Meet Emil Kang
Monday, March 17 2008
by Frank Stasio and Lindsay Thomas
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If Emil Kang had followed the path his Korean immigrant parents laid out for him, he'd probably be a physician by day and a violin virtuoso by night. Instead, Kang quickly recognized that he wasn't cut out to be a doctor or a performer. Embracing his love of the arts, Kang worked his way up to become president of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, making him the youngest and the first Asian-American to hold a top administrative post of a major symphony orchestra. Today, he's charged with bringing culture to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Since 2004, Kang has been the school's executive arts director and, thanks to him, big names like Tony Bennett and Yo-Yo Ma have performed on the campus. He joins host Frank Stasio to talk about his ongoing vision for performing arts at UNC and his personal mission to use art to create community dialogue about social issues.
