Most Popular
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Torrential rainfall forces 1,500 to evacuate, causes widespread damage to homes, roads
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Over 82,000 Korean young people unemployed, not searching for job long-term
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[KH Explains] Can smart chargers ease tensions over EV fires?
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40% of Korea's workers who reported bullying faced retaliation: survey
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1 in 5 households to have breadwinner over 80 in 30 years
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New Fifty Fifty off to strong start
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[Weekender] Young Koreans more open to Japanese cultural products
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Assembly to review disputed appointment of national soccer team coach
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Evicted guest burns down inn; 3 killed
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Arrival of fall calls for more outdoor festivals
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Mother-of-pearl art goes modern
Artist Kim Young-jun is holding a solo exhibition, presenting his modern interpretations of traditional lacquer and mother-of-pearl art, at the Korea Art Center in Insa-dong, Seoul. The exhibition presents 45 works, including the latest “Cosmos” series and modern furniture inlaid with mother-of-pearl, as well as the decorated version of Microsoft’s video game console Xbox ordered by Bill Gates. “I developed the new ‘Cosmos’ series from my round lacquer paintings inlaid with mother-of-pearl. It p
March 16, 2015
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Crazy Horse Paris to offer nude cabaret show in Seoul
Crazy Horse Paris, an internationally renowned performance house from France, will officially make its way to Seoul next month to perform its signature nude cabaret show in the country, organizers announced Monday.Popularly known as “Le Crazy,” the French cabaret house recently gained final approval from the Korean authorities to stage its famous artistic nude show here for audiences over age 19, according to W&FUN. Crazy Horse Paris, considered one of France’s hallmark cabaret houses alongside
March 16, 2015
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KBS Symphony moves to replace two-thirds of musicians
KBS Symphony Orchestra moved to potentially replace 67 positions in its 100-strong orchestra on Monday, upping the ante against players in an intensifying labor dispute.The orchestra put out a notice of vacant positions across a total of 16 instruments, without specifying the exact number of vacancies. The move comes amid prolonged labor strife at KBS Symphony. Two thirds of its players are refusing to sign a contract with the orchestra but insist on remaining on the payroll of their current emp
March 16, 2015
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[Up & Coming] Art that makes you cringe
Up & Coming is a series of interviews with emerging artists in various fields of arts and entertainment. ― Ed.Choi Sun’s paintings make people step back and cringe. His recent work “Bloody Excrement (Integral Calculus Painting),” an abstract painting in red and white, delves into the shapes of his own excrement. And this is how he made it: The artist took a laxative that patients take before colonoscopies. In the mess he got from the induced bowel disorder, he tried to find shapes, thinking that
March 15, 2015
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Season of trouble for Seoul Philharmonic
Last season, things couldn’t have looked better for the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.The ensemble, with the world-famous Chung Myung-whun as its director, was setting the standard of orchestral music in Korea, with a long-term recording contract, unrivaled popularity at home and a rising artistic profile overseas. In the summer, it debuted at the prestigious BBC Proms in London, becoming the first Korean orchestra to do so, with a tour of seven U.S. cities, scheduled for April this year, expecte
March 15, 2015
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Calendar
Dance“Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness”: The Universal Ballet Korea will be staging Nacho Duato’s “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness” as its 2015 season opener. The 1999 ballet is one of Duato’s best-known works and landed the choreographer the prestigious Benois de la Dance prize. As homage to classical music great Johann Sebastian Bach, the two-act ballet tells the story of Bach’s music by combining both baroque music and modern choreography. The Universal Ballet Korea’s
March 13, 2015
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Eyelike: The Mavericks, James McMurtry, Kelly Clarkson
1 channel is all the Mavericks need on ‘Mono’The Mavericks“Mono”(Valory) The Mavericks have always been a rootsy band, plying musical turf from Havana to Nashville via Miami. Here their sound is more retro than ever, recalling the era when these sorts of songs were best heard on small radios and big jukeboxes. ”Mono” was recorded in -- you guessed it -- mono. Kids, that means everything was loaded into one channel, including horns, accordion, bouncy beats and Raul Malo’s glorious tenor.The Maver
March 13, 2015
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Radio legend Bae Chul-soo celebrates 25 years on air
Korea’s oldest and arguably most popular radio show, “Bae Chul-soo’s Music Camp,” has been introducing Western pop music to Korean listeners for more than two decades. Its playlist covers an array of genres and eras, playing everything from classic bands like The Beatles, Queen and ABBA to the more recent Maroon 5 and Coldplay. Celebrating 25 years on air, legendary DJ Bae Chul-soo will host live shows entitled “Live is Life” for three days, accompanied by 12 leading Korean bands. From March 13-
March 13, 2015
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Korea’s top orchestras in trouble
Trouble is deepening at Korea’s two biggest orchestras ― the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and the KBS Symphony Orchestra. At the Seoul Philharmonic, the rebellion of employees against their boss last year led to a police raid of the orchestra’s office while its music director, Chung Myung-whun, faces a possible police investigation. Over at the KBS Symphony Orchestra, which is on the brink of losing 70 percent of its musicians, the trouble has a more familiar cause. It’s about job security. On W
March 12, 2015
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[Herald Review] New visuals enliven ‘Andrea Chenier’
