The 43rd Seoul Dance Festival is set to kick off on a one-month journey on Oct. 27, showcasing various dance genres. Titled “A Wind of Change with Seoul Dance Festival,” this year’s event consists of pre-festival events, the main festival, a dance competition and a closing ceremony. While the event will begin in earnest on Nov. 11, pre-festival events highlighting performances by dance and performing arts students will take place from Oct. 27 to 31. On Nov. 11, four seasoned da

Area Park is a stubborn photographer who still uses a huge slide film camera - Linhof Master Technika Classic - in the era of digital photography. He pursues film photography even if it means he has to be very selective and cautious when deciding to press the shutter button. Each shot costs 200,000 won - 250,000 won, taking into consideration film purchase, developing and scanning. Sometimes, he has to visit the same place again to retake photos, spending thousands of dollars. “I learned

Death might be the only thing that comes to everyone indiscriminately, but discussing it has long been considered taboo in South Korea. “I wouldn't dare talk about death with my parents, let alone imagine their death,” would probably be the train of thought in most Korean people's minds. Perhaps the sudden deaths brought on by the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic and a growing number of discussions on what is considered a "dignified death" allow us to contemplate the i

Moving to western Seoul after 22 years in the affluent Gangnam district, LG Arts Center made a grand reopening on Thursday at its new Magok venue with a special concert by the London Symphony Orchestra, led by Simon Rattle, with Korean pianist Cho Seong-jin. Cho, the first Korean to win first prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 2015, took the stage with the maestro and orchestra for the audience who filled the 1,335-seat multipurpose LG Signature Hall to perform Ra

Kim Jae, the translator of Lee Young-ju’s “Cold Candies,” received an award from the American Literary Translators Association, according to the Literature Translation Institute of Korea, which supported the translation, on Friday. Named after a poet and translator of Buddhist literature, the Lucien Stryk Asian Translation Prize by the ALTA recognizes the importance of Asian translations for international literature and has been promoting the translation of Asian works into E

If you are a Monbebe, the name of K-pop band Monsta X’s fandom, you might be familiar with the colorful rainbow background in Monsta X member Kihyun's live performance video of his solo song "Voyager" for the “Vocals Only Live” program on YouTube. Get That Shot, a cafe that is perfect for filming live music content, is a well-known Instagram spot. From the entrance of the cafe, located on the first floor of the Lotte Department Store’s Yeongdeungpo branch in sou

The Seoul Performing Arts Festival, in its 22nd edition this year, will explore changes in our times with domestic and overseas projects that test the boundaries of performing arts, the organizers said during a press conference on Tuesday. The SPAF is an annual festival held in the Daehangno neighborhood of Seoul, considered the mecca of performing arts in Korea. It is co-organized by the Korea Arts Management Service under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Seoul Foundation for

A live performance recording of Beethoven’s “Emperor Concerto” by Lim Yun-chan, the youngest winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition, will be released in November, Universal Music announced Tuesday. Lim will take the stage with the Gwangju Symphony Orchestra, led by conductor Hong Seo-kwon, on Saturday at Tongyeong Concert Hall to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, known as the "Emperor Concerto." The album, to

On July 13, 2011, South Korean flutist Choi Na-kyung, also known as Jasmine Choi, played at a recital for the celebration of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s re-election. There she met people she considered to be truly selfless, people who live their lives for the purpose of tackling famine, climate change, improving women's rights and other pressing global issues. Unexpectedly, the joyful event made her depressed for months. “I love music so much, but I couldn’t help

Time travel to Japan's Edo period in Seoul An exhibition will take you on a time and space travel journey this weekend to 17th century Japan, without having to leave the city. An exhibition introducing urban customs and lifestyles of Japan's Edo period (1603-1867) is ongoing at the Seoul Museum of History, in central Seoul, through Oct. 23. Edo is the former name of Tokyo and the capital of the military government at the time, the Tokugawa shogunate. Titled "Scenes Around Sumidagawa River i

