[Herald Interview] A ‘good messy’ mix of jazz and soul

In the world of digitalized everything, soul singer Kandace Springs is drawn to music that is “stripped bare” and natural.　“It’s kind of a crossover between jazz and soul. It’s really organic, all live instruments,” the Nashville, Tennessee native said of her music when she met with The Korea Herald in southern Seoul last Monday. Springs was in town to perform at the Audi Lounge stage at Club Octagon that night.  Nashville-based soul singer Kandace Springs sits with The Korea Herald for an inter

PerformanceMay 30, 2016

Maestro Muti’s passion inspires young musicians

Internationally hailed as one of the most prominent and wealthiest head conductors in the classical music field today, Riccardo Muti needs little introduction. The superstar conductor, currently head of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra Giovanile Luigi Cherubini, recently wrapped up his first-ever opera academy in Asia -- the Riccardo Muti Italian Opera Academy -- held from May 22 to 29 at Gyeonggi Arts Center and Seoul Arts Center.Muti, 74, first launched his eight-day-long opera

PerformanceMay 30, 2016

Korea opens culture booth at Rotary convention

The Culture Ministry and Korea Tourism Organization are jointly running a Korean culture and tourism booth at the 2016 Rotary International Convention, which is taking place at the Korea International Exhibition & Convention Center in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi Province from May 28-June 1.　　At the booth, visitors are be able to receive information on tourism in Korea and engage in hands-on activities featuring Korean culture, according to the Korea Tourism Organization. 　Visitors can taste Korean cuisi

CultureMay 30, 2016

KTO unveils new tourist guide leaflet in 11 languages

In an effort to provide international visitors to Korea easy access to concise and practical travel tips to assist them during their travels, the Korea Tourism Organization has released its newest one-page tourist guide leaflet.　The multilingual pamphlets offer visitors practical tips, such as providing information on where to find free Wi-Fi access, how to purchase transportation cards and emergency numbers and hotlines, as well as a quick overview of tax refund policies.   Korea Tourism Organi

TravelMay 30, 2016

Kim Whan-ki painting sells for $3.8 million

An abstract painting by Kim Whan-ki was auctioned for 30 million Hong Kong dollars ($3.86 million) at an auction in Hong Kong on Sunday, becoming the third most expensive piece of Korean art to be sold at auction. 　The painting titled “Untitled 3-V-7#203” was sold to an Asian collector at Seoul Auction’s Hong Kong sale at the Grand Hyatt Hotel on Sunday. The painting, with a starting price of HK$17 million, drew competition from bidders at the site and over the phone, according to a Seoul Auctio

PerformanceMay 30, 2016

BigBang greets throngs of fans in Japan fan club tour

Korean pop group BigBang closed its Japan fan tour event with impressive numbers, the boy band’s agency said Monday.In the last round of the “Big Bang Fan Club Event - Fantastic Baby 2016” that wrapped up Sunday in Kobe, the five-member act -- G-Dragon, Taeyang, T.O.P, Daesung and Seungri -- threw its first event for its premium fan club “VIP Japan” in two years, YG Entertainment said. Big Bang (YG Entertainment)In the first-tier fan event, Big Bang greeted a total of 280,000 local fans in 27 co

PerformanceMay 30, 2016

Original ‘Roots’ still fresh and shocking, decades later

“Roots” premiered on ABC in January 1977, just a few months after Alex Haley published the historical novel upon which it was based -- a phenomenon on the back of a phenomenon.Now remade for the flat-screen generations by History, the new version will surely reap the benefits of 40 extra years of technological innovation and historical research. The accuracy of Haley’s own research has been questioned, and in settling a lawsuit, he admitted plagiarizing material from Harold Courlander’s novel “T

TelevisionMay 30, 2016

Seoul Jazz Fest branches out, drawing mixed response

The Seoul Jazz Festival, which ran from Friday to Sunday at the Olympic Park in southeastern Seoul, boasted a particularly eclectic lineup this year, branching out from jazz into other crowd-drawing music such as indie rock and pop. 　While the festival has always offered a mix of genres, this year saw a greater number of popular non-jazz acts in the 40 music groups showcased, including English electronic-funk DJ Mark Ronson and Korean R&B-hip-hop singer-songwriter Dean. 　The new composition of t

PerformanceMay 29, 2016

Hwajeong Museum, treasure trove of Asian art

Hwajeong Museum, nestled on the edge of Bugaksan Mountain, northern Seoul, is an unexpected place to discover a rare extensive collection of Asian art. 　It is a treasure trove of more than 13,000 pieces of East Asian artifacts, including Tibetan Buddhist paintings called Thangka, for which the museum is well-known internationally. The comprehensive collection of Asian art was amassed by Han Kwang-ho, the late former president of Boehringer Ingelheim Korea and an avid art collector for 54 years.

CultureMay 29, 2016

Japan’s master of realism gets first overseas exhibition

ROME (AFP) - The works of Ken Domon, an acclaimed photographer whose images of the aftermath of the Hiroshima bomb shocked 1950s Japan, took center stage in Rome on Friday with the opening of the first exhibition of his pictures outside his home country.Domon, who died in 1990, is venerated in Japan as one of the country’s greatest photographers and a pioneer of realism, but relatively unknown internationally.Organizers of the collection on display at the Italian capital’s Ara Pacis museum hope

CultureMay 29, 2016

French artist makes Louvre pyramid disappear

PARIS (AFP) - How do you make the pyramid at the most famous museum in the world disappear? Turn to French artist JR.The one-time graffiti artist covered the Louvre’s glass pyramid with a vast black-and-white photograph of the facade of the palace behind it.Visitors to the Paris icon are tricked into believing the 21-meter high pyramid is no longer there, particularly if they stare at the image from a certain angle.The 33-year-old artist, known for his large-scale anamorphic images, said he was

PerformanceMay 29, 2016

[Around the hotels] Round up of hotel events and news

Grand Hyatt Seoul presents bingsu menu　Grand Hyatt Seoul’s lobby lounge presents the Grand bingsu menu from May 1, more than a month ahead of the season. The hotel presents six kinds of bingsu with various fruits and sauces including traditional red bean paste bingsu with omija (five-flavor berry) jelly and soybean powder and tropical bingsu with shaved milk ice, tropical fruits such as coconut and pineapple, and sesame sauce.　The prices of bingsu items range from 28,000 won to 32,000 won, inclu

TravelMay 27, 2016

Korea’s first vegan festival offers variety

Korea hosted its first ever vegan festival at the Seoul Innovation Center in Eunpyeong-gu last Sunday where an array of products and foods that are based on the concept of all things void of animal relevance was on display.　Globally, plant-based foods have become integrated in the food industry as much as any other movement of the last 50 years. As their popularity grows and as the vegan diet continues to spread and evolve, Koreans have slowly embraced what may seem a bit esoteric to its meat dr

FoodMay 27, 2016