The Tongyeong International Music Foundation announced the winners of the 2019 Isang Yun Competition on Saturday, with pianist Lim Yun-chan taking the top honors.The annual competition, held in homage to the late contemporary music composer Yun I-sang, alternates annually among cello, piano and violin. This year’s competition was for pianists, with violinists slated to compete next year. After a final round in the competition Saturday, Lim was announced as the first prize winner, foll

Jung Yong-hwa, a member of K-pop boy band CNBLUE, was discharged from the military Sunday after fulfilling nearly two years of mandatory service. He thanked his fans and expressed hope that he would return to his job as early as possible during a special fan event at a community service center in Hwacheon, Gangwon Province. Some 1,000 Korean and foreign fans from various Asian countries like China, Japan and the Philippines gathered to greet the singer. "I feel both relieved and sad,"

The roaring K-pop boom in South Korea is reviving the fate of perishing CD music and other physical music record formats.Since the early 2000s, compact disc as a music distribution format has been increasingly replaced by other digital storage and distribution formats such as internet streaming. Reversing the decline, however, sales of physical albums -- mostly CDs but also tapes, LPs and Kihno -- have registered dramatic growth over the past few years since 2014 in South Korea.In 2017, the comb

K-pop supergroup BTS has joined the lineup of the 2019 Mnet Asian Music Awards scheduled for December in Japan's Nagoya, the music channel said Thursday.Mnet Japan disclosed the news through its Twitter account as it released information on ticket sales.The 2019 MAMA is scheduled to be a one-day event on Dec. 4 at the 30,000-seat Nagoya Dome.BTS has taken home the top MAMA prize for three years in a row through last year.Besides BTS, the 2019 MAMA lineup also includes GOT7, Monsta X, SEVENTEEN,

The Philadelphia Orchestra is to go on the stage at the Seoul Arts Center on Nov. 10, under the baton of the music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin and featuring pianist Cho Seong-jin. The highly acclaimed orchestra, which had been led by Eugene Ormandy for some 40 years, is counted in artistic stature among the Big Five orchestras in the US, along with the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony and Cleveland Orchestra.The program for Nov. 10 features Rachmaninoff’s Piano Co

The music video of K-pop girl band BLACKPINK's "As If It's Your Last" hit the milestone of 700 million YouTube views Thursday.The music video, released in June 2017, surpassed the 700 million threshold early Thursday morning, according to the band's label, YG Entertainment.  The feat made "As If It's Your Last" the four-piece girl band's third music video to achieve the 700-million-view record, following "Ddu-du Ddu-du" and "Boombaya," making BLACKPIN

Arts Center Incheon in Songdo International City will celebrate its one-year anniversary on Nov. 16. Since opening last year, the center’s concert hall -- a mix of shoebox and vineyard styles -- has been praised for its exceptional acoustics.  The center was originally envisioned to house a concert hall, a museum and an opera house. But only the concert hall has been completed. While the center has secured land for construction, its plans have not been finalized due to financial issue

Tears and sweat wrapped up K-pop superband BTS' year-long world concert tour in the capital of their home country on Tuesday. The famous home ARMY's fan chant consecutively naming the seven BTS members brought to a close BTS' "Love Yourself" world tour at the thundering Olympic Stadium in southern Seoul, 14 months after the same chant launched the band from here onto the forefront of the world music scene.The finale edition of the three days of concerts officially capped the band's hea

K-pop superband BTS' more than one-year-long globe-trotting concert journey will come to a successful close Tuesday with the finale show in Seoul, the capital of the septet's home country.The final edition of BTS' three-day concerts in Seoul, set for Tuesday evening at Seoul Olympic Stadium, caps the sensational "Love Yourself" world tour and its extension, "Love Yourself: Speak Yourself." The concert tour kicked off in Seoul in August 2018 to promote the band's career-making

The Camarata Chamber Singers won the “Best of the Best” Presidential Award at the 23rd National Choral Competition in Daejeon.The multicultural choir was among 40 that entered Saturday’s national choral competition, the only amateur competition recognized with a presidential award. Sixteen choirs made it to the final, where they each sang twice, with at least one Korean song. The Chamber Singers sang “Nyon Nyon” by Jake Runestad, and Aeo-rang, based on a North Korea

A package of outdoor activities and fan services will be awaiting excited fans at Jamsil Sports Complex in southern Seoul when global superband BTS throws the finale of its world tour this week. The septet is poised to finally wrap up the much-acclaimed "Love Yourself: Speak Yourself" tour in the capital of its home country on Tuesday.The first two of a series of three concerts took place at the complex's Seoul Olympic Stadium over the weekend, entertaining 88,000 fans in total. On Tue

The first edition of the Escape: Psycho Circus Korea music festival lit up the pre-Halloween weekend in Seoul.The Halloween-themed festival, organized by US festival company Insomniac, landed in Korea this year at the parking lot of Seoul Grand Park in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province. The lot was transformed into a circus-themed wonderland, filled with sounds from more than 27 notable dance music names. The mainstage Slaughter House set up inside a large circus tent featured a stage designed in

Nine in 10 K-pop fans would like to visit South Korea in the future, a survey showed Monday, highlighting K-pop's positive impact on the local tourism sector.In a survey of 12,663 people in 111 countries who identified themselves as K-pop fans, 89.8 percent of the respondents said they would like to visit the country, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. Of those who expressed their desire to visit South Korea, 76.4 percent said they would like to visit within a year."K-pop's popula

K-pop girl band TWICE will hit the Tokyo Dome stadium next year on a new Tokyo leg of its ongoing world tour, the band's management agency said Monday. The girl band is currently on the globe-trotting concert tour, with its Japanese leg having kicked off last week in Hokkaido. According to JYP Entertainment on Monday, the ongoing Japanese leg will newly include two days of concerts at Tokyo Dome from March 3-4.It will be the girl band's second year in a row to perform at one of Japan's biggest c

In spite of numerous hiccups -- the biggest one being the unexpected absence of Polish maestro Krzysztof Penderecki -- the 11th Seoul International Music Festival kicked off as planned and continues to introduce classical music to a wider audience. The 86-year-old composer and conductor was to visit South Korea for a concert Saturday at the Seoul Arts Center, but canceled a few days prior due to health concerns. Polish composer Maciej Tworek filled in and led the KBS Symphony Orchestra for