NEW YORK (AP) ― When Taylor Swift released the Grammy-winning, banjo-tinged “Mean” in 2010, haters fired shots at the then-20-year-old.Four years later, Swift says she’s grown and was able to write her new single “Shake It Off” about others dissing her from a new perspective.“We are all getting our hearts broken, being built up, being let down, feeling disappointed, feeling joy, feeling all these emotions, but what I’ve noticed is that even when it’s the same kind of emotion that I’m feeling, I

Oct. 28, 2014

Rock star Shin Hae-chul died Monday after a massive heart attack, hospital officials said. He was 46. The singer died at around 8:19 p.m. in Asan Medical Center in Seoul. Soon after the news was announced, Shin’s fans flocked to the Internet to pay homage to Shin and extend words of condolences to his family. Shin Hae-chul. (KCA Entertainment)Shin had been in critical condition at the hospital since suffering a heart attack on Oct. 22. Although he had emergency surgery after being hospitalized,

Oct. 27, 2014

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma is cut out for a cross-cultural project. He was born in France to Chinese parents and raised in the United States. Recognized as a child prodigy and having started performing at age 5, he traveled all over the world, meeting people from different backgrounds and cultures. So, it seemed like a natural step for him to start an ensemble with a group of musicians from as many as 20 countries dedicated to bridging the East and West. “You’ve probably heard of globalization. But what i

Oct. 27, 2014

French-born Philippe Vergne, director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, has spent most of his career in the U.S. In pursuit of the “American Dream,” Vergne arrived in Minneapolis 17 years ago and worked as a curator for a decade, working his way up to top positions in art in New York and Los Angeles. He served as the director of Dia Art Foundation in New York for more than five years and took the helm of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles earlier this year. Vergne has been

Oct. 26, 2014

Opera‘s Kaufmann turns to lighter fareJonas Kaufmann“You Mean the World to Me”(Sony)Is there anything Jonas Kaufmann can’t do? The great German tenor has long since conquered the worlds of grand opera and classical recital. Now he turns his talents with equal success to lighter fare, on an album of German operetta and film songs from 1925-35.Those years marked a period of tremendous cultural creativity until it was brought to a screeching halt by the ascension of the Nazis, who forced many of th

Oct. 24, 2014

After collapsing from a sudden cardiac arrest on Wednesday, rock star Shin Hae-chul remains in critical condition at the Seoul Asan Hospital’s intensive care unit after undergoing surgery. According to representatives from the singer’s agency, KCA Entertainment, Shin’s three-hour operation to resuscitate his heart went well. However, it remains to be seen whether he can pull through. “His blood pressure has returned to a safe level, but his pupils are unresponsive and he still remains unconsciou

Oct. 24, 2014

French author Victor Hugo is best known for “Les Miserables,” a literary masterpiece that has been adapted into various forms including a film and a stage musical. What is little known here is that he wrote a series of extremely enjoyable plays that defy many conventional rules of a theater play. One such work will get its first Korean premiere this week by the award-winning original French production. The Theatre National de Toulouse production of “Mille Francs de recompense (A Reward of 1,000

Oct. 23, 2014

LONDON (AP) ― How do you follow in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles without sinking in the footsteps of Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles? The answer, for Annie Lennox at least, is to throw out, to the greatest degree possible, the work of these giants and tackle some of their classics anew: no use of their phrasing, their arrangements, their orchestral sheets allowed.The former Eurythmics star sat down ― slowly and deliberately ― with songs like “Mood Indigo” and “Georgia on My Mind”

Oct. 23, 2014

BEVERLY HILLS, California (AP) ― Neil Diamond wrote and recorded his first studio album of new material in six years floating in the heady glow of new love.The 73-year-old entertainer, who married for the third time in 2012, says happiness with his new bride fueled his work on “Melody Road,” out Tuesday.“There’s no better inspiration or motivation for work than being in love. It’s what you dream of as a creative person,” Diamond said in a recent interview. “I was able to complete this album ― st

Oct. 22, 2014

It’s apparent that Jambinai doesn’t play music for the masses. The three-member crossover band would love to connect with a larger audience, but has no intention of heeding to the public tastes in today’s music market. Yet, it is this determination to pursue their own distinctive music that makes the obscure Korean indie group one of the hottest acts in the global music festival circuit. “We were surprised at first. People over there (in Europe) knew our music already. And they seemed to like it

Oct. 21, 2014

Just by placing a fingertip on a pad, you can create your own virtual city out of the labyrinth of a fingerprint and drive through your “fingerprint city” with a joystick. The interactive work on display at the Museum of Art in Seoul National University, employs the “City Engine” technology by Esri R&D Center-Zurich, a 3-D content developer from Switzerland. Visitors to the museum can also get a glimpse of the ambitious Human Brain Project by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

Oct. 21, 2014

TVXQ performs during its Japan Live Tour 2014. (SMTOWN Facebook)Popular K-pop boy band TVXQ will make a concert tour of big cities around the world, including Seoul, this December, the band’s management agency said Tuesday.The duo will begin the tour at Seoul’s Olympic Park on Dec. 6 and 7 before hitting overseas cities later that month, SM Entertainment said, without disclosing the exact dates of the overseas concerts.In the title of the tour, “TVXQ! Special Live Tour ― T1ST0RY,” “T1STORY” is a

Oct. 21, 2014

Led by Grammy Award-winning musician and composer Michael League, fusion instrumental band Snarky Puppy is holding its first concert in Korea on Tuesday night at the Blue Square theater in Hannam-dong, Seoul. The large-scale band was started by League more than 10 years ago while he was attending jazz school at the University of North Texas. Gathering together nine of his pals, the band was initially launched as an opportunity for the budding composer to play out the jazzy hybrid funk music that

Oct. 20, 2014

Nearly four decades ago, Venezuelan economist and musician Jose Antonio Abreu gathered 11 impoverished children in a parking garage in Caracas and started teaching them classical music.His notion was simple: free music education can lift the children out of poverty and crime, which in turn could tackle social problems plaguing the country.The initiative ― “El Sistema” or the System ― became hugely successful, so far affecting nearly 2.5 million youngsters mostly from low-income backgrounds and p

Oct. 17, 2014