Year-end melodies to light up the winter season

As the year draws to a chilly close, it's time to book year-end concerts by your favorite artists. Peppertones, a duo known for bright and warm music, will cap off their 20th debut anniversary year with a year-end concert. The band will host "Twenty" on Dec. 14-15 at Daeyang Hall of Sejong University, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. "Twenty" marks Peppertones' 20th anniversary and follows their successful sold-out tour in July, "Party Plenty." Singer Crush's ye

Oct. 28, 2024

[Herald Interview] Lee Seung-yoon presents his defiant world with ‘Yeok Seong’

Singer-songwriter Lee Seung-yoon, known for profound messages and intense sound, has returned with his third full-length album, "Yeok Seong," pouring out his stories into the music. “With this album, I feel like I’ve achieved everything I’ve wanted as a musician," Lee said in a group interview in Gangnam, southern Seoul, Monday. "There’s a sense of pride in realizing the songs and albums I’ve dreamed of creating since the moment I started music.&

Oct. 24, 2024

[Herald Interview] Decoufle casts spell with 'Shazam!' to discover beautiful traces of time

Philippe Decoufle, the master of French multidisciplinary performance arts, is set to bring his iconic production "Shazam!" back to Seoul, almost 25 years after its 1999 performance at the Seoul Arts Center. The show will be performed at the LG Arts Center in Seoul from Friday through Sunday. Originally created in 1998 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, “Shazam!” has been performed over 200 times at major venues worldwide. The production pays homage t

Oct. 23, 2024

Cho Yong-pil drops 20th studio album, possibly his last

Cho Yong-pil, a living legend of the Korean music scene, has returned with his 20th full-length album, “20.” The album is composed of seven tracks, including new songs as well as songs from the project singles “Road to 20—Prelude 1” and “Road to 20—Prelude 2,” which were released in 2022 and 2023. The album spans a variety of genres, including rock, electronica and ballads. Marking the 56th anniversary of his debut this year, the 74-year-old singer

Oct. 23, 2024

Korea's first venue for disability arts attracting growing audiences

Korea's first performance venue specifically designed for disability arts, Modu Art Theater, is celebrating its first anniversary Thursday. The black box theater, established and operated by the Korea Disability Arts and Culture Center, accommodates up to 250 guests and holds the distinction of being the only performance space in the country specifically designed with a focus on "mobility convenience" for people with disabilities. “Collaboration between artists with disabili

Oct. 21, 2024

Lim Young-woong concert film breaks records, surpassing BTS

Korean trot star Lim Young-woong's concert film is making waves, surpassing BTS's record to become the highest-grossing concert film of all time. According to CGV, the film “I'm Hero: The Stadium,” which captures his concert at Seoul World Cup Stadium held in May, has attracted over 343,000 cumulative viewers as of Saturday, setting a new record for live performance films in Korea. This surpasses Lim's own previous record set by "I’m Hero: The Final,&qu

Oct. 21, 2024

Kim Woo-sung of The Rose makes waves on Billboard charts

Singer Kim Woo-sung's second full-length album, "4444," released Oct, has ranked sixth on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Albums chart, the highest-ever ranking for a Korean male artist. The album by the member of the band The Rose also ranked on multiple Billboard charts, including eighth on the Heatseekers Albums chart and 15th on the Current Album Sales chart. “4444” showcases Kim's musical evolution, featuring a diverse collection of eight tracks spanning vario

Oct. 21, 2024

[Herald Interview] 'River and Liver' flows through emptiness in humanity's last days

On what might as well be the world’s last day, L and O share beer on a sweltering, humid night, talking about the end of humanity. Their neighbor is under quarantine, a mermaid has been spotted on the Han River, and a sinkhole has formed as the ground collapses beneath their home. Gazing into the abyss, the two joke about who would rescue them if they fell in. The scene is from "River and Liver," the National Theater Company of Korea's surrealist dark comedy playing at Myeon

Oct. 18, 2024

[Herald Interview] Tiago Rodrigues weaves poetry, memory and collective experience in 'By Heart'

Portuguese playwright, director and actor Tiago Rodrigues credits his deep love of literature with inspiring his iconic theater piece “By Heart.” Rodrigues, artistic director of the Avignon Festival in France, became the first non-French artist to lead one of the biggest performing arts festivals in the world since it was founded by Jean Vilar in 1947. Visiting Seoul for the second time -- his first visit was as a programmer for the Seoul Performing Arts Festival -- Rodrigues brings

Oct. 18, 2024

Zico to hold first solo shows in six years

Zico, a rapper and music producer, will be holding a pair of solo concerts for the first time in six years. On Wednesday, Zico announced through the global fan platform Weverse and his official social media channels "Zico Live: Join the Parade." The concerts are to take place on Nov. 23 and 24 at the Olympic Hall in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul. "Zico Live: Join the Parade" will be the first such concerts since "King of the Zungle" in 2018. The concert poster, rel

