Tickets to all occasions, accessible without spending a dime, run out in 8 minutes
Identified extra for its metal and shoreline than symphonies, Pohang is redefining its cultural id. This week, its rising classical music pageant returns in its fifth version.
“5 years could sound like a short while for a pageant, however this fifth anniversary means a fantastic deal to us. So this 12 months, we’ve put collectively an particularly assorted and beneficiant program to have fun it,” Park Yu-shin, cellist and music director of Music Competition Pohang, informed reporters throughout a press convention Monday in Seoul.
Among the many assorted programming is the opening live performance on Nov. 7 led by conductor and composer Yoon Han-kyeol, winner of the 2023 Herbert von Karajan Younger Conductors Award in Salzburg, Austria. Yoon returns to the pageant for the second time after his mesmerizing debut final 12 months. This 12 months, he unveils a brand new composition titled “Byeolsingut,” commissioned by Music Competition Pohang.
Impressed by a standard Korean shamanistic ritual, often known as “intestine,” carried out to wish for a village’s peace, well being, good harvest and prosperity, Yoon’s “Byeolsingut” provides a recent reinterpretation moderately than a folkloric reconstruction.
“‘Byeolsingut’ for orchestra doesn’t search to vividly re-create the sensual or folkloric parts of Korea’s shamanic ritual music. As an alternative, it approaches the essence of Byeolsingut by way of the lens of the Western classical custom, translating its musical traits into a recent Western compositional language,” Yoon wrote concerning the piece.
Park, the pageant’s music director, stated that embracing Korea’s conventional and distinctive cultural id is one thing she intends to proceed. Baritone Samuel Youn, who will seem in a duo live performance with soprano Hwang Su-mi, additionally emphasised the worth of distinctiveness. He famous that uniqueness is important for regional music festivals, which frequently face a restricted viewers base for classical genres.
Youn and Hwang will carry out a program titled “Vom Lachen Zum Wahnsinn,” a German phrase that means “From Laughter to Insanity.”
“We are going to mix storytelling, props and theatrical parts to precise a variety of human feelings with the hope of providing one thing greater than a standard recital,” Youn stated.
One other spotlight of the pageant is the Hagen Quartet, which has been lively since 1981 as an inspiration to generations of Korean musicians. Their participation aligns with the pageant’s long-standing dedication to chamber music.
“After we attain the pageant’s tenth anniversary and look again, I hope that the truth that so many outstanding quartets have come to this pageant might be remembered as one thing really extraordinary and a supply of pleasure,” Park stated.
This 12 months’s theme, “Affinity,” displays the pageant’s intention to domesticate inventive bonds and deepen musical connections. The pageant runs from Friday by way of Nov. 13 at numerous venues throughout town, together with the Gyeongsangbuk-do Workplace of Schooling Cultural Middle, Hyoja Artwork Corridor and extra as its most important venue, the Pohang Tradition and Artwork Corridor, is below renovation. As a result of the choice venues usually are not permitted to host paid performances, tickets to all occasions have been provided without spending a dime — and all of them have been snatched up inside simply eight minutes.
“Whereas the sellout suggests rising curiosity, providing free performances can also be an experiment for us. I’m unsure if it was pushed purely by enthusiasm for the pageant or for classical music. However I do really feel that individuals will depart with a unique mindset,” Park famous.
“Many arrive not figuring out what a serenade or duo recital is, but stroll out realizing that music is genuinely pleasant.”
gypark@heraldcorp.com
