S. Sudanese teenage brass band to perform in Seoul

A musical band established by the late Lee Tae-seok, a Catholic priest who devoted his life to caring for displaced people in South Sudan, will be performing in Korea in a meeting to forge ties between Korea and African states, the government said Wednesday.

According to the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, a brass band composed of teenagers from the village of Tonj, where Lee served as a clergyman, doctor, teacher and mentor, will arrive in Seoul on Oct. 13 and perform on Oct. 15 at the welcoming dinner for participants of the Korea Africa Economic Cooperation Conference scheduled from Oct. 15 through Oct. 18 at Hotel Shilla in downtown Seoul.

The band will be playing Korean folk songs such as “Arirang” and “Gohyangeui bom (Spring in my hometown)” in front of 41 ministerial delegations from 39 African states and heads of three international financial organizations who will be visiting Korea for the conference held under the theme of “Sharing Today, Shining Tomorrow.”

Lee graduated from medical school and served as a priest in the civil war-torn village of Tonj, where there was no medical, industrial or educational infrastructure. After witnessing the devastation of the land, he established a clinic, a school and a brass band to heal the residents.

Lee died in 2010 of cancer. A film, “Don’t Cry, Tonj,” portraying his legacy and the lives of Tonj residents, opened posthumously and was a box office hit in Korea.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)