South Korean novelist Bora Chung’s “Cursed Bunny,” translated by Anton Hur, has been selected as one of six books for the prestigious 2022 International Booker Prize short list, organizers said Thursday.  　“It’s getting even more unrealistic, but I’m thrilled to even witness that Korean genre literature is recognized this much and loved worldwide,” Chung told The Korea Herald after the announcement.  “And personally, I’m very hon

  Naver Webtoon and Munpia, a web novel platform, are on the hunt for the next big web novels, or novels published online, boasting 1 billion won in prize money.   The two companies said Thursday that their web novel contest will open May 11 with two rounds: the first round for fantasy, action, modern, sports and alternative history via Munpia and the second round for romance and fantasy romance works via Naver Webtoon.  The organizers said the prize money is the largest

France’s National Orchestra of Metz will embark on a Korean tour later this month, the first foreign orchestra to perform in the country this year, signaling a return to normalcy in international music tours. The orchestra, led by music and artistic director David Reiland since 2018, will perform in five Korean cities from April 29 to May 3. Reiland, the Belgium conductor who has also been leading the Korean National Symphony Orchestra since January, will take the baton for the five pe

Korean-American violinist Jennifer Koh has won the Best Instrumental Solo Award at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards for her recording “Alone Together” on Sunday (US time). “Alone Together” is based on Koh’s online performance series of the same name, created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the financial hardship that many in the arts community face. In the album released by Cedille Records, a not-for-profit record label, Koh plays 39 world premiere recor

Blue Man Group, a nonverbal stage show that blends art, technology, music and comedy, is coming back to meet Korean audiences after a pandemic-induced delay, its Korean distribution company Mast Entertainment said Monday. The Blue Man Group features three bald and blue characters, who “explore the world and discover music, comedy and surprises at every turn.” Since its debut in 1991 in New York, the show has been performed in front of more than 35 million people around the world.

Violinist Edwin E.S. Kim is embarking on an unprecedented journey with 30 concerts, collectively titled “Dots and Lines,” aiming to explore 300 years of violin history. “By mathematical definition, a point is a place in space; a line is a set of points, and a surface is a set of lines,” Kim said during a press conference Tuesday. “I thought it would be intriguing to showcase how the works of great composers throughout history are connected. Each work is a formulat

“Kpop,” an original musical about what it takes to be a K-pop star, is hitting Broadway in October after five years as a smaller scale show that has grown in popularity in tandem with the global rise of Korean music. “Kpop” premiered as an immersive off-Broadway show in the fall of 2017. The production received the 2018 Richard Rodgers Award, three Lucille Lortel Awards, including best musical, the Off Broadway Alliance Award, and seven Drama Desk Award nominations. It

With South Korea riding high on the wave of its international success in the pop culture arena, ranging from the hugely popular “Squid Game” to children’s book illustrator Suzy Lee winning the prestigious Andersen Awards just last week, a foundation hopes to pay it forward by introducing Koreans to relatively unknown Southeast Asian literature. In pursuit of this goal, the Hansae Yes24 Foundation, established in 2014 and privately funded by Kim Dong-Nyung, chairman of Hansae Y

   Clarinet player Cho Sung-ho discovered his passion for wind instruments when he played the recorder for the first time in fifth grade. He had been exposed to music from an early age by his mother who was a piano teacher, and by his maternal grandfather who was a professional violinist. “For some reason that I couldn’t pinpoint, I wasn’t a big fan of the violin or the piano, but once I played the recorder, I knew I had a knack for wind instruments,” Cho tol

TONGYEONG, South Gyeongsang Province -- On Friday evening at Tongyeong Concert Hall, Chin Unsuk, one of the world’s leading contemporary composers, sat down in the audience to witness the first performance of the Tongyeong International Music Festival, which she now leads as its artistic director for the next five years. Chin observed as Finnish conductor Dalia Stasevska was met with rousing, minuteslong applause from the audience for her direction of Andrew Norman’s Asia premiere o

