Park Ji-won is a writer for The Korea Times who has been covering a wide range of topics from Korea’s culture to its politics. An avid journalism enthusiast to the core, Ji-won brings a thoughtful and unique perspective to every topic she covers. On weekends, you'll often find her contemplating life’s purpose on a yoga mat — with a cup of quality tea in hand. A native Korean speaker by birth and fluent in English through her work, she went to college in Japan and is learning Chinese and French — hoping to add Polish, Russian and Thai to the mix.
Rare classical music to be performed at biannual concert
By Park Ji-won
Poster for “Music in PyeongChang Winter Festival” Courtesy of MPyC
By Park Ji-won
“Music in PyeongChang Winter Festival” (MPyC), a classical concert directed by award-winning pianist Son Yeol-eum, features classical music that may not be familiar to many people in Korea. MPyC will be performed at Alpensia Concert Hall in PyeongChang, Gangwon Province, from Feb. 5 to 7 as well as on its YouTube channel. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the schedule for the venue was shortened to three days and only Korean artists will perform.
Under the theme “Sweet Silence,” Handel's “9 German Aria” will be performed on the first day of the event by talented performers such as soprano Im Sun-hae, who comes from Gangwon Province; violinist Yang In-mo, the winner of the 54th Premio Paganini International Violin Competition in 2015; cellist Lee Hoe-chan; and pianist Park Sang-wook.
On the second day, under the theme “Meditation,” Novus Quartet, one of the leading chamber orchestras in Korea, will showcase string quartet repertoires including Guillaume Lekeu's “Meditation for String Quartet,” Leos Janacek's “String Quartet No. 1 'Kreutzer Sonata'” and Johannes Brahms' “String Quartet No. 2 in A minor, op. 51.”
The closing performance, under the theme “footprints,” will be conducted by Cha Woong, the 2017 winner of the international conducting competition, “Toscanini Competition,” with a series of classical repertoires such as “Vaughan Williams' “Lark Ascending” by violinist Sung Kyoung-joo; Camille Saint-Saens' “Odelette Op. 162” by flutist Cho Sung-hyun; chief flutist of the PyeongChang Festival Orchestra (PFO); and cellist Han Jae-min, a 14-year-old prodigy from Gangwon Province.
“The winter music festival will serve as a small and warm invitation for those who have had no chances to laugh these days … I expect that this festival would became a good example for being a safe and touching experience,” Son wrote in a press release.
Starting in 2004 as “Daegwalryeong International Music Festival,” the event has provided a unique musical experience to classical music lovers in Korea. The biannual festival has been held since 2016 both in the summer and winter. Before Son, renowned violinist and artistic director Kang Hyo, cellist Chung Myung-wha and violinist Chung Kyung-wha have served as artistic directors. It has been showcasing various classical pieces by contemporary composers including Jay Greenberg and Thierry Escaich.