A Korean music festival in Abu Dhabi, dubbed “Hyperound K-Fest 2022,” will be held on Sept. 10 at the Etihad Arena on Yas Island, the largest indoor entertainment venue in the Middle East. Jointly hosted with the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism and Yas Island, the one-day festival aims to bring artists who continue to spread K-music around the globe. The star-studded list of artists slated to perform in the UAE are up-and-coming K-pop rookie boy band P1harmony, South

A number of classical music festivals are set to take place through the month of August in Seoul. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Korea-China diplomatic relations, the Culture Ministry is holding a special concert, bringing together renowned classical musicians from Korea and China, at the Lotte Concert Hall on Aug. 24. Led by conductor Chung Chi-yong, the Korean Symphony Orchestra will open the stage with Dvorak’s Carnival Overture, Op. 92. Joined by Chinese vio

Marking the 77th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation Day on Aug. 15., Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will hold a special concert at Gwanghwamun Square on Aug. 14. Pianist and conductor Kim Sun-wook lead the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra in the concert hosted by the Seoul City. The World Vision Korea Children’s Choir and Forte di Quattro will join the orchestra onstage for the concert that starts at 7:30 p.m. The program consists of works by Tchaikovsky, Brahms and Dvorak, as well as pop

Experts believe K-pop’s long-standing custom of excessive referencing led to recent plagiarism controversy

As large-scale concerts are coming back with the slow lifting of pandemic and social distancing rules across the nation, an abundant number of concertgoers filled the Jangchung Arena in Jung-gu, Seoul, Friday night as big-name R&B and hip-hop artists took the stage for “Blue Spring Hip-hop Festa.” The concert is an offshoot of the Blue Spring Festival, one of the country‘s biggest music festivals, which takes place in a different city each year. The first session took p

Conductor Chung Myung-whun will return to the stage as a pianist with a chamber music ensemble as part of a nationwide tour this fall. He will be joined by four other musicians: Violinist Kim Su-yoen, a concertmaster at Konzerthausorchester Berlin; violist Kim Sara, who joined the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra as a principal viola from the 2019-20 season, cellist Song Young-hoon and double bassist Sung Min-je. Kim Su-yoen, Song and Sung have previously performed with Chung on the stage. The pi

Conductor Kim Eun Sun started her role as music director of the San Francisco Opera last August, becoming the first woman ever to lead the opera company, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary next year. The descriptors first female and sometimes first Asian also follow as she makes history throughout her career. Those labels don’t register while she’s in rehearsals and concerts, she said. But it is when she’s outside those rehearsal rooms and concert halls that she real

The 2021 TV competition “Street Woman Fighter” has changed the scene for dancers. The show put dancers, who usually played a support role on the stage, in the spotlight and gave them their own fan bases. Hyojin Choi said she could feel the change after her time on the popular show. “I’ve been dancing since I was a student, and at that time, everyone from my school teachers to my family had this image about dancing: ‘How is that going to make a living?’ &ls

A three-month music festival in the Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas is set to kick off July 24, the festival organizer said Wednesday. The Peace and Life Zone Festival this year will host about 20 performances and other events, beginning with an opening concert at Jejin Station located inside the civilian-controlled area within the DMZ, in Goseong, Gangwon Province, featuring the event’s artistic director and pianist Im Mi-jung, clarinetist Kim Han and the Seoul Virtuosi

From barrier-free shows to an orchestra conducted by a robot, the National Theater of Korea on Tuesday unveiled more than 60 productions, old and new, for the upcoming season. The National Repertory Season 2022-2023 consists of a total of 61 productions, including 26 premieres and 10 repertoires by national arts groups in theater, traditional drama, dance and orchestra. The new season, from Aug. 31 to June 30, 2023, kicks off with National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s “Rabbit&r

  Cho Seong-jin, one of South Korea’s most sought-after pianists, will perform the complete the Chopin Piano Concertos outdoors, his management Credia said Tuesday. The concert, which was originally scheduled for last year but had to be delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will take place at Yonsei University‘s Amphitheater at 7:30 pm on Aug. 31. Kremerata Baltica, a 25-year-old chamber orchestra consisting of musicians from Baltic countries founded by violinist Gideon Kr

Songkran Music Festival landed in Korea for the first time over the weekend, with heart-thumping music and about 1 million liters of water. S2O Korea took place at Seoul Land in Gwacheon, about 20 kilometers south of Seoul, on Saturday and Sunday. Some 40,000 festivalgoers attended the two-day event to enjoy performances by top electronic dance artists while being sprayed with water. The daytime highs reached over 35 degrees Celsius over the weekend, but the festivalgoers came equipped -- wi

After seeing phenomenal success with Mnet’s dance survival show “Street Woman Fighter,” female dance crews from the program returned over the weekend with more powerful and dynamic performances for a reunion show at the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium at Seoul’s Olympic Park. The two-day event “Street Woman Fighter Reunion: The Next Era” was a treat for the audience and also a chance for the eight top-tier dance crews -- YGX, Lachica, Want, WayB, Coca N Butter

Gonjiam Music Festival, an event to dedicated to flutes, is coming back on July 17 after two years of pandemic-related hiatus, its organizer said on Monday. From July 17 to 21, the festival offers two concerts and master classes in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, with participation of musicians from Europe, Japan and Korea. For a concert on July 17, themed cinema, Orchestra The Original conducted by Adriel Kim will perform a familiar repertoire that an audience of all ages can enjoy including

South Korean music sales tracker Gaon Chart has debuted a new name with an aim to provide the most accurate and diverse K-pop data for fans all around the world. The Korea Music Content Association, which operates the Gaon chart, held a proclamation ceremony in Jongno-gu, central Seoul, Thursday, during which it layed out a road map for its renewed K-pop chart, as well as unveiling the brand new name for the chart -- Circle Chart. Gaon Chart, founded in 2010, has operated as the country‘