Tongyeong, South Gyeongsang Province -- Twenty years after a music festival kicked off in a remote port city in southern South Korea with little music infrastructure, Tongyeong International Music Festival, armed with composer Chin Un-suk as its artistic director, began the 2022 edition Friday. The obstacles that TIMF has faced vary, according to Lee Yong-min, CEO of Tongyeong International Music Foundation, ranging from the physical distance to an audience unfamiliar with contemporary

Cellist Mischa Maisky is coming back to South Korea for the first time in five years, with three recitals in April and May. The cellist will be accompanied by pianist Lily Maisky, who is also his daughter. Maisky and his daughter will kick off a three-concert series at Gunsan Arts Center in Gunsan, North Jeolla Province, on April 29. After performing at the Seoul Arts Center on May 1, the duo will travel to Gwangju for the last recital here at Gwangju Culture & Art Center on May 3. Bo

  South Korean illustrator Suzy Lee won one of the most prestigious prizes given to authors and illustrators of children‘s books Monday. The International Board on Books for Young Children on Monday announced Lee as the 2022 winner of the illustration section of Hans Christian Andersen Award, which is specifically given in honor of the lifetime work of an illustrator. With the award, Lee has become the first Korean to receive or be nominated at the Hans Christian Andersen Award an

South Korea’s three leading chamber ensembles are set to join forces for a concert in April, according to classical music management company MOC Production. Titled “Quartet Plus,” the concert on Aprill 20 will feature performances by three award-winning quartets -- Novus Quartet, Abel Quartet and Arete Quartet. Abel Quartet will open the concert with Haydn’s Hob III:70 - String Quartet Op. 71, No. 2 in D major. The youngest ensemble, Arete Quartet, will perform Shum

  The Korean Symphony Orchestra on Friday is officially adding “national” into its name following the culture minister’s approval earlier this month. The name change for the orchestra, which is under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, has been pushed for several years, but faced opposition from the KBS Symphony Orchestra, which was once the National Symphony Orchestra. Despite being an organization supported by a national budget, the orchestra has been long

Concert pianist Kim Sun-wook is poised to hold three recitals in May, Vincero, a classical concert production company, said on Wednesday. At his first recital in Korea this year, Kim will showcase three different colors of three great composers with a program of Schubert’s Four Impromptus D. 899, Albeniz’s ‘Iberia’: Book II and Liszt’s Piano Sonata in B minor S. 178. The first concert will take place at 5:00 p.m. on May 15 at Seoul Arts Center. General ticketing

Cellist Kim Hyo-jeong is set to play familiar favorites when she takes the stage on Sunday for her solo recital. At Sunday’s recital at Kumho Art Hall Yonsei in Seoul, Kim, 26, will perform Mendelssohn’s “Lied Onhne Worte,” Op. 109, Faure’s “Sicilienne,” Op. 78, Chopin’s Cello Sonata in G minor, Op. 65, and Shostakovich’s Cello Sonata in D minor, Op. 49. “I chose familiar melodies by Mendelssohn and Faure to comfort people who are b

Augustin Hadelich, an Italian-German-American violinist and Seoul Philharmonic’s Artist-In-Focus, will take the stage later this month for the first time without any cancellations as a visiting artist since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Five concerts featuring the 37-year-old violinist will take place as planned starting from March 31, an official at SPO confirmed on Monday. During his visit to Korea as SPO’s Artist-In-Focus, he will play a wide-ranging repertoire, includi

During the presidential campaign that ended with a narrow victory for opposition candidate Yoon Suk-yeol early Thursday morning, cultural issues took a backseat as the candidates focused on issues like soaring housing prices and recovery from the ongoing pandemic. But the culture industry, still reeling from the trauma of the previous conservative administrations’ blacklist of artists and cultural figures and hit hard by the pandemic, is urging the incoming administration to provide supp

The organizers of Daegu International Musical Festival on Tuesday said it has decided to scrap plans to close the weekslong festival with a Russian musical, joining a growing movement in the art world to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. DIMF organizers said they had planned to introduce the Russian musical, which would have been the first overseas musical in two years at the festival, and that talks had been underway. They declined to name the musical. “We worked hard over t