All-Student K-Pop Bands Debut at K-Pop & Beyond Summit

In a packed David Friend Recital Hall, with top-level industry professionals in attendance, two student K-pop groups took the stage for the first time. Berklee’s 2024 fall K-Pop & Beyond marked the debut of X-Change and B-Girls, who each gave electric performances representing the culmination of the student-driven K-Pop Idol Project.

The K-Pop Idol Project was conceived by students under the guidance of Dr. Ray Seol, assistant professor of professional music and organizer of K-Pop & Beyond. It brings together artists of different cultural and musical backgrounds to envision and create a K-pop band from scratch. Students lead every aspect of the group’s formation and development—from auditions, songwriting, and video production to choreography, marketing, and social media management—with the goal of making a K-pop group that reflects the values of today’s aspiring industry professionals.

X-Change is a mixed-gender group featuring Dasom Chung, Chrisen Yang, Mingxin Li, and Dolly Zhang as performing members and Kyra Clark and Madi Cores Sailer as directors. Their distinctive original music and choreography celebrates Gen Z culture and lifestyle while embracing foundational elements of the new wave of K-pop.

“I am so honored to be a part of something so unique. This project holds a lot of personal meaning to me as it had always been a long time dream to be a K-pop idol,” said Chung, who is the casting team lead, choreographer, and performer for X-Change. “As I aged out with not many opportunities to pursue this in the States, this project is the closest I’ve ever gotten to something like it. It immensely aligns with my future job prospects as I am very much into dance and choreography, and getting to choreograph for this group is a great continuing step towards roles.”

B-Girls (Berklee Girls) is a dynamic K-pop trio that takes inspiration from the trailblazing K-pop girl groups of the ’90s like S.E.S. and Fin.K.L. Made up of vocalists Bronwyn Shae Zoppelt, Veronica Leong, and Sofia Shkidchenko and directed by Christine Lee and Hyeri Han, the group’s electrifying remixes and original tracks blend nostalgic vibes with a modern Gen Z flair to create a fresh sound. Guest rapper Samad Grays joined the B-Girls for their K-Pop & Beyond performance.

“I'm a Ukrainian singer-songwriter and I love exploring different genres of music,” said Shkidchenko. “I got into K-pop when I was around 12. Before that I hated taking dance classes, but after watching K-pop choreographies I started appreciating dance. The songs also helped me widen my musical interests.”

With students from the two teams representing South Korea, China, Ukraine, Germany, Canada, Macau, and the United States, the cultural and artistic diversity within the Idol project is a powerful reflection of the rapid growth of the Hallyu community at Berklee over the last several years.

“K-pop is one of the best examples of how a once-peripheral culture can be celebrated globally,” said Seol. “Understanding the significance of local culture is key to arts education, and K-pop offers everything you’d want to learn at a music college—from music production to technology and business. In my K-pop course, only one or two students are Korean, yet the non-Korean students demonstrate a deep passion for K-pop and Korean culture. I believe this is a very positive phenomenon that can catalyze the discovery of other local cultures with the potential to become the next global icons.”

2024 fall K-Pop & Beyond is the latest in a series of events that have brought major artists and industry professionals to Berklee. This year’s summit featured accomplished K-pop producer and artist Jae Chong, who was a member of the ’90s K-pop group Solid and the first Korean-American nominated for producer of the year at the Golden Melody Awards. Previous events have welcomed songwriter and producer KENZIE ’99, SM Entertainment CEO Chris Lee, and Nuel Always Cho, chief creative officer of Muzlive and a former executive at Sony, Universal, and Warner Music.

“We are thrilled to witness young artists from diverse backgrounds embracing and contributing to the Hallyu wave,” said representatives of the CJ Cultural Foundation, a key educational partner and cosponsor of the annual K-pop summit at Berklee since 2022. “This collaboration not only highlights the universal appeal of Korean culture but also underscores the significant role the K-pop industry plays in the global music landscape. It is through these shared cultural experiences that we hope to inspire a new generation of artists to innovate and transcend boundaries.”

The K-pop influence at Berklee has stretched well beyond the Boston campus. With the support of CJ Cultural Foundation and CJ ENM, students from Boston Conservatory at Berklee’s contemporary and commercial dance programs have performed at KCON LA, the world’s largest convention for Korean culture and music, since 2022.

“I wasn't at all prepared for how enormous the event was, nor the audience energy that kept the Crypto.com Arena. The electrifying performances I saw—with our Conservatory dancers at the top of the list, of course—highlighted K-pop's ability to bridge cultural divides,” said Berklee Vice Provost Rob Lagueux. “CJ has created a shared communal experience at KCON that seemed almost transcendent, and reinforced for me the importance of Berklee being a part of such a powerful artistic force, one that unites fans so passionately and has so much potential to drive artistic innovation of all kinds.”

The K-Pop Idol Project will continue to pursue its goal throughout the academic year of developing X-Change and B-Girls into superstar artists, with plans to welcome a new group of students in the fall of 2025. Follow X-Change and B-Girls on Instagram.