Lee Moon-sae to hold charity concert in Pyeongchang in August

Korean singing legend Lee Moon-sae will hold an outdoor charity concert in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province, next month, his agency said Monday.According to KMOONfnd, the concert will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 31 at the Starlight Stage, located at Farm Herbnara in Bongpyeong-myeon, Pyeongchang county. Lee himself had named the outdoor stage that seats 700. Lee has held an outdoor concert series in the woods since 2003, with the upcoming concert marking the 10th edition. He is also preparing an a

July 15, 2019

BTS wraps up Japan stadium tour

BTS has successfully completed the Japanese leg of its tour. Following its tour of the Americas and Europe, BTS performed for 210,000 fans in Japan as part of its “Love Yourself: Speak Yourself” tour. The band held concerts in Osaka from July 6-7 and in Shizuoka on Saturday and Sunday.  The seven members performed “Dionysus,” “Not Today,” “Interlude: Wings,” solo tracks and the Japanese version of “Boy With Luv,” released July 3. T

July 15, 2019

DAY6 aims to capture beautiful moment of youth in new album

Youth, the main theme in the previous hit songs by five-piece K-pop rock band DAY6, such as "Congratulations" and "You Were Beautiful," still runs deep in its new album released Monday: "The Book of Us: Gravity" and its main track "Time of Our Life."With its Korean title translated as "In order to become one page," the main track pictures the wishful starting point of a romantic relationship with a message to leave a beautiful page in "The B

July 15, 2019

Lena Park to unveil 9th album

Singer Lena Park, also known as Park Jung-hyun, will release her ninth full-length album on July 18. Titled “The Wonder,” the upcoming album marks her first full-length album in seven years. Her most recent album “Parallax” was released in 2012.  Park has been releasing a series of EP albums under the same title to mark the 20th anniversary of her debut in 1998. “The Wonder” will comprise a total of seven songs in which Park’s fellow musicians have

July 12, 2019

Scandal-ridden member Kangin to leave Super Junior

Kangin, a scandal-ridden member of long-running K-pop boy band Super Junior, said Thursday he will leave the team, ending his 14-year membership.The 34-year-old, whose real name is Kim Young-woon, broke the news on his Instagram account.  "I decided to leave behind the title, Super Junior, with which I spent a long time," he said."I have been all too sorry for other members ... but couldn't make up my mind quickly due to people who steadfastly support me," he said. "

July 11, 2019

Pianist Im Sung-mi honored to ‘breathe with audience’

Pianist Im Sung-mi took the stage for the 711th edition of “The House Concert” at Daehangno, central Seoul, on Monday. “The House Concert” is a small-scale music project run by artistic director Park Chang-soo. Seated on the floor of the venue, concertgoers are able to experience music in a different way, feeling the vibrations of the wooden floor. “It reminds me of the Bargemusic hall in New York, for which my late husband Bae Ik-hwan had long been an artistic dire

July 11, 2019

BTS' 'IDOL' music video hits 500 m YouTube views

The music video of K-pop super band BTS' hit song "IDOL" surpassed 500 million YouTube views Thursday, the band's fifth music video to accomplish the feat.The hypnotic music video off the band's previous album "Love Yourself: Answer," released in August last year, hit the milestone early Thursday morning, according to Big Hit Entertainment. BTS shortly released another version of the "IDOL" music video, featuring iconic American female rapper Nicki Minaj. The second

July 11, 2019

[Herald Interview] Pianist Kevin Kenner explores humor in classical music

Pianist Kevin Kenner believes humor can improve people’s lives, even more than aspirin. Kenner, who is in South Korea for his second solo recital in the country, titled “Humoresque,” will perform at the Seoul Arts Center on Thursday and at the U-Square Culture Center in Gwangju on Friday. The California-born pianist won the top prize at the 1990 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. The same year, he also won a medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competitio

July 10, 2019

Marcos Morau to unveil new work in Seoul

Spanish choreographer Marcos Morau will introduce his new work July 19-20 at the Seoul Arts Center.The latest contemporary dance piece by the young artistic director of La Veronal is produced in collaboration with the Korea National Contemporary Dance Company, led by Ahn Sang-soo. In the piece, titled “Ssang Ssang,” Morau combines his dance company’s style with elements of traditional Korean culture.For example, Morau uses gat, Korean traditional hats made of bamboo and horseh

July 10, 2019

Big Hit, Netmarble team up on new music-streaming platform

Big Hit Entertainment, the mastermind behind global sensation BTS, and the nation’s No. 1 mobile game developer, Netmarble, have joined hands to launch a brand-new music-streaming platform, multiple sources said Tuesday.Even though the new platform may not be solely dedicated to BTS, sources say, the septet is highly likely to release some new songs exclusively for the platform. “The two firms have started development work as a venture project. The platform is targeting global users

