusted me to speak through their voices—a responsibility I do not take lightly. It moves me. So I keep at it. I believe I can reach more people and invite them to join this call for action—whether by being in the audience or by sharing the platform. Since the project began to find stages around the country, I’ve invited:

Dancers to dance, choreographers to choreograph, singers to sing, and artists to create—all to be showcased alongside the music. My students and colleagues are beginning to learn these works and perform them with me in concert.

Does “America the Beautiful” only exist in its lyrics? Can each of these new variations help open your ears, spark curiosity, and foster shared hope? I believe that all Americans can work to make America beautiful. It may take my entire lifetime—and then some—but I want to try, with My America/Beautiful.

May 2025

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This is What America Sounds Like

An essay by Julia Cho

While some of us baked bread, sewed masks, or doom-scrolled through the latest “Breaking News,” internationally-celebrated pianist, arts advocate and educator Min Kwon was busy Zooming with American composers, from aspiring young students to Pulitzer Prize winners, from as young as 20 years old to as old as 93, inviting them to come together and contribute their unique, individual talents—to create something altogether new—much like the American experiment itself.  Though it would end up both enabled and shaped by it, the idea of bringing American composers together to write variations of “America the Beautiful” wasn’t born of the pandemic. Inspired by the famous Diabelli’s variations written over 200 years ago in Vienna, Kwon already had the vision to create something fresh for the 21st century before the pandemic hit in March. Almost a year later, she has a compendium of over 70 variations on what’s often been called “the national hymn.”

Like Diabelli’s original waltz, America the Beautiful is a simple melody and harmony—full of possibility, making it a great choice for variations. “The challenge for these very highly sophisticated musicians who studied Beethoven and Mahler was to have to look at this very simple melody and do something new,” says Kwon.

The original song itself was effectively collaborative. The young feminist poet, Katherine Bates, penned the lyrics after her hike up to Pike’s Peak just after climbing out of her own deep depression. Two years later, it was published as "America" on the Fourth of July in 1895. She added the lines, "And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea in 1904, and it wasn’t until 1910 that it was published together with Newark church organist Samuel Ward's tune "Materna," and titled, “America the Beautiful.”

Kwon researched the composers to make sure their music resonated with her, and spent time getting to know them. “As a composer, you try to capture your emotions and aesthetics into black and white notes on a piece of paper, and then the rest is up to the performer.” That is a responsibility she takes seriously. Not only did the composers have to trust her, but in some ways, they had to cede their own egos to participate in the project. “It’s not about each individual, but making a bigger and collective statement about America, and I am grateful that these inspired creators trusted me to be the messenger of their art and their heart”, she says.

A project on variations is ultimately an exercise in contrast. The individual pieces vary in tone, texture, and mood, but ultimately, form a united whole—much like the United States of America. Like our nation, the call for variations was full of possibility, requiring mutual trust and respect.

Artists have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, with concert halls closed indefinitely. In giving them the assignment, Kwon, an arts advocate and founder of the Center for Musical Excellence, was hoping the project could propel them forward. “It’s evidence of what artists are able to do in a very difficult, challenging time that felt like a dead end,” she says.In the end, she’s produced a meaningful, poignant, and powerful record that speaks of the resilience and invention of all Americans during this time.

When Beethoven wrote his famous 33 variations for Diabelli, he used the German word “Veränderungen” rather than the traditional German word, “variationen.” It meant not only variation, but “transformation.” Kwon’s project, also, touches upon the transformative. “Life itself is a variation,” she says, “because every day there are common denominators, but then things and events would vary.  We ourselves evolve. Nothing stays the same, and so taking what’s there—the skeleton of the music, the foundation, and to expand upon it...it’s a very beautiful process of creation and recreation.”

Even her creative process evolves as she learns and masters the pieces. “I would play and then put it away, the piece continues to grow in me while I may be physically away from it.  It’s like getting to know a person, and it takes time. Every time I approach it, I’m also different,” she says.

Launching on February 15th, the project will premiere on July 4th, 2021 with four days of streaming concerts, and two days of what will hopefully be live concerts in New York City. “My desire and goal for the project is that it’s going to live a very long life,” says Kwon. She hopes to see the piece take many forms and visit many different venues from concert halls to veteran homes—from the expected to the unexpected.

Part of Kwon’s hope for the project is for future generations to have a record of this time—besides what they’ll read in textbooks or articles—in the form of recordings and sheet music. So many of the events of the last year were beyond language, but the musical variations kept arriving for Kwon. During some of the darkest months in our history, she says, “America the Beautiful was always on my mind, and I knew America would be beautiful again one day, and it will be.”

May 2021