![Thumbnail for post: Youn Sun Nan [sic] on BBC World Service](https://londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/nys_laugh_sq.jpg)
While in London at the beginning of the week for the UK leg of her world tour, Youn Sun Nah found time to pop into the BBC World Service studio to meet Mark Coles of the Arts programme The Strand. Coles’s researcher had done some of the background work, having read the relevant press materials … [Read More]
Music (page 90)
Review: Youn Sun Nah and Ulf Wakenius at the Vortex
There weren’t many people who knew what to expect at the Vortex on Sunday night. Time Out had given a useful taster in their listings column, while one or two Korean fans (including the ambassador’s wife) knew Youn Sun Nah’s music well. Probably most of the audience were there because they are Vortex regulars – … [Read More]
Time Out previews Youn Sun Nah
Time Out provides the following encouragement to come along to The Vortex this Sunday evening: Korean jazz singer YSN may be a new name on these shores, but she’s already clocked up six albums; her latest, “Voyage” released on prestigious German label, ACT. Here with leading Swedish guitarist Wakenius, she lets the full range of … [Read More]
Chongganbo – Sejong’s Musical Alphabet
By Matthew Jackson King Sejong is most famous for his invention of the Korean alphabet. His other achievements, in social and legal reform, science and art, are less well known. The Chongganbo (정간보), which could be regarded as a musical alphabet, is one such achievement. The five-line staff notation that we use in modern music … [Read More]
Happy music, Happy people
We want to make people in this world listen our music and feel happy 😉 Nina Lee from Happy Robot Records talks to Anna Lindgren. Over the past few years, Happy Robot has become one of the finest indie labels in Korea. Several of their artists made it to the finals of AVIMA 2009 – … [Read More]
Recent music award winners
March was a month in which a couple of music awards were announced. The awards which appeared from nowhere were AVIMA, the Asian Voice Independent Music Awards. And recognising the impact of Indieful ROK, its mastermind Anna Lindgren was one of the international judges of the awards. Anna was nice enough to mention her LKL … [Read More]
My May is Made: Nah Youn Sun comes to London
The event that I’d been hoping would happen for a very long time is actually going to happen. Nah Youn Sun, the Korean-born Jazz singer who’s based in France, is going to be performing in London. And she has promised LKL an interview. Regular readers will know that LKL rates Nah highly – her 5th … [Read More]
A celebration of young Korean talent
A somewhat ponderous performance of Shostakovich’s Fifth by an international maestro marking a fifty-year association with one of London’s orchestras might seem to be an odd occasion to choose to celebrate young Korean talent. But when the companion piece is the same maestro’s Music for Cello and Orchestra played by the young star cellist Han-na … [Read More]
Concert notes: Jasmine Choi’s Wigmore debut
In the first few moments of a concert you can often tell whether the next hour and a half is going to be enthralling or simply pleasant. With Jasmine Choi’s opening notes of Debussy’s Syrinx, you knew it was going to be the former. Being an item for solo flute, the lights could be dimmed … [Read More]
Concert news: Han-na Chang at the Festival Hall
Lorin Maazel, the man who took the New York Phil to Pyongyang last year, has had a long association with music in London. It’s 50 years since he first conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra, and to celebrate he’s doing a series of three concerts which contain an “emotionally-charged trilogy of concertos” composed by Maazel himself. In … [Read More]
Kowoon Yang at the Wigmore
The second Wigmore debut by a young Korean artist this week: First prize-winner in the Max Rostal International violin competition in Berlin in 1998 and winner of major prizes in a number of international competitions, Kowoon Yang (양고운) has performed as soloist with orchestras throughout Europe, including the Moscow Philharmonic and the Beijing Central Orchestra. … [Read More]
LKL meets Jasmine Choi
“I’m not used to having my photograph taken without my flute” laughs Jasmine Choi. She decides to fold her arms as I take her picture in the foyer of the Wigmore Hall. We have met to talk a little about her musical career. She is in London briefly for her Wigmore debut – a big … [Read More]
Yun Isang – Korea’s best-known classical composer
On Monday next week we have the rare opportunity to hear some work by possibly Korea’s best-known composer in the Western “classical” style, Yun Isang (윤이상). Yun was born on Korea’s south coast near Tongyeong (통영) in 1917, and during the colonial period studied Western classical music in Korea and Japan. He was also involved … [Read More]
Event news: Jasmine Choi at the Wigmore
Notice of an upcoming recital at the Wigmore, including a rare opportunity to hear a work by Korean composer Yun Isang, and an exclusive deal for lucky LKL readers. Jasmine Choi – flute Ashley Wass – piano Debussy – Syrinx Reinecke – Sonata for flute and piano Op. 167 ‘Undine’ Yun – Garak Bartók – … [Read More]
The biggest independent music awards in the world
Voize.my, a Malaysian entertainment and lifestyle magazine site, brings you the Asia Voice Independent Music Awards. Billed as Asia’s first indie music awards, the event has acts from all over Asia, including Malaysia, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Hong Kong, Singapore, UAE, and of course Korea. In fact, with 16 countries participating, the organisers claim this is … [Read More]
FT hails New Malden parakeets, and other recent London Korean stories
First up, Professor Keith Howard from SOAS got featured in the JoongAng daily in an article entitled Samulnori beats in an English heart, on the occasion of a recent trip to Seoul to attend a Samulnori symposium. Professor Howard will soon be off to sunnier climes, with a year in Sydney Australia. Howard was recently … [Read More]