In his first ever opera production in Asia, Italian opera mastermind Stefano Poda has revitalized the seldom-staged tale of poetry, love and betrayal, “Andrea Chenier.”Having worked on nearly 100 opera productions throughout his illustrious career, Poda has taken his relentless and scrupulous eye for visual and artistic perfection in Umberto Giodano’s masterpiece.Although the repertoire is often noted as encompassing the essence of verismo opera, “Andrea Chenier” is all too often overlooked by m
March 12, 2015
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Madonna adds another Paris concert after first sells out
Madonna performs at the Brit Awards 2015 at the 02 Arena in London, Feb. 25. (AP-Yonhap)PARIS (AFP) – Madonna has added a second concert date in Paris in December after the first that went on sale this week sold out in five minutes, the promoters said Wednesday."Given the demand, Madonna has added a second concert in Paris as part of her worldwide 'Rebel Heart Tour': Thursday December 10, 2015," the company Live Nation said.The 56-year-old diva is playing at the Bercy stadium in the French capit
March 11, 2015
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Celebrating the legacy of Bach through modern movement
In homage to the legendary German composer Johann Sebastian Bach and his countless masterpieces, the Universal Ballet Korea will be staging its upcoming production of “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness.”Devoted to the retelling of Bach’s life and death through a two-act modern ballet, “Multiplicity, Forms of Silence and Emptiness” is the brainchild of artistic director and choreographer Nacho Duato of the Staatsballett in Berlin.According to the director, the production is an expressi
March 11, 2015
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Yang In-mo wins Premio Paganini violin competition
Local violinist Yang In-mo, 20, has become the first Korean to ever win first place at the annual International Violin Competition Premio Paganini in Genoa, Italy. The young Kumho Asiana Cultural Foundation violinist not only took home the top prize at this year’s 54th International Violin Competition Premio Paganini, but was also awarded three secondary special awards including the “Prize in memory of Dr. Enrico Costa” for being the competition’s youngest finalist. Yang will receive 25,600 euro
March 10, 2015
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Suffering, transformation and redemption
Renowned video artist Bill Viola opened his third exhibition in Seoul last week with an unusual introduction. Against a slow-motion video, he stood and read his journal dated Feb. 4, 1999, about his encounter with an old man at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. The man, whom he saw as he was entering the gallery, was lying unconscious on the cold museum floor with paramedics pumping his chest. The background video, meanwhile, showed five people changing their facial emotions so slowly that it alm
March 10, 2015
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Venice Biennale invites three rising Korean artists
Three emerging Korean artists have been invited to the upcoming main exhibition at the Venice Biennale in May, Arts Council Korea said Monday. The state arts agency said three artists ― Kim Ayoung, Nam Hwa-yeon and Im Heung-soon ― have been selected to showcase their works at the international exhibition where 136 artists from 53 countries will be presenting their art. The three Koreans are among the 88 who will be introduced to the global audience in Venice for the first time. Kim Ayoung (Arts
March 9, 2015
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Florian Riem helps put Tongyeong on music map
Looking at some artwork on display at the lobby of Ilshin Hall in Hannam-dong while waiting for Florian Riem, CEO of Tongyeong International Music Festival Foundation, to arrive for our interview, I heard a couple of voices speaking in Japanese. Turning around, much to my surprise, I saw Riem, a German, talking in fluent Japanese with his assistant. Perhaps I should not have been so surprised ― his curriculum vitae had said he spent eight years as the assistant principal cellist of Orchestral En
March 6, 2015
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Eyelike: Jose Gonzalez, Steve Tyrell, Iron & Wine
Jose Gonzalez returns after hiatus with best workJose Gonzalez“Vestiges & Claws”(Mute)The latest album from Swedish-Argentine Jose Gonzalez was partly produced by himself in his kitchen and the intimacy is felt throughout “Vestiges & Claws.” Across 10 arresting tracks, Gonzalez plays his acoustic guitar with a graceful tranquility considering “what it’s all about” in his aching tenor.His voice is at once fervid and fragile, and like Arthur Russell or Yo La Tengo’s Ira Kaplan, he often lightens h
March 6, 2015
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Director Stefano Poda takes reins of ‘Andrea Chenier’ in KNO season opener
Renowned opera mastermind Stefano Poda is doing almost everything ― directing, producing, stage designing, costuming and lighting ― except for starring in his upcoming production of Umberto Giordano’s “Andrea Chenier,” which is slated as the Korea National Opera’s 2015 season opener next week. “Please, just a tiny, tiny splash of painted highlights on the gown ... so light that I can barely even see it,” he said to one of the costume stylists as he desperately tried to explain how miniscule he w
March 5, 2015
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Concert to commemorate late opera patron
Industrial smelting and classical music may seem an unlikely pairing. However, Lee Woon-hyung, the late chairman and CEO of steel conglomerate SeAH Group, spent over a decade of his lifetime promoting the opera and supporting cultural causes. In a tribute to Lee’s efforts, the Woon-Hyung Lee Foundation for culture and arts will host its first opera concert under the theme “spreading beauty in the world,” featuring both world-class and up-and-coming musicians.“This concert aims to uphold the late
March 5, 2015
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Old lives of Seoul from two perspectives
Skyscrapers, cutting-edge public transportation and rows of shopping malls ― scenes that define Seoul’s cityscape today ― were unimaginable half a century ago. It wasn’t until the 1980s that every citizen had access to tap water and toilets in their homes. In the 1960s, and ’70s, citizens in Cheongnyangni had to buy tickets for a bucket of water at a public water station. For daily ablutions, residents of Changsin-dong had to leave their house to use a public toilet located at the center of the
March 4, 2015