Biographical musical of 'samul nori' master will be staged

Seen is a scene of promotional footage played during a press conference for “The Story of Kim Duk-soo,” a biographical musical of percussion master Kim at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

By Park Ji-won

A biographical musical portraying traditional percussion master Kim Duk-soo's rigorous pursuit toward the establishment of a new musical genre “samul nori” over the past decades will be staged. Kim himself performed in the musical along with his crew.

“The story of Kim Duk-soo,” a musical directed by Park Geun-hyung and led by executive producer Lee Dong-yeon, will be staged at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on May 28 to 31.

The musical, which will be jointly produced by the Chung Mong-Koo Foundation and the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, visits Kim's personal stories about his passion for the folk performance and troupe artists who were derided as “clowns” while highlighting how samul nori was born and Kim's role in making it happen.

“As a clown, I was able to have up-close-and-personal experiences of ordinary people's lives,” Kim said during a press conference at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts, Seoul, Monday.

“The musical will revisit the era from the 1950s to present; for example, the times when war-torn Korea was desperate to export goods to overseas markets. Kim and fellow performers will show how samul nori was born under the authoritarian regimes,” executive producer Lee Dong-yeon said.

Born in 1952, Kim started performing in “Namsadang,” or an itinerant troupe with his father at age five, and learned how to play traditional percussion and perform. He and his colleagues in 1978 established a music ensemble named SamulNori that practiced the sit-in performance style which would later also come to be be known as “samul nori” ― named after the group ― bringing folk performances into the cities to be performed on indoor stages. They used four main traditional musical instruments: kkwaenggwari (small gong), jing (medium-sized gong), janggu (hourglass-shaped drum) and buk (barrel drum). “Samul nori is the genre that transformed the visual entertainment into sound art,” Kim said.

Kim explained that his own self-developed performing style was not warmly received in the early days. Many people had the thought that traditional instruments should be performed outside, not in indoor performance areas.

“Around the time I revived and renewed the genre was when South Korea was ruled by the authoritarian regime. Performing musical instruments in the street was then viewed as a crazy idea because at that time society was pretty repressive and performing outdoors was considered something rebellious against the government. Street artists were also viewed as a threat to law and order or painted as North Korean sympathizers.”

He added, “but I kept doing it and redeveloped the genre because we were about to die of poverty. So I brought the traditional performances inside to the stage.”

Kim Duk-soo, master of Korean percussion and father of “samul nori,” speaks during a press conference for “The Story of Kim Duk-soo,” a biographical musical of Kim at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in Seoul, Monday. Yonhap

He stressed that his roots in Korean traditional music brought him to revive new vision of the genre and helped him collaborate with other musicians from all over the world.

He also said the music can bring the two Koreas together, stressing that North Koreans enjoyed his music a lot on his past two visits to the North.

“We have not forgotten about the phrase 'we are one.' And using four instruments for samul nori we didn't forget the line either. I realized when I visited Pyongyang twice for samul nori performances that North Korean people enjoyed the music the most. I was so welcomed by them more than I ever experienced before in other countries.”

The musical will be free of charge, but reservation is required and places will be issued on a first-come first-served basis. Visit sejongpac.or.kr for more information.