Violinist Yang In-mo, with his strong desire to create, may be a new breed of classical musician

The debut solo release “Lalisa” from K-pop girl group Blackpink member Lisa was ranked No. 1 on global YouTube music charts in its first week, the singer‘s agency YG Entertainment said Sunday. “Lalisa” was the highest-ranked song on YouTube‘s music chart for the week starting Sept. 10 -- its release date -- with 216 million views, pushing out “Raattan Lambiyan” by Tankshik Bagchi, Jubin Nautiyal & Asees Kaur from the top spot. Its music vide

Orchestra to wrap up 2021 with Beethoven’s ‘Choral’

Global music platform Spotify’s K-pop playlist “K-pop Daebak” recorded approximately 1.7 billion streams in the last seven years, the company said in a press release Monday. Celebrating the 7th anniversary of its launch, the company released a host of data on K-pop Daebak. The playlist has reached more than 3.1 million followers, introducing fans and new listeners across the globe to the latest hits in the genre and grew into one of Spotify’s most important flagship pl

Legendary rock star Shin Hae-chul is making a comeback on the radio waves, thanks to AI technology that was able to re-create the voice of the late singer-songwriter. An artificial-intelligence based technology called “Personalized Text to Speech” took data from episodes of “Shin Hae-chul’s Ghost Station,” a radio program starring Shin from 2001 to 2012 in order to bring his voice back to life, according to telecom company KT Sunday. Deep learning-based technolog

Legendary heavy metal band Metallica released a new album on music streaming platforms Friday, featuring a cover song by South Korean rock band YB. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the band’s 1991 megahit “The Black Album,” 53 acts from around the world covered their favorite songs from the album for a new one titled “The Metallica Blacklist.” YB, led by singer Yoon Do-hyun, covered Metallica’s “Sad but True.” The recording took place in Feb

Influential Beethoven expert Rudolf Buchbinder will share his take on Beethoven with the Korean audience, holding recitals in Korea for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out early last year. The upcoming recital marks the concert pianist’s first visit to Korea since 2019. He was to come to Korea with his Beethoven Sonata program last year but the engagement was canceled due to the prolonged pandemic crisis. Buchbinder, 74, will go onstage at the Seoul Arts Center on Oct

The 13th Seoul International Music Festival, one of the major annual classical music festivals held every autumn in Korea, will take place in October under the title “Amusement Park.” The festival will take place across Seoul, including the Seoul Arts Center and the Lotte Concert Hall, Oct. 23-30, hoping to offer joy and comfort to classical music audiences hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Though the global music scene continues to struggle amid the virus crisis, this year’s S

Outdoor music festivals signal return amid pandemic

Korean pianists Park Jae-hong and Kim Do-hyun won prizes at the 63rd Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, taking first and second places, respectively. The biennial Ferruccio Busoni International Piano Competition, organized by the Ferruccio Busoni -- Gustav Mahler Foundation, wrapped up Friday, announcing the three winners among 33 semifinalists. For this year’s hybrid competition held in Bolzano, Italy, a total of 506 pianists went through online screening. Thirty-thre

Hoping to appeal to a wider range of audiences, the local classical music scene has been engaging in more barrier-breaking opportunities. Though classical music performances are often associated with formal attire, rigid expressions and stiff audiences, more artists and institutions are trying to embrace the latest trends with an aim to open the genre to wider audiences. Classical music festival Hic et Nunc! -- hosted by the Sejong Soloists string ensemble -- has hopped on the “metave

Though orchestral music performances are often associated with big names such as Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Schubert or Mahler, the keywords for conductor Chin Sol’s performances strike a different note: League of Legends, StarCraft, World of Warcraft and more. Chin, 34, wears many hats. She is the exclusive conductor of the Daegu MBC Symphony Orchestra, principal conductor of the Korea National Institute for the Gifted in Arts Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Student Philharmonic Orche

Two winners of the 2021 Queen Elisabeth Competition are to hold performances across Korea starting next month. French pianist Jonathan Fournel and Japanese pianist Keigo Mukawa who took the first and the third place in this year’s competition, respectively, will kick off their schedule at the 2021 PLZ Festival held in Goseong, Gangwon Province, on Sept. 8. They will also hold recitals in Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province, on Sept. 10 and in Gwangju on Sept. 12. Fournel will presen

The Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival will be held online again this year as the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be contained. According to the festival organizers Thursday, the Incheon Pentaport Rock Festival 2021 will take place Oct. 9-10 as an online event, free of charge. In 2020, the festival went online for the first time since its launch in 2006, gathering a total of around 780,000 viewers.  The primary lineup released Thursday consists of leading rock acts here suc

Berlin-based pianist Sunwoo Yekwon talks about life, music in pandemic times, appreciation for live concerts