Korea Herald correspondent NEW YORK — For Australian director Simon Stone, "The Cherry Orchard" was an odyssey born of a combination of things that might have seemed unlikely: a Korean-film obsessive, an Australian director raised in Europe and a long-held dream of working with Korean actors. At an artist talk at Park Avenue Armory on Thursday, Stone described the journey from his fascination with Korean cinema to the 2024 Seoul premiere of his Korean-language reimagining of Anton Chekhov's clas

Korea Herald correspondent NEW YORK — “I went to New York. It was an amazing city. A perfect place to live as an alcoholic.” A burst of laughter rippled through the Wade Thompson Drill Hall. The line comes from Song Do-young, the heroine of Simon Stone’s Korean-language adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard,” played by Jeon Do-yeon. Do-young is recalling the 10 years she spent in New York after the death of her son — a detail that, in this version, replaces Chekhov’s Paris. It was an

Lee Jeong-woo, an 18-year-old South Korean pianist, won the piano section of the 2026 George Enescu International Competition, the Hyundai Motor Chung Mong-Koo Foundation announced Sunday. The final of the competition took place Saturday. Lee also received five special awards, including for best interpretation of Enescu’s works and the audience award. Cellist Park Sang-hyeok, 22, another foundation scholar, placed third in the cello section on Sept. 7. Established in 1958, the Enescu Competition

Last weekend, Haebangchon's bars, clubs and performance spaces played host to more than 100 live acts, ranging from punk bands and DJs to drag performers, wrestlers, magicians and swing dancers. More than 1,000 people bought tickets to the fifth Block Party, held Sept. 11-13, making it the annual event's biggest edition yet, according to founder and main organizer Jamie Finn. The festival is growing. But so is the attention surrounding the neighborhood it calls home. "It's no secret to say that

Sayuwon, a sprawling mountain garden in Gunwi, Daegu, is known for its centuries-old trees, contemporary architecture and meticulously designed landscapes. Starting Friday, it will host the inaugural SAYA International Music Festival for three days. Spanning approximately 495,000 square meters along the foothills of Palgongsan, the garden features 108 quince trees with an average age of more than 300 years, alongside architectural structures designed by Korean and international architects. In re

NEW YORK — South Korean actors Park Hae-soo and Jeon Do-yeon made their New York stage debuts Wednesday in the North American premiere of “The Cherry Orchard,” opening to an enthusiastic audience at Park Avenue Armory. The Korean-language adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s final play, directed and adapted by award-winning Australian dramatist Simon Stone, opened Wednesday at the Armory’s Wade Thompson Drill Hall. All 12,000 seats for the production’s 10 performances through Sept. 26 have sold out. “I

Seoul Arts Center will launch a new orchestra next year as part of a broader strategy to strengthen South Korea’s classical music ecosystem, President and CEO Chang Han-na announced in an interview with MBC on Wednesday. Chang, the institution’s first president from an artistic background and its youngest leader, said the orchestra would be established with newly secured government funding. Its name has not yet been disclosed. “We have many outstanding musicians and talents in Korea,” Chang said

The 26th Seoul International Performing Arts Festival will bring a wide range of work to Seoul stages this fall: a Han Kang novel adapted for the stage fresh off its Avignon premiere, a documentary-style piece built around the testimony of one of Korea's first openly transgender performers, and an inclusive ballet grown out of community workshops, organizers said at a press conference Tuesday. The 26th edition of the Seoul Performing Arts Festival, or SPAF, runs from Oct. 8 to 25 at major perfor

South Korean pianist Lim Yunchan has been nominated in the 2026 Gramophone Classical Music Awards in Britain, his agency said Monday, two years after his historic double win. Lim's album "J.S. Bach: Goldberg Variations," released in February and featuring a live recording of his sold-out April 2025 performance at New York's Carnegie Hall, is among the finalists in the Piano category, Moc Production said. Launched in 1977 by the British magazine Gramophone, the Gramophone Classical Music Awards a

There are some inevitable hurdles to bringing the Broadway musical "Hell's Kitchen" to the Seoul stage as a Korean-language production. Rooted in Alicia Keys’ music and her semi-autobiographical story of growing up in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, the musical arrived in Seoul just two years after its Broadway opening as its first non-English-language licensed production. The Korean production, which opened July 24 at the GS Arts Center, offers an early test of what happens when a story so rooted in

Kim Soo-ha has spent more than a decade in musicals, from London to Seoul, appearing in productions such as “Rent,” “Hadestown” and “Aida.” In 2015, she became the first female Korean actor to make her West End debut, joining the ensemble and serving as a cover for Kim in “Miss Saigon.” Yet nothing in her career prepared her to sing and dance like Ali, the teenage lead she plays in the Korean premiere of “Hell’s Kitchen.” "Hell's Kitchen," a musical created by Alicia Keys based on her teenage ye

Twice within five days this November, Korean audiences will hear Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" -- first from Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, then from Teodor Currentzis and his Utopia Orchestra, in interpretations built on almost opposite philosophies. Mahler follows just as tightly: Rattle closes his two-night stand with Symphony No. 2, and Currentzis folds Symphony No. 1 into those same Nov. 17-18 concerts. It's the starkest overlap in a fall season that packs nine

GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province -- “I might not play it well, but I wanted to play something today anyway,” Chung Myung-whun told the audience on Sept. 3 before taking the stage — this time not as a conductor, but as a pianist, in the unlikely setting of a hospital hall. Chung has played piano in a hospital setting several times before, in Japan for children with cancer. But the performance at Myongji Hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, was his first in a Korean hospital, for an audience of patient

Actress and former K-pop girl group April member Lee Na-eun will make her stage acting debut in the upcoming Korean production of the play "Closer." Written by British playwright Patrick Marber, "Closer" follows the tangled relationships of four people — Larry, Anna, Dan and Alice — amid love, obsession and betrayal in 1990s London. The play was adapted into a 2004 film of the same title starring Natalie Portman. Lee will play Alice, an attractive but enigmatic stripper, alternating the role wit

South Korean actors Jeon Do-yeon and Park Hae-soo will wrap up their international tour of "The Cherry Orchard" with a New York run this month. Produced by LG Arts Center Seoul and helmed by acclaimed Australian director Simon Stone, the production will make its North American premiere at the Park Avenue Armory from Sept. 16 to 26, LG Arts Center Seoul said Tuesday. The production premiered in Seoul in June 2024 and has since toured Busan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Adelaide, Australia. The New Yo