Terra Han, Korean musical genius invents a new instrument ‘TeRra’ with prof. Nicholas Makris at Massachusetts Technology of Institute (M.I.T)

• 'TeRra' is scheduled to have preview this fall
• Terra Han studied Asian musical instruments in the prestigious Asian music schools since age 4 and researched  instrument making institutes.
• Terra Han and Prf. Nicholas Makris began research on Asian string instrument since 2011
• MIT Prf. Nicholas Makris researched and published articles on structure and acoustic correlation of Western musical instruments in the Royal Society of London.

Terra Han (38) invents a new musical instrument “TeRra” with Professor Nicholas MakrisMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. TeRra is expected to have its first preview scheduled with the recording album this fall, and is in preparation for a patent application.

Terra Han, well known for a musical genius as a kayageum virtuoso and composer from South Korea, has been researching Asian string instruments in Korea, China, and Japan, is the first kayageum virtuoso to be selected as the Rockefeller Fellow in the United States in 2010, and is known to have met with professor Nicholas Makris of Acoustic department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011. Terra Han, who has been visiting and researching the world's musical instrument research institutes, laboratories and artisans, said that it has begun to shape new instrument TeRra since 2015.

Nicholas Makrs, a professor of mechanical engineering at MAssachusets Technology Institute(MIT)

Nicholas Makris, a professor of mechanical engineering at Massachusets Technology Institute (MIT) is also a lute player, an ancient string instrument in the West. His works, which were on the relationship between Western musical instrument structure and sound were published in Proceedings of the Royal Society. Prf. Makris received a Bose Grant last year to explore the fundamental physics behind masterfully crafted string instruments from the Renaissance and Baroque periods, such as Stradivarius violins. Professor Makris began researching Asian strings through Ms. Han, she had a presentation and performance at the M.I.T room 3-207 2012 themed Introduction to the Asian Zither through the 12 stringed Korean kayageum’.

Dr. Nicholas Makrs and Terra Han after presentation at the MIT, 2011.

Ms. Han has studied the most representative Asian string instrument such as Korean kayageum, Japanese Koto and Shamisen, Chinese guqin and guzheng, and North Korean musical instruments since age 4 in the prestigious music school such as Central Conservatory of Music in China, Tokyo University of the Arts, and Yanbian University of the Arts. As well as, she also has been performing contemporary electronic music, experimental music, etc., researched from the Center Pompidou, Paris, France, Institute for Research and Coordination in Acoustics (IRCAM), École Nationale Supérieure Des Beaux-arts. She has been studying Western contemporary music, including working in New York, working as an experimental musician John Zorn, pop music producer RnB singer Alicia Keys, hip-hop Swizz Beatz producers, engineers, and more. Ms. Han crosses over music, science, and any kinds of genres.

Ms. Han started music as a pianist at the age of 4, she became famous as a music prodigy, in addition to playing piano and composing, since the age of 6 to the Kayageum sanjo which Korean traditional genres, modern creative songs, and newly improved kayageum influenced western modern music from the 1990s in Asia. At Seoul National University which is top prestigious Academia in South Korea, she holds B.A and M.A.. As the first kayageum performer, the youngest debut of Carnegie Hall in New York as a fellow of the American Rockefeller Foundation, and in 2016, it was the first Asian traditional musician to be admitted as the Grammy Awards voting member of the Recording Academy in the United States.

Terra Han speaks 6 languages ??and has taken courses in quantum mechanics and effective theory of modern physics, MITx at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is a founder of arts and culture portal website, TeRra (terraideal.com), publisher TeRra magazine (magazineterra.com) and owns her fashion collection (terrahancollection.com).