Often found at theaters and museums, Kwon Mee-yoo has covered a wide range of cultural fields from K-pop and dramas to theater and fine art for over a decade. Now as K-Culture Desk editor, she tries to connect Korean culture with global readers through fresh perspectives.
Seoul Philharmonic plays in memory of Japan quake
By Kwon Mee-yoo
The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will hold a 20-minute performance prior to their concert today, in memory of the victims of the earthquake and tsunami that swept northeastern Japan earlier this month.
The performance will be held in the lobby of the Concert Hall at the Seoul Arts Center, southern Seoul. It will start at 7:10 p.m., before the orchestra's "Explorer Series 1," conducted by Leo Hussain at 8 p.m.
The mini concert is a voluntary movement by the members, including assistant concertmaster Wayne Lin, violinist Lim Ka-jin, violist Hung-Wei Huang and cellist Joo Yeon-sun.
"Material aid is important, but as musicians, the best thing we can share with the people suffering from such a disaster is music," Lim said. "We hope this concert will give support to the quake victims and share the idea with our audience."
They will play Tchaikovsky's "String Quartet No.1" movement 2 Andante Cantabile and Barber's "Adagio for Strings, Op.11."
The "Explore Series" introduces masterpieces that are seldom played in Korea. The first concert today will feature Stravinsky's "Firebird Suite" and Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun." Violinist and concertmaster of the philharmonic, Svetlin Roussev, will perform Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.
In addition, Roussev will play Georgi Zlatev-Cherkin's "Sevdana" to commemorate the memory of the quake victims.
Meanwhile, Seoul Philharmonic’s conductor Chung Myung-whun's "Toshiba Grand Concert 2011," touring Japan with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, has been called off due to the earthquake.
He originally planned to visit eight Japanese cities from March 9 to 19, but the dates after March 15 in Tokyo, Sendai and Kawasaki were cancelled.