Oct. 16, 2024

Enjoy jazz amid the falling leaves

As autumn settles in, jazz festivals are filling the calendars. Perhaps it was Nat King Cole crooning "the autumn leaves of red and gold" in his velvety voice, that forever tied fall with jazz.: As cooler temperatures settle in, jazz festivals fill the brief autumn season. Since its inception in 2004, the annual Jarasum Jazz Festival has been lighting up Korea's autumn. This year, 19 international and 17 Korean artists will be performing at the festival held at Jaraseom in Gapyeon

Oct. 14, 2024

Festival bigwigs from across globe gather at Busan's performing arts market

BUSAN -- The Busan International Performing Arts Market (BPAM) concluded its five-day run Tuesday in the southern harbor city. The marketplace, organized by the Busan Cultural Foundation, aims to facilitate the domestic and international distribution of various performance genres, including dance, theater, music and multidisciplinary art. The event drew more than 300 industry professionals and 700 artists from 37 countries, including executives and programmers from major international festivals

Oct. 9, 2024

[Herald Interview] 'Busan is transforming into performing arts hub'

Busan -- With the opening of a classical concert hall and an opera house next year, Busan is gearing up to position itself as an international city for the performing arts, said Lee Mee-yeon, CEO of the Busan Cultural Foundation. Speaking at the Busan International Performing Arts Market, now in its second year, Lee expressed her hopes for the event’s growing impact. “Many works produced in Busan are often confined only locally. That’s why we launched BPAM last year -- to promo

Oct. 9, 2024

Musical artists dazzle at Wellness Seoul 2024’s grand finale

Set against the beautiful backdrop of the Banpo Bridge’s fountains cascading over the Han River, Wellness Seoul 2024 concluded on Sunday evening with performances by an orchestra, popera singers and a guitarist -- all delivering a message of embracing a quality, healthy life through the appreciation of music in everyday life. The highlight of the evening event -- the namesake Wellness Seoul Concert -- was British popera singer Paul Potts, who performed pieces including “Impossible Dr

Oct. 7, 2024

SPAF 2024 kicks off with bold new narratives and experimental works

The 24th Seoul Performing Arts Festival (SPAF) kicked off Thursday with Seongbukdong Beedoolkee Theater's "Gulliverse," a play loosely inspired by Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels." Directed by Kim Hyun-tak, the production presents multiple actors portraying young Gullivers navigating different societal landscapes, as the Gullivers have become trapped in the worlds within their smartphones. Running at Daehakro Arts Theater in Daehangno, English subtitles wi

Oct. 4, 2024

[Herald Interview] 'Dancing with P' explores dance's legacy after death of Pina Bausch

“Dear members of Tanztheater Wuppertal, I am Lee Kyung-sung, a theater director from South Korea.” The play “Dancing with P” opens with this letter Lee wrote in the summer of 2021 to the renowned German dance company founded by Pina Bausch (1940-2009), the legendary figure who transformed the landscape of contemporary dance. “After Pina passed away in 2009, I often saw her works performed on stage, because Tanztheater Wuppertal was still touring worldwide. While it

Oct. 3, 2024

Will trot bring a breath of fresh air to K-pop?

As K-pop continues its significant expansion in the global market, another genre has been surging rapidly in the domestic music industry: Trot. Following the remarkable success of some trot singers, major K-pop powerhouses are diving into the unexpected combination of trot and K-pop. Trot -- part of the Korean popular music scene since the 1930s -- is a genre characterized by lively rhythms and abundant use of vibrato, the lyrics often catering to the sentiments of the older generations, However

Oct. 2, 2024

Traditional music orchestra festival to bring regional flair, cross-genre collaborations

The second edition of the Korean Traditional Music Orchestra Festival is set to kick off on Oct. 15 with more audience-friendly repertoire and collaborations with performers from other genres. The festival, launched last year in collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, will run through Oct. 26 at the Sejong Center’s M Theater in Seoul. During a press conference Monday, Ahn Ho-sang, CEO of the Sejong Center, Park Bum-hoon, composer and

Oct. 1, 2024

Ukraine's Odesa Philharmonic comes to Korea with message of hope, peace

The Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra, a renowned Ukrainian orchestra founded in 1937, will make its Korean debut at the Goyang Aram Nuri Arts Center Aram Concert Hall on Wednesday. Under the baton of conductor Hobart Earl, who has led the orchestra for 32 years and has been honored by the Ukrainian government as a People's Artist, the 75-member orchestra will perform music of hope beyond the pain of the ongoing war. Many of the orchestra members are women because of a ban on men leaving the cou

Sept. 30, 2024

Brit pop legend Oasis to perform in Seoul next year

The legendary Britpop band Oasis, which disbanded due to conflicts between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher, will perform in Korea for the first time in 16 years after a dramatic reunion. According to the foreign media outlet NME, Oasis will embark on a world tour in 2025 after completing its UK tour. The band will hold reunion concerts in Toronto, Chicago, New Jersey, Boston, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Seoul, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, Sao Paulo, Santiago and Buenos Aires, Argentina, according to

Sept. 30, 2024