Musical scores stud Korea Times spring concert

• Published Apr 17, 2018 9:56 PM KST
• Updated Apr 19, 2018 8:25 PM KST

By Yun Suh-young

Musical scores from popular Broadway musicals highlighted The Korea Times’ annual spring concert, Tuesday, held at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts.

When musical singer Lee Gun-myung took the stage at the end of the first half, the audience roared with enthusiasm and gave a thunderous applause, especially after the famed song “Flaming Sunset” featured in the Korean musical “Gwanghwamun Love Song.” The music is better known as popular Korean singer Lee Moon-sae’s signature song.

The Korea Times spring concert is an annual event inviting the newspaper’s readers to attend as a token of gratitude for their loyal readership.

Ranging from classical, jazz, opera and musical pieces, the concert delights the audience with a variety of genres of music.

This year, it celebrated the 68th anniversary of The Korea Times.

The event featured the Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra led by conductor Park Sang-hyun, a regular contributor to the event, with singers Cho Jung-hee and Lee Yong, musical singer Lee Gun-myung, tenor Chung Joong-soon, baritone Woo Ju-ho, sopranos Kim Min-ji and Yoon Jung-in, and cellist Lim Hee-yong.

Over 1,800 guests including the newspaper’s readers, government officials, diplomats, business leaders and cultural figures attended the concert.

The event started off with the “William Tell Overture” by the Mostly Philharmonic Orchestra followed by “Nessun Dorma” from the opera Turandot by tenor Chung Joong-soon, “Ari Arirang” by soprano Kim Min-ji and “Mamma” by baritone Woo Ju-ho. Then came the famous musical scores; “This is the Moment” from Jekyll & Hyde, “But I Loved You” from the local creative musical “The Days,” and “Flaming Sunset” from Gwanghwamun Love Song sung by Lee Gun-myung.

This year, the concert featured more musical songs than previous years and drew more audience interaction.

After the intermission, the second part of the concert began with “Meditation from Thais” by cellist Lim Hee-yong. Then soprano Yoon Jung-in sang “Habanera” from the opera “Carmen,” “Memory” from the musical “Cats,” and “Somos Novios” (It’s Impossible), a Latin song made popular by Italian singer Andrea Bocelli’s performance. Singer Cho Jung-hee sang “Sparrow and Scarecrow,” “Adoro” and “If I Leave,” and singer Lee Yong finished the concert with “It’s Going to be Windy,” “I’m Sorry Honey” and “Forgotten Season.”

Foreign dignitaries from 22 countries attended the event from Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Educador, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Myanmar, Kenya, Oman, the Philippines, Qatar, Rwanda, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Turkey and Zambia (in alphabetical order).

“The pairing of western classical composers and more contemporary classical Korean ones is like pairing food and wine,” said Jean-Christophe Fleury, cultural counselor and director of the French Institute, saying that The Korea Times concert will help promote Korean culture through foreign diplomats.

“Furthermore, it raises awareness among those of us who are not familiar with Korean artists. I was delighted to listen to them tonight with great curiosity.”

Hungarian Ambassador to Korea Gabor Csaba said it was his second time to attend the concert in three years.

“It’s exciting. Last time I saw a diverse display of Korean culture and I think that has impressed us very much in the past couple of years,” he said.

“In Hungary, hallyu and traditional Korean culture has been very popular. We have a major Korean culture center in Budapest. Young people care a lot about music, the K-drama series. Generally I think the two nations are related. They come from central Asia originally. So there is a sense of brotherhood."