A roving reporter’s account of yesterday’s Trafalgar Square Dano festivities by Jennifer Barclay with photos mostly by Jeon Sung-min (photo of the b-boys by Katie) It was a grey day on Sunday 17 June; but I donned a slightly sparkling T-shirt and set out for Trafalgar Square for the first ‘Korea, Sparkling’ Dano festival to … [Read More]
Music (page 96)
Sejong Soloists at the Cadogan Hall: what live music is all about
Sejong Soloists: Three Moments in Time – Cadogan Hall, Sunday 10 June Go along to a standard orchestral concert, and what do you see? Ranks of musicians sitting inertly and gazing intently at their music stands. The baton is maybe a flash of white just visible in the corner of their eye, but from the … [Read More]
Some videos to persuade you to come to Trafalgar Square on Sunday
Korean open-air Dano (early summer) Festival, Trafalgar Square, Sunday 17 June, 12-6pm First, here’s Team Kroniculs, aka the Jaguar Demo, who will be participating in the Taekwondo display. It’s not just martial arts they do: Next, here’s the Korean b-boy crew Rivers: They’ll be battling against the UK’s Bad Taste Cru. There will be some … [Read More]
Lim Hyung-joo: dreaming in marble halls
In the first half of the St John’s recital on Thursday, Lim Hyung-joo concentrated on the more classical end of the popera spectrum. There was a microphone on stage, and Lim stood behind it, but up until the interval the evening was un-miked. Having heard a couple of his performances on YouTube I was wondering … [Read More]
A meeting with Swimmin’ Fish
By Anna Lindgren There are few things I take a liking to as easily as catchy guitar driven music with female vocals, thus I took a liking to Swimmin’ Fish as soon as I heard them. Despite being busy in the studio, recording their first full length album, the band’s manager made sure that I … [Read More]
Kayageum player #4 in Miss Universe
Honey Lee, crowned Miss Korea in August 2006, studies traditional music at Seoul National University, specialising in the kayageum. Her mother is a professor at Ehwa, and was designated a “living cultural asset” in kayageum music earlier this year. Lee was a strong contender in this year’s Miss Universe contest, recently held in Mexico. In … [Read More]
Lim Hyung-joo, Korean popera star comes to London
Thanks to the watchful eyes of Kay, I discovered just in time for yesterday’s “what’s on” post that the Korean Residents Society have invited the youthful popera star Lim Hyung-joo to appear at St John’s Smith Square next week. The programme includes some classical lollipops plus one or two of the songs which have made … [Read More]
Korean Seasons to launch the summer
The London concert-going public groans inwardly when it sees yet another advertisement for a candle-lit Vivaldi Four Seasons performed by a scratch orchestra at some central London church or other. Such a programme must put bums on seats or else promoters wouldn’t constantly recycle it. But we yearn for something a bit more innovative. Well, … [Read More]
Myung-whun Chung in sell-out Barbican concert
If you’re prepared to turn up on the off-chance of there being returns, Myung-whun Chung is conducting the LSO tonight at the Barbican in what is becoming quite a popular coupling: Mozart and Bruckner. Piotr Anderszewski plays everybody’s favourite Mozart Piano Concerto — No 23, K488, while the meatier part of the programme is made … [Read More]
More Korean success on classical music stage
The triennial Gustav Mahler International Conducting Competition was held in April in Bamberg, Germany. 2004’s winner, Gustavo Dudamel, was recently appointed misc director of the LA Philharmonic, marking out the competition as an event which identifies the future stars. The 2007 competition featured 12 competitors from Germany, Egypt, Russia, USA, Britain. And Busan-born Sung Shi-yeon … [Read More]
A meeting with Tearliner
By Anna Lindgren There’s a consensus among Korean indie music lovers that Pastel Music offers high quality music. One of the main reasons why this consensus arose is Tearliner. Thanks to orienkorean and his cousin I was able to make contact with Liner, who kindly agreed to answer my numerous questions on Tearliner and his … [Read More]
Park Hyun Bin #1: Gondre Mandre
Possibly my most disappointing speculative purchase ever, this is the second stop in my journey through the younger generation of artists who appear to be involved with the Trot revival. As with my first encounter, I can’t make the connection between what I’m hearing and what I’m told Trot is all about. At least with … [Read More]
Super Junior T: Rokkuko
Every now and then in my somewhat random purchases of Korean pop music I hit upon a gem. By the law of averages, every now and then I have to come across a dud. This is one of them. I’ve started investigating Trot, and perversely thought I’d start with its latest reincarnation and work backwards … [Read More]
A fantastic source for Korean rock & indie music
If you’re just starting with Korean rock, indie, alternative and punk music, you could do a lot worse than visit Orienkorean’s YouTube channel (linked below). He’s got wide-ranging tastes and (for how long he’s going to keep this up, I don’t know) he’s trying to upload one music video per day. Orienkorean was kind enough … [Read More]
The Korean breakdancing scene
The talent on display at the Peacock at the moment is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Korean B-boy scene. Korean breakdancing is getting almost to be mainstream – to the extent that corporate suits hire B-boys to provide some glitz and glamour to a new product launch; and they … [Read More]
A meeting with Omega 3
By Anna Lindgren It’s been almost two years since they released their debut album and Omega 3 are now back, holding concerts again. As Alpha Beat has become one of my all time favourite albums, I was curious to learn what was going on. The band’s drummer, Choi Jae Hyuk, was kind enough to take … [Read More]