The new president of the Seoul Arts Center on Thursday unveiled plans to focus on “pure art," such as opera and ballet, as the organization seeks to return to its original goals. Chang Hyoung-joon, who was appointed in June as the 17th president of South Korea’s top art complex by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, said, "The Opera Theater, which was built as an opera and ballet theater, will regain its original position by presenting pure art works centered on op

The 9th edition of K-Music Festival, hosted by the Korean Cultural Centre UK, is set to bring an experience beyond K-pop with a lineup of artists that use traditional Korean music to find new sounds during the eight-week event. K-Music 2022 will kick off Oct. 5 with a joint concert by Dal:um and ReMidas at the Barbican Centre in London. Dal:um, a musical duo featuring gayageum player Ha Su-yean and geomungo player Hwang Hye-young, made their London debut at the Purcell Room last year. This time,

The National Gugak Center, a state-supported organization that aims to foster Korean traditional music, is set to perform a set of cantatas featuring Korea’s "Jongmyo Jeryeak" and "Arirang." The concert, conducted by Lee Yong-tak, the artistic director of the Contemporary Gugak Orchestra, will present a harmonious sound created by 123 performers. The first part, which will run for 45 minutes, will premiere a new rearrangement of "Jongmyo Jeryeak" by Suwon Un

Actor Im Chang-jung's worst nightmare came true when he returned to the musical stage for the first time in 10 years: He forgot his lines. Im, who played the role of Daniel in the musical "Mrs. Doubtfire," called it the "mistake of his life" over and over again during an interview with reporters on Thursday. “I’d never made that kind of mistake in my life. Forgetting an entire line of a scene. I felt terribly sorry for the audience and still think about h

The musical version of "Crash Landing On You," based on the 2019 megahit TV series of the same title, was unveiled Friday. The musical features familiar names from both the TV and theater scenes in the iconic lead roles of Ri Jung-hyuk and Yoon Se-ri. Lee Jang-woo, Lee Kyu-hyung and Min Woo-hyuk take the role of Ri, the North Korean officer, while Im Hye-young, Kim Ryeo-won and Na Ha-na portray Yoon, the heiress to a South Korean conglomerate. The actors and the creative team alike s

Evgeni Koroliov, Alim Beisembayev, Andras Schiff, Francois-Frederic Guy, Igor Levit and Eric Lu. These are pianists who are set to perform in South Korea later this year, offering a wide-ranging repertoire by Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, among others. Russian pianist Evgeni Koroliov, known as a specialist in the Bach keyboard repertoire, will take the stage with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra on Friday for an all-Bach concert. The program consists of Bach Concerto for 3 Harpsichords in D mino

The Korean National Symphony Orchestra is embarking on a European tour for the first time under its new name. Known as the Korean Symphony Orchestra until March this year, it added "National" to its name to reflect that it is supported by the national budget. The tour will visit three countries in Europe, celebrating the 130th anniversary of the establishment of the Korea-Austria relationship, the 10th anniversary of the foundation of the Korea Culture Center in Poland and newly foun

Pianist Paik Kun-woo saw Alicia de Larrocha performing Granados’ “Goyescas” when he was in New York as a student. That was likely a concert on Dec. 7, 1967, that took place at Carnegie Hall to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Granados. Even now he remembers vividly how deeply impressed he was by the performance and how the music filled the hall with warmth on a chilly night, thinking that he wanted to play it himself someday. That “someday” came half

The previews of the musical adaptation of “Mrs. Doubtfire” opened on Broadway at an unfortunate time -- on March 9, 2020 -- right as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in New York. 　Like most theaters and productions around the world, it only ran three performances before going on an uncertain hiatus. 　The previews returned in October last year, but had to close again in January. In May, the show was closed again, just one month after reopening, due to the spread of the omicron vibran

 Violinist Lee Sung-ju is set to celebrate the 45th anniversary of her New York debut with an all-Mozart concert. Lee made her New York debut in 1977 at Kaufmann Concert Hall as a winner of "Young Concert Artists." She went to the US at the age of 13 to study at the Julliard School, where she studied under Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. For the upcoming concert, titled “Mozart Revolution,” Lee will go on stage with violist Kim Sang-jin and Camerata Antiqua Seoul,