Lee Hae-rin is a City Desk reporter at The Korea Times, covering social issues, tourism and taekwondo. She is passionate about speaking up for the rights of minorities, including women, LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and animals as well as discovering the latest makgeolli trend in town. Feel free to reach her at lhr@koreatimes.co.kr.
Award-winning Ukrainian pianist performs in name of peace at DMZ music festival
Ukrainian pianist Roman Fediurko performs at Camp Greaves in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, as part of a program of the DMZ Open Interantional Music Festival, Monday. Courtesy of DMZ Open International Music Festival
By Lee Hae-rin
GOYANG, Gyeonggi Province – A world-class Ukrainian pianist Roman Fediurko performed with Korean classical musicians at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) themed music festival in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province earlier this week, aiming to propagate a message of world peace.
On Monday, Fediurko played at a concert held at a former ammunition storage of Camp Greaves, two kilometers away from the DMZ in Paju, Gyeonggi Province.
The camp area served as a base for the U.S. Second Infantry Division for around 50 years after the 1950-53 Korean War and now remains a restricted area after the land was returned to the Korean government in 2007.
“It was a unique experience to visit and perform at the demilitarized zone. I’m grateful for the opportunity to explore and share the intertwining experiences of the past and present, the Korean War and its present repercussions and consequences and the ongoing war in Ukraine,” Fediurko said during an interview with The Korea Times, Tuesday.
The performance was part of the DMZ Open International Music Festival’s program.
Organized by the Gyeonggi Provincial Government and the Gyeonggi Tourism Organization, the eight-day event that kicked off last Saturday brings to the stage several young renowned classical artists to proclaim peace.
Fediurko, who also won first place at the International Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz this year in Geneva, played Scarlatti’s Sonata in B minor, K. 27, Chopin’s Ballade No. 3 in A flat major and Hofmann’s “Kaleidoscope” from Charakterskizzen Op. 40 on stage, which drew enthusiastic applause from the audience.
The 19-year-old said he was especially thrilled to perform the score by Chopin, as he felt a personal attachment and connection to the 19th century Polish composer who contributed to his own homeland’s fight for independence from Russia.
During the eight-day festival, Fediurko performed on two other stages, including last Saturday’s opening night performance with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic.
Ukrainian pianist Roman Fediurko performs with the Gyeonggi Philharmonic Orchestra for the opening stage of the DMZ Open International Music Festival at Goyang Aram Nuri Music Hall in Gyeonggi Province, Nov. 4. Courtesy of DMZ Open International Music Festival
Based in Graz, Austria since 2021 to study music, the pianist said his war-torn country has seen tremendous damage to its cultural heritage. Before Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, he repeatedly claimed that Ukrainian culture and language “don’t exist.”
“As a musician, it’s tragic that it required such a catastrophe to raise interest and the opportunities to present Ukrainian cultural heritage and Ukrainian music to the world," he said.
“Stories and characteristics of Ukrainian history of art can sometimes be as tragic as the history of the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian statehood,” he said, explaining that his country’s art and music have faced challenges of diminishing and influencing development against the backdrop of Russian empires and the Soviet era.
Despite tragedies and obstacles, Ukrainian culture survived and flourished to hold “largely unknown treasures” and offer a myriad of “wonderful music that deserves to be heard by general audiences,” he said, naming Victor Kosenko and Levko Revutsjkyj as some of his favorite Ukrainian composers.
As an artist, Fediurko plans to use his musical career and “valuable opportunities (to perform) to the fullest” to represent his home country and its culture.
“I’m certainly including Ukrainian composers in the solo recitals, for instance. Sometimes it can be a political message, but first of all, it resonates with my own experience and my own emotions as a citizen of a country that still suffers from a war,” he said.