London Korean Links

Covering things Korean in London and beyond since 2006

Koreans come 1st and 2nd in Hastings Piano comp

Congratulations to 17 year-old Lee Taek-gi on winning the first prize (and £10,000) in this year’s Hastings International Piano Competition with his performance of Rachmaninov’s 3rd piano concerto. Runner-up was Sunwoo Yekwon, winning £2,500. The final of the competition was on 8 March. Source: Hastings International Piano Competition [Read More]

Korean indie musician invited to Glastonbury

Is this a first for a Korean musician? Singer-songwriter Choi Go-eun (최고은, also known as Gonne Choi) will be performing at Glastonbury in 2014, according to the Chosun Ilbo. Here’s hoping she stops off in London on the way. Here she is singing Eric’s Song: You can find some of her tracks on iTunes under … [Read More]

Hongdae hosts rap v pansori battle

An interesting stunt pitting rappers against pansori performers was held in Hongdae last Friday. When I was waiting for Love X Stereo to come on stage at Freebird, I really should have been down at V-Hall, where the RapPansori battle was held. And a pansori singer was the victor. Source: Joongang Daily [Read More]

K-pop as peace-builder?

Two recent stories from Israel and Palestine: Middle East: Korean pop ‘brings hope for peace’, BBC, 7 August 2013. “It’s something that gives you hope, and in Jerusalem it is sometimes hard to find hope,” an Arab student is quoted as saying. Israeli troops caught doing Gangnam style with Palestinians on the West Bank, Evening … [Read More]

A new trend in Korean-speaking Brits?

As an inspiration to the many British Koreaphiles out there who don’t speak the language, look no further than X-factor winners Little Mix. According to the Chosun Ilbo, a contestant performing a cover version of their song Wings on K-pop Star prompted them to release their own Korean version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjFw934uGuQ Rather more proficient is 영국남자 … [Read More]

Jasmine Choi to move on from Vienna Symphony…

Readers may remember Jasmine Choi’s splendid Wigmore Hall debut back in 2009. At the time, she was associate principal flautist at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, and last year she moved to the Vienna Symphony as their principal flautist. Sadly, at the end of her probationary year the orchestra members voted not to give her tenure. … [Read More]

Min-jin Kym gets her Strad back

Nearly three years after it was stolen, and a few months after a false alarm in which people thought it had turned up in the possession of a Bulgarian gypsy, Korean violinist Min-jin Kym is reunited with her Stradivarius. Great news. Links: Missing Stradivarius found, BBC, 30 July 2013 Famed Stradivarius violin owned by Min-Jin … [Read More]

Nah Youn Sun on reducing an audience to tears

LKL’s favourite jazz singer, Nah Youn Sun, fresh from singing at Park Geun-hye’s inauguration talks to the JoongAng Daily about her career, about her new album, Lento, which will be released in the UK in April, and about singing Arirang to foreign audiences: To my surprise, audiences, regardless of their nationality, shed tears while listening … [Read More]

Three outcomes of the London Riots

Three Korea-related outcomes of the London riots this year: Big Bang will not be coming for the Thames Festival (though the guilty verdict on Dae-sung didn’t help either. # Third Window Films, great supporters of Korean movies, hit as Sony’s main CD and DVD replication centre is burnt down: huge amount of stock destroyed. http://on.fb.me/npACjW … [Read More]

London YG flashmob gets Korean media attention

Flashmobs don’t normally go on for an hour and a half, nor do they normally travel down to the London Eye and back filmed by most major Korean TV channels, nor do they dance, sing, wave banners and scream their enthusiasm for YG Family. This however is flash mobbing k-pop style and there are no … [Read More]