The National Theater Company of Korea is to present a virtual, contactless theater performance for one-person audiences, expanding its stage to the Seoullo 7017 walkway in central Seoul. The contactless interactive theater performance “Coffee and Soporific” is to run from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3 at Seoullo 7017, an overpass-turned-sky garden at the heart of Seoul. Inspired by New York’s iconic High Line, the 1,024-meter-long park opened in 2017, complete with pedestrian paths th

Though the fourth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to subside, the KBS Symphony Orchestra is set for the last season of the year with international artists to join in on the performances. Tickets for the orchestra’s fourth and final season of 2021 will go on sale this week, and leading conductors and performers from abroad are expected to join the show as the Korean government has waived the mandatory two-week quarantine for some individual artists in the past few months. The fou

Pianist Paik Kun-woo and violinist Paik Jin-hi denied claims that the two have been negligent in the care of pianist Paik’s wife, actor Yun Jung-Hee, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease. Pianist Paik’s agency Vincero issued a statement Thursday, written by Paik Jin-hi, the couple’s daughter, and her attorney in Paris, along with a representative from the Association Sociale et Tutelaire, which shares joint legal guardianship over Yun. The statement, written in Engli

Three organizations -- one from Guatemala, one from India and one from South Africa -- received the 32nd UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Prize for promoting literacy in developing countries. UNESCO awarded the prize to Limitless Horizons Ixil in Guatemala, the National Institute of Open Schooling in India and the Puku Children’s Literature Foundation in South Africa, according to the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Limitless Horizons Ixil is a nongovernmental organization that su

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

The 5th Seoul Forest Jazz Festival will take place in-person on Oct. 16-17. The festival, launched in 2017, is held annually at Seoul Forest, featuring leading jazz musicians as well as pop acts. On Monday, organizers Page Turner announced the festival schedule, with the lineup to be released Wednesday. Last year, the festival was held as a hybrid event. Under the theme “Silent Picnic,” it allowed some 100 people to attend the event in person, offering them wireless headsets to

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

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Theater Safety Center have jointly released a manual on theaters’ response to COVID-19 to effectively respond to virus infectious disease situations. According to the Culture Ministry, performing art halls have been evaluated to be relatively safe facilities, as there have been no audience-to-audience infections or actor-to-audience infections since the spread of COVID-19 early last year. However, there has been a need for a manual for thea

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

Concert pianist Cho Seong-jin, the first Korean to win the International Chopin Piano Competition, released his second Frederic Chopin album Friday. The new album, released under the Deutsche Grammophon label, features Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor, Op. 21. On the album, Cho is accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra led by the Italian maestro Gianandrea Noseda. Though Cho has performed the work on multiple occasions, including a performance at the BBC Proms in 2018, it