Philharmonia Orchestra Santtu-Matias Rouvali Conductor Seong-Jin Cho Piano Beethoven: Piano Concerto No 5 ‘Emperor’ Shostakovich: Symphony No 10 At the end of his first season as current Principal Conductor, inspirational young Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali brings two mighty works of heroism and vision to the first of the Philharmonia’s concerts at this year’s International Festival. Outstanding … [Read More]
Category: Festivals (page 8)
Edinburgh Festival: We Are Monchichi
A dance show for young audiences explores how we connect across cultures and languages. How do we come together when everything is pushing us apart? What language do we choose? How do we face the mountain of cultural stereotypes? Shihya Peng was born in Taiwan, but she lives in Paris. Marco di Nardo was born … [Read More]
Korean performers at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe
The Edinburgh Fringe is back, and this year there are nine Korean acts performing. Exciting dance performances, world music, theatre and pansori puppetry: something for everyone. Find all the details here, with booking links to the official Fringe website. Plan your Korean August in Edinburgh here! [Read More]
A Festival of Korean Dance 2022
The Festival of Korean Dance is back. The programme is pretty much what we were going to see in the 2020 festival, which of course got cancelled. I’m glad we haven’t missed out, and I’m really looking forward to this. So, here’s the official press release. A Festival of Korean Dance returns to The Place … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Collective A / Jinyeob Cha – MIIN: Body to Body
In this visually arresting performance, Collective A’s critically acclaimed choreographer Jinyeob Cha examines perceptions of beauty and femininity beyond societal norms and traditions. Accompanied by a hypnotic soundscape created by two acclaimed musicians based in Seoul, Eun-yong Sim, from Korean Avant-rock band Jambinai, and haihm, an electronic musician, six female dancers flit between precise, discreet, … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Soo Hyun Hwang – Sense of Darkness | Yun Jung Lee – Tongue Gymnastics
Soo Hyun Hwang – Sense of Darkness With their eyes closed throughout the show, the performers in Sense of Darkness draw the audience into a world in which intricate movements and sounds are amplified. Each performer uses the sound created by themselves as signals to coordinate the locations of oneself, the other performers, audience members, … [Read More]
K-Dance 2022: Art Project Bora ‘MUAK’
Seven performers burst the confines of logic as they dismiss the notion that we watch dance and hear music exclusively. MUAK is a piece inspired by music with the same name by the composer Isang Yun. According to Isang Yun, in Western music, the tunes are made up by the composer. But in Asian music, the … [Read More]
A Distant Place screens at BFI Flare
Jin-Woo lives a deliberately quiet life in rural Korea, working as a shepherd and looking after his young niece Seol. Though Seol is approaching school age, Jin-Woo keeps their contact with the outside world to a minimum, save for the family that employs him. But everything changes when his college boyfriend Hyeon-min and estranged sister … [Read More]
Exhibition visit: Collect 2022 at Somerset House
After last year’s online-only edition of Collect it was good to get back to a physical show this year. It was also refreshing to see how many artists had taken advantage of the changed circumstances of lockdown to move their work in different directions; and galleries with an established roster of artists also tried to … [Read More]
Korean crafts at Collect 2022
Collect returns to Somerset House later this month. Han Collection will be there with their tempting array of ceramics from Icheon, while Lloyd Choi Gallery represents a broader range of crafts from across the country. In addition, expect to find the occasional Korean artist represented by non Korean specialist galleries: for example: Cube Gallery will … [Read More]
A look back at some of the movies in the 2021 London Korean Film Festival
One month after the close of LKFF we’re finally getting around to penning some thoughts on the movies we saw there. We’ve already commented on Im Sang-soo’s latest, which left us with very warm feelings about the festival as a whole. What about the rest of the programme? Let’s get this out of the way … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: Heaven – To the Land of Happiness
In recent years the LKFF programmers have been getting into a groove of scheduling indie, minority interest movies for the closing film of the festival. This year, they turned things upside down by programming the festival’s most appealing film (for me, at least,) to end the fortnight. Yes, the opening movie, Mogadishu, is the top … [Read More]
A look at the closing movies from recent LKFFs
As I left the cinema after Friday’s closing movie of the 2021 London Korean Film Fest, somewhat on a high because it was such a good film and Q+A, I observed to a friend I happened to bump into: “That was the best closing gala for years!” As I said that, the most recent decent … [Read More]
The Sound of Nature: Dal:um live at Southbank Centre
“Korean traditional instruments contain the sound of nature.” This is the opening line of Ha Suyean’s answer to my question regarding what Dal:um would like their international audience to know about ancient Korean instruments gayageum and geomungo. “For someone coming to these two ancient instruments for the first time, what will they discover?”, I had … [Read More]
Festival Film Review: The Singer
As is often the case, I was out of town for the London East Asia Film Festival, so I missed the international premiere of the Director’s Cut of Cho Jungrae’s The Singer. I’m not sure if the previously available version has had a formal international premiere – probably not, given the devastation that Covid has … [Read More]
Interview: Cho Jungrae (The Singer, 2020)
Director Cho Jungrae discusses his deep personal connection to Pansori, his hands-on role shaping the music “The Singer”, and the film’s dialogue between tradition and modernity. In this wide-ranging interview with Hangul Celluloid and LKL, he reflects on legacy, influence, and how traditional sound can still resonate with audiences today. [Read More]