Mixed chamber ensemble Some Assembly Required lives up to its moniker as the musicians collaborate with composers, guest performers, and their audience in the production of exciting, atypical, and carefully curated concerts. 

SAR was founded in early 2015 as a collaborative effort between Boston professional and freelance artists to provide their audience with a unique musical experience, frequently venturing into repertoire that is rarely heard in public performance. SAR has performed throughout New England and in Ohio, Kentucky, Florida, and Oregon. In 2019, SAR was a finalist for the American Prize Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music.

Not accepting the limitations placed upon them by the small amount of repertoire available for their instrumentation, SAR starts by choosing music that they want to present and then finding a way to provide a meaningful presentation of the music by methods of arrangement and collaboration. The core members of the ensemble strive to design programs that go beyond the traditional concert format by bringing the performers, audience, and venue into close contact. 

Programs by SAR have included commissions and co-commissions by Oliver Caplan, Ian Wiese, Benjamin D. Whiting, Adam Schumaker, Nathan Lam, and Tyler Kline, a re-imagining of Schubert's Trout Quintet, our own interpretation of Satie's Socrate (released on the album "Stuff" in 2017), a colorful arrangement of Faure’s Piano Trio, Saint-Saens' Carnival of Animals, Stravinsky's Octet, works by under-performed composers like Fraz Schreker and Frederic Rzewski, and our own arrangement of Piazzolla’s “Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.”

In 2020, SAR released their first eponymous album, featuring music by Tyler Kline, Benjamin D. Whiting, Ian Wiese, Adam Schumaker, and Astor Piazzolla.

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Cholong Park is a pianist specializing in New Music, a multi-album recording artist, Artistic Director, and a dedicated piano educator. In addition to SAR, Cholong is a founding member of the award-winning ensemble and non-profit What is Noise.

In 2014, Cholong made her Carnegie Hall debut performing solo and ensemble works with What Is Noise.  Her recent New Music performances include the University of Oregon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Furman University, and the University of Houston.

Cholong has released three albums and is working on a fourth album with What is Noise. The album Stuff was released in 2017 with trombonist Justin Croushore.  The album Equivocal Duration by What Is Noise was released in 2019.  

Cholong was the Director of International Affairs for the DMZ International Music Festival in South Korea.  In 2018, Cholong was the Artistic Director of “Voices of North Korean Refugees”, a music and performance event at the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, MA raising funds for North Korean refugees.  She was Art Director for “Her life as a Comfort Woman”, a music and performance event to raise awareness about the human rights issues of Korean "comfort women."  Cholong looks forward to future collaborations as Artistic Director with musicians and performers.

Cholong holds multiple teaching and staff pianist positions in the metro Boston area.  She is a staff pianist at Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, a faculty member at All Newton Music School in Newton, a district pianist at Needham Public School in Needham. She is a piano instructor at New England Music Camp in Sydney, Maine. The City of Boston awarded Cholong an Artist Certification.

Cholong received her Master of Music in Piano Performance from Florida State University and a Graduate Performance Diploma in Collaborative Piano with a Chamber Music emphasis from the Longy School of Music of Bard College.  Cholong is the organ scholar at the historic Old North Church in Boston, studying with Dr. Libor Dudas.

An active performer, Justin has held positions with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Sarajevo Philharmonic Orchestra and Cape Ann Symphony. He is a founding member of Some Assembly Required, a mixed chamber ensemble that was a 2019 Finalist for the American Prize Ernst Bacon Award for the Performance of American Music. Performing with internationally renowned reggae act the Cliftones, Croushore is the recipient of 9 Cincinnati Entertainment Awards in the categories of best live performance and best world music. Dr. Justin Croushore holds the positions of Assistant Professor of Music - Trombone at Morehead State University in Kentucky and Principal Trombone with the Asheville Symphony Orchestra in North Carolina.

Justin has performed with ensembles including the Oklahoma City Philharmonic, Louisville Orchestra, Kragujevac Symphony Orchestra, Sarajevo Philharmonic, Cape Ann Symphony, Louisville Orchestra, Lexington Ballet, Lexington Chamber Players, and Frequency Band. He has had the opportunity to collaborate with musicians including Zubin Mehta, Sir Andre Previn, Howard Shore, Frederica von Stade, Michail Jurowski, Uros Lajovic, and Gabriel Feltz. He has participated in events and festivals including the International Trombone Festival, Opera in the Ozarks at Inspiration Point, NOMUS Music Festival, Atlantic Music Festival, American Trombone Workshop, Great American Brass Band Festival, Sarajevo Contemporary Music Festival, Discovery Jazz Festival, International Women’s Brass Conference, American Bandmasters Association Conference, and the Kentucky Music Education Association’s annual in-service conference.

Hornist Justin Stanley is a founding member of Some Assembly Required (SAR). With SAR and in solo projects, Justin presents music seldom heard by today’s audiences. In his freelance career, recent engagements include the Eugene Symphony, Microphilharmonic, Newport Symphony, Orchestra NEXT, and Colorado Mahlerfest. Justin was principal horn with Orchestra NEXT for their 2021 production and album recording of the Nutcracker. He has performed with many orchestras including the Boston Philharmonic, Lexington Symphony, and Oregon Symphony. Justin is currently Assistant Professor of Horn at Tennessee Tech University, where he also leads the Bryan Symphony horn section and performs in the Brass Arts Quintet and Cumberland Quintet. He received a Bachelor’s in Music Performance from New York University, a Master’s in Horn Performance with a Music-in-Education concentration from New England Conservatory, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Horn Performance from the University of Oregon.