Having lost three of her most precious people, including her mother and eldest sister, during the past five years, violinist Chung Kyung-wha feels she has now stepped into “the third stage” of life. As the first task in this new stage, the world-class musician will hold a solo recital in Korea playing her “beloved” Bach and Brahms. “This feels like a dream,” the 63-year-old said during a press conference in Seoul, Monday. “I’d been given a chance to look back and reorganize my life,” Chung said,

Regardless of ethical issues, blogging is not just about time-killing or communication these days. For some, blogs are an easy road to money. Earlier this month, seven “power bloggers” were fined by the Fair Trade Commission for promoting sales of certain products without informing consumers they were receiving commission from companies. The term power blogger was first used by Naver, a major portal site here, which chose and listed 786 of the most popular and interesting blogs. Moon Sung-sil, a

A touch of sentimental Christmas Kim Dong-Ryul“kimdongrYULE”(Loen Entertainment) He’s finally back. After four years of silence -- which felt like forever for his faithful fans -- singer-songwriter Kim Dong-ryul has returned with a Christmas album that feels happy, sad, lonely and fulfilling all at the same time. Skillfully matching his English name with “Yule,” Kim has created his album with songs he wrote as far back as 13 years ago. Title track “Replay,” written in 2000, shows off what fans w

PHILADELPHIA (AP) _ A medical museum in Philadelphia has some pieces of Albert Einstein's brain on display.Lucy Rorke-Adams donated 46 slides of Einstein's gray matter Thursday to the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.The 82-year-old doctor neuropatho

Lee heads presidential panel aimed at lifting nation’s international standing and prestigeThere’s more to South Korea than K-pop and Kim Yu-na, and Lee Bae-yong’s mission in life is to stress that point worldwide.The former academic heads a unique body trying to burnish the image of a country which frets that its economic “hard power” far outweighs its “soft power” in the eyes of the global community.She chairs the Presidential Council on Nation Branding, established in January 2009 and dedicate

Heritage is not the past, but a resource of the future, and so maintaining continuity between the past and the present is important when it comes to urban development, a visiting UNESCO official said Thursday. “Continuity, here, means understanding the past,” Assistance Director-General for Culture of UNESCO Francesco Bandarin told The Korea Herald. “Changes are forced by history … but it is important not to forget that nonphysical values do not change even if the physical appearance changes.” B

President Lee Myung-bak named Kwak Young-jin, his former secretary for cultural affairs, as the new deputy minister of culture, sports and tourism Wednesday. Kwak, 54, formerly served as the director-general of the Arts Bureau and the Planning Bureau at the Culture Ministry.Born in Cheongdo, North Gyeongsang Province, Kwak graduated from Hankuk University of Foreign Studies. (hayney@heraldm.com)

Simon Rattle anticipates intensity, depth in audiences during Berlin Phil’s Seoul performanceWhile preparing two very different symphonies by two very dissimilar composers, maestro Simon Rattle hoped to tell just one story; a story in which the audience and the orchestra become one and feel the same air. “On stage, you feel the atmosphere immediately. It is not the matter of sound, but the matter of the intensity of the audience,” Rattle, the star conductor of Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, said

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― Gustavo Dudamel stands off to the side of an orchestra of T-shirt clad teens as they laboriously rehearse Brahms’ “Hungarian Dance No. 5.” He’s listening, not just with his ears, but also with irrepressible fingers that tap and pluck the air as if he’s actually conducting the piece.At the end, he hops on to the conducto’s podium and, beaming at his rapt pupils, demonstrates that the difference between playing music and performing it is passion.“Be wild, like the pop music,” th

   JEJU ISLAND -- The southern South Korean resort island of Jeju has been named as one of the new seven natural wonders of the world in a worldwide poll, a Switzerland-based organization announced Saturday.   The subtropical volcanic island, located 130 kilometers off the southe

Substantial support needed to bolster traditional craft industryAlthough he has been hammering Korean traditional patterns on metal for nearly half a century, artisan Park Moon-yeol’s life only began looking rosy in 1993, when he figured out the secret of the seven-step lock. Hearing about the existence of a peculiar Joseon Dynasty lock, he visited a folk museum in Jinju, South Gyeongsang Province, to take a look. It was tucked away in the back of the museum and the owner prohibited him from tak