Hunminjeongeum is the original name for Hangeul, the Korean writing system invented by King Sejong the Great in 1443, as well as the name of the official document that explains the reason for the creation of Hangeul and its usage. Now, the National Chorus of Korea attempts to present one of the most important inventions on the Korean Peninsula as a stage show. On May 31, the choral group, Klim Chamber Orchestra and Andong City Chorus will stage the oratorio at Seoul Arts Center on Tuesday.

Seoul Jazz Festival, which ran from Friday to Sunday at the Olympic Park’s 88 Jandi Madang, in southeastern Seoul, was filled with the audience’s joy, love, freedom, happiness and laughter. With the return of the landmark annual outdoor jazz fest after a two-year break as South Korea scrapped most of its COVID-19 social distancing restrictions, the first day of the fest kicked off under a scorching sun. About 10,000 festivalgoers flocked to the venue, hanging out on picnic mats and c

  Seoul Jazz Festival, a landmark annual outdoor jazz fest, kicked off its three-day concert series on Friday. The in-person festival resumed after a two-year break as South Korea scrapped most of its COVID-19 social distancing restrictions. This year’s Seoul Jazz Festival took place at the Olympic Park’s 88 Jandi Madang in southern Seoul. While Friday’s performance was set to run from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m., some of the audiences came as early as 8 a.m. to get in a line to re

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American R&B singer-songwriter Pink Sweat$, who is set to meet his fans in Korea for the first time, said that he expects to see some “big energy” from the audience. In a press conference held on Wednesday at InterContinental Seoul Coex in Gangnam-gu, southern Seoul, the artist expressed his excitement for the upcoming Seoul Jazz Festival, which is set to run Friday to Sunday. The first thing the musician said as soon as he walked into the venue was “thank you” in K

Gurzenich Orchester Koln will be performing in South Korea for the first time in five years, this time with violinist Clara-Jumi Kang as the soloist, according to production company Vincero. Led by conductor Francois-Xavier Roth who has helmed the orchestra since 2015, the 195-year-old orchestra will perform at Seoul Arts Center at 7:30 p.m. on July 8. Outside of Seoul, the team will bring the same program to Andong Culture and Arts Center in Andong, North Gyeongsang Province on July 7. Th

On Thursday and Friday, beloved violist Richard Yongjae O’Neill performed with his usual gusto for Korean audiences. Under the baton of music director and conductor Osmo Vanska, O’Neill and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra performed Sibelius’ Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63. What made these concerts particularly significant was his rendition of Paul Chihara’s “Concerto for Viola and Orchestra: Portrait of the Artist as a Young Hero.” The piece was uniq

Rising K-pop artist AleXa, who won NBC’s “American Song Contest,” said the K-pop genre itself seemed like a new genre in the US music scene and that she was eager to introduce this style of music to US audiences through her performance on the show. “(Winning the competition) feels like a dream. It does not seem real,” AleXa said during a press conference held in Seoul on Thursday upon her arrival in Korea. “I received a lot of public votes. I think it was bec

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Rock music is seen as a cult genre in Korea, according to SURL, with the wider public not knowing much about it. But as one of the groups scheduled to participate in Mnet’s next music survival program “Great Seoul Invasion,” a program aimed to discover Korea’s next generation of band groups, indie band Surl hopes to bridge the gap. “We want to break down that barrier. Hopefully, our next full-length album and Mnet’s upcoming band survival show will become an o

The 19th edition of Music in PyeongChang is set to take place earlier and will be bigger than before, the festival’s artistic director Son Yeol-eum said Monday. The iconic music festival will be held for 22 days from July 2 to 23 at various places in Gangwon Province under the theme of “Mask.” “Because of the masks during the pandemic, we were able to stay connected during a time of disconnection,” Son said. In ancient Greece, masks were synonymous with perso

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With festival season back in full swing after many COVID-19 social distancing rules were removed earlier this spring, around 8,000 music fans flocked to Olympic Park’s 88 Jandi Madang in southeastern Seoul on Saturday, eager to enjoy long-awaited outdoor performances. Beautiful Mint Life 2022, an annual indie music festival, was special not only for attendees, but also the performers onstage. With audience sing-alongs and cheerful dances, the performances felt as though people had almost f

The much-anticipated recitals in South Korea by Maurizio Pollini, considered one of the world’s leading pianists, have been canceled due to health reasons, the event organizer said on Thursday. Event organizer Mast Media cited chronic bronchitis as the reason for the 80-year-old musician’s abrupt cancellation of the recitals, titled “The Emperor of Piano: ‘Once in a Lifetime’” scheduled for May 19 and May 25 at the Seoul Arts Center. The company said that

At age 71, Kim Im-kyung is learning how to be a fangirl. At her three-room apartment in Seoul, Kim turned one whole room into a shrine dedicated to her idol -- Korean trot singer Lim Young-woong -- decorating it with his posters and a collection of fan merchandise like a light stick. To help Lim’s songs rank high on music charts, she plays his latest album through an online music streaming service all day long, despite personally owning five physical copies of it. She watches al