The 2023 K-music festival opens with a focus on the work of one of Korea’s most versatile musicians, Jung Jae-il. He is now becoming better-known outside of Korea through his work for the cinema and TV, but we’ve long admired his work: his Bari, Abandoned was our album of the year in 2014; his contribution to the Changgeuk Trojan Women was instrumental in making that our performance of the year in 2018 (don’t miss it if you’re lucky to be in Edinburgh for the Festival this summer). He was composer of the psalm-inspired score for the audio-visual project in memory of Gwangju that screened at the KCC during lockdown, and participated on the South Bank at the 2012 festival that served as the precursor to K-music. His solo piano album, Listen, from earlier this year is well worth investigating. Here’s your chance to hear him live.
K-music 2023: Jung Jae-il + London Symphony Orchestra: Music from Parasite & Squid Game
Celebrating the 10th anniversary of the K-Music Festival, Jung Jae-il’s award-winning score will be presented live in concert at the Barbican Centre Hall on Sunday 1 October featuring the London Symphony Orchestra to open the festival.
Renowned for his versatility, the award winning singer-songwriter, composer, producer and music director Jung Jae-il is responsible for some of South Korea’s most popular film scores and has worked on titles such as Bong Joon Ho’s Okja and Parasite – the groundbreaking foreign-language film that made history by winning the Academy Award for Best Picture; the most-watched Netflix TV series Squid Game; and Hirokazu’s Broker.
Unleashing his extraordinary piano prowess in a performance that seamlessly incorporates the warm cinematic strings of the 60 piece London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Robert Ziegler, Jung Jae-il presents a captivating musical journey as the concert showcases iconic orchestral compositions from his noted film and TV scores. Moreover, showcasing his latest album Listen, Jae-il presents a breath-taking fusion of his brand-new compositions and previews from his upcoming album, set to be released this autumn under Decca Records.
“Throughout, with great simplicity, Jung conjures deeply expressive, imaginative worlds, the mark of a major talent.”
The Guardian (Review of Listen)
“The most detailed and delicate music director on earth!” An absolute perfectionist and talented genius.”
Bong Joon-ho, Director of Parasite
He has no nomination in the 2021 Academy Awards https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2021 nor in the 2020 ones https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2020 – the year “Parasite” was eligible. As “Parasite” got into the nominations for just about every other element, those categories were noticeable for the absence of it.
Thanks. I’m wondering whether he was longlisted but didn’t make it into the official nomination shortlist – and if that’s the case what is the knock-on impact in terms of marketing.
The copy is actually inconsistent between the KCC, Serious and Barbican sites, with the KCC omitting the detail about Jung’s nomination. So the event notice above now adopts the KCC text in that regard.