Students organize jazz festival with stars

By Ines Min

Staff reporter

Local and overseas jazz artists are appearing on one stage with the help of some of their youngest enthusiasts: college students.

Last Saturday the Mark Sherman- Tim Horner Quartet teamed with local act Im Dal-kyun ? a representative saxophonist of Korea ? for a performance on a floating stage on the Han River.

The show was organized as part of the second annual “Undergraduate Jazz Festival,” an event run entirely by passionate college students.

The three-week event will continue this Sunday with a performance by Korean pianist Min Kyung-in and will wrap up next Saturday with Shin Kwanwoong’s Big Band.

The famed Shin will provide the audience with a traditional performance, backed with his nearly 40 years of experience as a jazz musician. Afterwards, he will open up the event to a “Jam session,” and spectators will become performers as they gather on stage for an improvised music jam.

The festival began in an effort to promote cultural exchange among college students across the nation, with students from Ehwa Woman’s University to the Catholic University of Korea. All proceeds from the event will be donated to the newly-established, eponymous “Undergraduate Jazz Festival Fund,” which provides financial support for young musicians unable to pay for a musical education.

For more information about the “Undergraduate Jazz Festival” visit their Web site at www.jazzfestival.co.kr.