Pianist Kim Sun-wook will have his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic, performing composer Chin Un-suk’s piano concerto. On Saturday Kim, the winner of the 2006 Leeds International Piano Competition, will perform Chin’s piano concerto with the prestigious German orchestra at the Berlin Philharmonic concert hall, under the baton of Sakari Oramo, the chief conductor of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The Berlin Philharmonic explained Chin’s work as a “brilli

Performance June 1, 2021

The Dream Concert, one of the world’s biggest K-pop events, will be held online in June amid the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Korea Entertainment Producer’s Association, the 27th Dream Concert will take place June 26 at the Seoul World Cup Stadium in Mapo-gu, western Seoul. Last year, the concert was held online for the first time due to the virus crisis. Called “Dream Concert Connect:D,” the event made use of the latest media technologies such as virtual reali

Performance May 31, 2021

Korean ballet dancers with overseas dance companies will join a gala show for the 2021 Ballet Festival Korea at the Seoul Arts Center in southern Seoul, June 24-25. More than 100 prominent ballet stars who perform on the international ballet scene have participated in the annual gala since its inception in 2001. This year, organizers have invited dancers such as Lee Choong-hoon from the Dance Theater of Harlem in New York, Kim Seok-ju of the Boston Ballet, Lee Ju-ho of the Estonia Vanemuine O

Performance May 30, 2021

The National Gugak Center is to release a music video online every Wednesday, featuring traditional Korean music and dance. The Gugak In project, led by the state-run institution, kicked off last year, to help traditional performing artists who have been experiencing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Last year, a total of 20 acts were selected for the project. The center produced a series of music videos featuring the artists’ performances at scenic spots across the greater Se

Performance May 29, 2021

Musical “Beetlejuice” is set for a Seoul run, its first official showing outside of Broadway. The Korean-language licensed version of Broadway musical “Beetlejuice” is scheduled to open June 18 at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul. Based on the iconic 1988 Tim Burton film of the same title, the musical had its Broadway premiere in 2019, following a pilot run a year earlier. The Korean staging marks the first licensed version of the musical.

Performance May 26, 2021

For an actor, it would be an honor to leave behind a collection of works someday, Lee Je-hoon, 36, said. Of all the steps in Lee’s 14-year acting career, Lee said he was the most nervous about the recent release of Netflix original series “Move to Heaven.” He stars in the series as Sang-gu, an ex-convict who works as a “trauma cleaner,” cleaning up crime and accident scenes and organizing the belongings of the deceased. “I was the most nervous about this

Television May 25, 2021

Pianist Park Yeon-min, 31, has won the first prize at the 2020/2021 George Enescu International Competition’s piano discipline on Sunday. By winning the competition, Park will receive 15,000 euros ($18,000) in prize money, and an invitation to the 2022 George Enescu Festival. She was followed by Adela Liculescu from Romania and Marcin Wieczorek from Poland, who came in second and the third, respectively. After studying at Seoul National University, Park earned her master’s degree

Performance May 24, 2021

Bach’s sonatas and partitas for solo violin (BWV 1001-1006) is an iconic collection for violinists. Violinist Clara Jumi Kang, 34, will take on the work -- “the violin Bible” as she calls it -- presenting the complete cycle in one performance. “It is a project I have been dreaming of since I was in my early 20s,” Kang said in a recent email interview with The Korea Herald. The Korean-German virtuoso has performed with leading orchestras around the world. She i

Performance May 22, 2021

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism announced Friday that it would take action against Chinese music labels that infringed copyrights by uploading translated versions of K-pop songs on YouTube. There has been active discussion online about the practice of registering translated K-pop songs as original works by Chinese artists, without approval from the rightful copyright holders. IU’s “Tear Drops in the Morning,” Brown Eyes’ “Already One Year” and

Performance May 21, 2021

There is more to mime than just being trapped in an imaginary box, pretending to walk down the stairs, or pulling a rope, says mime artist Yu Jin-gyu. Yu, 69, is a first-generation mime artist in Korea. Quitting veterinary science studies at Konkuk University, he joined the drama company Ejotto in 1970. He made his debut in 1972, presenting the country’s first mime show. “Mime refers to the art form of delivering one’s thoughts without words, with just movements and express

Performance May 20, 2021

After a four-year renovation, the Haeoreum Grand Theater at the National Theater of Korea is ready to welcome audiences back to its seats. The first complete overhaul of the theater since its opening in 1973 cost 65.8 billion won ($58.3 million). The theater‘s 2004 renovation was limited to the lobby and theater seats. “The theater was outdated and the stage needed to be modernized,“ NToK CEO Kim Cheol-ho said during a press tour of the theater on Tuesday. “There wer

Performance May 19, 2021

The National Orchestra of Korea will use traditional instruments to perform one of BTS’ hit albums and a mobile game soundtrack, targeting young audiences who may be unfamiliar with “gugak,” traditional Korean music. The orchestra, under the National Theater of Korea, will hold a recital June 11 at the theater in central Seoul, introducing the gugak version of K-pop act BTS’ 2019 track “Mikrokosmos” and the soundtrack from hit mobile game “Cookie Run:

Performance May 18, 2021

Soprano Kim Hyo-young and tenor Duke Kim are among the five winners of the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition, formerly known as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Award. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the 67th edition of the prestigious annual competition was held virtually for the first time in its history, garnering a total of 1,200 applicants from around the world. The competition, originally founded in 1954, changed its name this year, in recognition of

Performance May 18, 2021

Well-known singers have come together with a message of hope in a remake of the 1999 song “Become One” (unofficial translation). The original song was created to deliver that message amid the 1997 financial crisis in South Korea. Big-name singers of the time, from Shin Seung-hun and Kim Jong-seo to Um Jung-hwa and hit K-pop acts such as H.O.T, Sechs Kies and Fin.K.L, took part in the recording, earning the iconic song the moniker “the Korean version of ‘We are the World

Performance May 17, 2021

Kim Su-yeon became the first Korean pianist to win the first prize at the Concours Musical International de Montreal. The list of winners for this year’s competition, held for the piano discipline, was unveiled Friday, with Kim announced as the first prize winner. Kim will receive awards and scholarships valued at a total of over $180,000, along with a concert tour in three North American cities, a concerto performance with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal and a solo album record

Performance May 16, 2021