A concert that took place Wednesday at the Lotte Concert Hall remained relatively quiet in terms of media coverage, despite its high-profile chaebol attendees and a protest opposing one of its musicians. The concert, part of the Classical Bridge International Music Festival, featured Russian violinist Vladimir Spivakov and pianist Helene Mercier, wife of Bernard Arnault, founder, chairman and CEO of LVMH. The pianist is also the mother of Frederic Arnault, CEO of LVMH Watches, who is rumored to

Culture May 10, 2024

Pianist Lim Yunchan’s debut album, "Chopin: Etudes" released on April 19, has dominated the top ranks of major countries' classical charts, Universal Music said Friday. Lim’s “Chopin: Etudes” achieved first place on the UK Specialist Classical Chart (weekly chart, April 26 - May 2), second place on the US Billboard Classical Chart (weekly chart, April 28 - May 4) and first place on the US Billboard Traditional Classical Albums (May 5 -May 11). His Decca a

Culture May 10, 2024

American violinist Hilary Hahn is replacing pianist Son Yeol-eum in the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra concerts scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The last-minute change was made less than 16 hours after the SPO announced Wednesday afternoon that Son's performance was canceled due to a high fever and sore throat. Hahn is in South Korea at the moment as she is preparing for a recital with pianist Andreas Haefliger, an all-Brahms program taking place at Seoul Arts Center on Saturday. With the S

Culture May 9, 2024

“As someone who has dedicated a lifetime to studying various types of paper for preservation and restoration, I definitely see the value in registering 'hanji' with UNESCO's heritage list, and I believe this is very important,” said Maria Letizia Sebastiani, an authoritative figure in the field of archival and book pathology. The former director of Italy’s National Institute of Historic Heritage Preservation and Restoration, known as ICPAL, conveyed this to a g

Culture May 8, 2024

The Daewon Cultural Foundation, which marks the 20th anniversary of its establishment on Wednesday, announced the winners of its 13th music prize -- pianist Son Yeol-eom, violinist Kim Bomsori and pianist Lim Yunchan. Returning after four years of a pandemic-induced hiatus, the foundation selected Son as the grand prize winner, while violinist Kim Bomsori was selected for the Daewon Music Award for performance. In February 2021, Kim, the winner of many international competitions including the

Culture May 8, 2024

ROME, Italy -- South Korea and Italy will commemorate the 140th anniversary of their diplomatic relations by enhancing cultural exchanges throughout 2024 and 2025. The year of cultural exchange was first announced in November during Italian President Sergio Mattarella's state visit to South Korea. The initiative officially began Saturday with a performance of Korean traditional dance in Rome. The National Gugak Center’s Dance Theater and Folk Music Group presented a specially prepared

Culture May 6, 2024

PARIS -- In the Chatelet Theatre in Paris on Thursday, two dance groups joined forces for a performance to officially kick off Korea Season 2024, an annual program organized by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange. Titled "Urban Pulse Uprising," South Korea's 1Million and the French Pockemon Crew showcased a performance encompassing various street dance genres, including K-pop, hip-hop and breakdancing for the audience that packed the 1,600-seat theater. The p

Culture May 3, 2024

The Bucheon Art Center will celebrate its first anniversary with a four-day festival and recital by pianist Lim Yunchan. To mark one year since its opening on May 19, the center will host a four-day festival from May 16 to 20, featuring performances by renowned classical musicians including pianist Paik Kun-Woo, pianist-and-conductor Kim Sun-wook, pianist Jung Kyu-bin, cellist Choi Ha-young and more. Following this celebration, Lim's recital will take place June 17 as part of his nationwi

Culture May 1, 2024

NEW YORK -- The first musical adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” was unveiled on Thursday at the Broadway Theatre in New York after three weeks of previews, with all 1,763 seats filled. The opening of the musical based on F. Scott Fitzgerald's 1925 novel of the same title marks just the start of potential competition among various interpretations to come, since the story entered into the public domain on Jan. 1, 2021. As the first Broadway show of “The Great Gatsby,” t

Culture April 30, 2024

“A Thousand Blues,” a science fiction novel by young writer Cheon Seon-ran, has been reborn as not one but two different stage performances just less than one month apart. Cheon, 31, had received offers for the adaptation of her award-winning novel, but she had rejected turning it into a movie or drama for a reason. “The aspect that I was most worried about, if ‘A Thousand Blues’ were adapted into a drama or movie, was the use of animals. For a movie or drama, it se

Culture April 21, 2024

When practicing for the recording of his first solo album, "Chopin Etudes," which was released internationally on April 19, Lim Yunchan, the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in 2022, paid meticulous attention to each note. He would assess whether they could strike his heart, sometimes spending several hours to perfect just two measures. “When you press the first note, if it doesn't strike your heart, then it's not practice, right? So,

Culture April 19, 2024

Life in miniature Miniatures, or tiny meticulous artworks, are intuitive. No one has to be schooled about the way they should be looked at or studied. And that only puts added pressure on the artist to create a message navigating analogies and twists, without losing anyone in the process. Tatsuya Tanaka is a Japanese artist doing just that. At the IFC Mall in Seoul, the exhibit “Miniature Life” showcases over 200 miniatures spanning seven themes, including home, life and the world.

Culture April 19, 2024

When the Gyechon Music Festival was being considered over a decade ago, residents of the village Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, expressed a preference for popular music genres like trot, rather than classical music -- or at least a mix of the two. Ten years on, no one is talking about a pop music festival. Rather, the village hopes to solidify its identity as an art village, with the rare outdoor classic music festival as the catalyst, according to Lee Dong-yeun, director of the festival and p

Culture April 17, 2024

Gyeongseong, as present-day Seoul was called during the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945, is the background of many popular TV shows, including “Mr. Sunshine" (2018) and “Gyeongseong Creature" (2023), or even in the musical “Il Tenoro" (2023). While watching “Mr. Sunshine,” the head and artistic director of the Seoul Metropolitan Opera, Park Hye-jin, envisioned Verdi’s opera “La Traviata” set in 1900s to 1930s Korea

Culture April 17, 2024

Dutch organist Ben van Oosten, 69, has devoted his life to the instrument ever since his first appointment as a church organist at the age of 11. His father, an amateur organist and pianist, would take him to organ concerts in The Hague and to different churches where he played. His first impression of the instrument’s sound was overwhelming, and it soon became his favorite instrument. “Due to its almost limitless sound colors and dynamic possibilities, the organ is capable of provok

Performance April 16, 2024