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Jazz meets classical music on slopes of Pyongchang

Posted December. 27, 2016 07:20,   

Updated December. 27, 2016 07:29

한국어
As the 2018 Winter Olympics is one year away, a jazz and classic music festival will be held in Pyongchang, Gangwon Province.

PyongChang Winter Music Festival was first introduced in January, aiming to transform the PyongChang Winter Olympics as a cultural event. The 2017 festival will be held on Feb. 15 - 19 next year, in the concert hall of Alpensia. The PyongChang Winter Music Festival separated itself from PyongChang Music Festival & School by additionally inviting Jazz artists. PyongChang Music Festival & School is held in the middle of Summer and mostly provides classical music to their fans.

The most noticeable guest of this festival is Jazz pianist John Beasley. He was nominated for 2017 Grammy Awards in three categories and played with the world-renowned musicians such as artists Sergio Mendes, Madonna, Fourplay, and Barbra Streisand. He will be on the stage for five times and play with bass player for the Rolling Stones Darryl Jones and Jazz vocalist Woong San to perform Blues, Bebop, modern Jazz, etc.

For classic concerts, chamber music pieces will be played mostly. Kim Sang-yoon (clarinet), Isang Enders (cello), and Kim Kyu-yeon (piano) will play Trio for Clarinet, Cello, and Piano of Beethoven. Assistant Artistic Director of the festival Son Yeol-eum (piano), Lim Ji-young (violin), Lee Hanna (viola), Maggie Finnegan (soprano) and Anderson & Roe Piano Duo will also perform their music.

In the opening concert that is scheduled to be held on Feb. 15, Chung Myung-wha (cello), Son Yeol-eum, and Ahn Sook-sun (pansori singer) will jointly play Three Sarang-gas for Pansori, Cello, Piano & Buk composed by Lim Jun-hee. “The programs of the 2017 festival contain masterpieces of popular composers, who worked in both classical music and jazz, such as Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, cello concerto by Gulda, and West Side Story by Bernstein, Artistic Director Chung Myung-wha said. "As for jazz concerts, hit songs of the Rolling Stones and Michael Jackson as well as great songs of jazz master Thelonious Monk, who marks his 100th birthday in 2017, will be played.”

Ticket costs from 20,000 won to 50,000 won. You can have more details at www.musicpyeongchang.com or call to 033-240-1362.



Dong-Wook Kim creating@donga.com