July 9, 2019

BTS becomes highest-charting foreign artist in Japan with new Japanese single

Super group BTS topped Japan's Oricon weekly singles chart this week with its latest Japanese single "Lights/Boy With Luv," garnering the highest weekly score for any foreign artist in the Japanese music market, the band's management agency said Tuesday.The three-track single, dropped in Japan on July 3, earned some 621,000 sales points to finish atop the Oricon weekly singles chart for the week of July 1-7, according to Big Hit Entertainment.   It was the most points a singl

July 9, 2019

Pianist Son Yeol-eum to make BBC Proms debut

Pianist Son Yeol-eum is set to make her BBC Proms debut later this month. Son is to perform Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 15 in B flat major with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Omer Meir Wellber on July 23 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. BBC Proms, hosted by the British public service broadcaster, is an eight-week summer music festival founded in 1895. Orchestral concerts mainly take place at the Royal Albert Hall, while chamber music concerts take place at Cadogan Ha

July 8, 2019

Boy band Pentagon kicks off world tour

Boy band Pentagon has kicked off a world concert tour, bringing it to 23 cities across the globe, its management agency said Friday.The world tour, named “Prism,” kicked off with its inaugural concert in Seoul in April and will take the band on a journey to perform in 23 cities in Asia, the United States, Europe and South America from August to December.  The list of destinations includes Santiago, Milan, Lisbon, Berlin, Paris, Moscow and Tokyo in addition to major U.S. cities,

July 5, 2019

WINNER stages seven-city tour in Japan

Four-piece K-pop boy band WINNER has started its sixth Japanese tour that will take it to seven cities, its management agency said Thursday.As the first leg of its "WINNER Japan Tour 2019," the group held a concert at Nakano Sun Plaza Hall in Tokyo on Wednesday, according to YG Entertainment. During the two-hour concert, WINNER performed 25 songs, including its latest number "Ah Yeah," "Really Really" and "Everyday.""We want to show our maturity on th

July 4, 2019

Corporate giving: Eagon to perform popular classics with guests from Berlin Philharmonic Camerata

The annual Eagon concert tour will feature special guests from the Berlin Philharmonic Camerata this year. The concert series, now in its 30th year, will kick off in Seoul on Friday at the Lotte Concert Hall before moving on to the Seoul Arts Center and then to Incheon, Gwangju and Busan. The tour will wrap up in Daegu on July 11. This year, the organizers invited eight members of the Berlin Philharmonic Camerata, along with four other individual performers. Together, they have billed thems

July 3, 2019

[Herald Interview] Observing K-pop crossover from other side

While K-pop crossovers have been enjoying momentum, a columnist shared his opinion on the global phenomenon and its development from the perspective of an outsider looking in.Jeff Benjamin is a freelance columnist based in the US who writes about K-pop and other genres of music. He is passionately appreciated by “Army,” referring to the BTS fandom, for actively introducing the K-pop band to the larger Western public.  “I always grew up with this idea that music could be gr

July 2, 2019

BTS launches fan community on mobile application

Roaring K-pop boy band BTS launched Monday an official mobile application channel to connect with fans around the world.The septet announced the opening of BTS Weverse, an official fan community based on the application Weverse. Through the channel, BTS will communicate with fans using text messages as well as video clips and photos, according to Big Hit Entertainment.The app will provide exclusive content featuring BTS. Posting its first video clip on BTS Weverse, the BTS members said &quo

July 1, 2019

Gracias Choir teams up with classical musicians

Gracias Choir has teamed up with classical musicians for its nationwide tour, titled “Svobodno,” which will entail six concerts in five cities.Classical musicians joining the tour include pianist Mikhail Benediktov, former guest soloist of the Mariinsky Theater; violinist Chingiz Osmanov, grand prize winner of the International Jascha Heifetz competition; and oboist Liang Wang, a former member of the New York Philharmonic. The concerts will feature choral and classical music pieces,

June 30, 2019

BTS tops global ticket chart

Ticket sales from stadium concerts in three countries have earned K-pop group BTS the No. 1 position in the world, a US poll agency said Saturday. Pollstar said BTS gained the top position on LIVE75 chart with an average of 51,106 tickets earned from six sold-out performances at three stadiums on the group's current world tour.London's Wembley Stadium had the highest ticket count of the three buildings, with 114,583, followed by the Stade de France in Paris with 107,328 tickets and 84,728 fans a

June 29, 2019

BTS garners more than $50 million from stadium tours in May

K-pop band BTS topped the monthly list of tour grosses with the biggest attendees among global superstars in May, Billboard reported on Thursday (on US time). "From only eight shows in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Sao Paolo, the South Korean superstars grossed $51.66 million and sold 384,498 tickets (in May)," Billboard said, citing figures from Billboard Boxscore."These towering earnings mark the biggest one-month total of 2019 so far," it said.  In May, the septe

June 28, 2019