|
 One
of Asia's greatest contemporary music pioneers is undoubtedly
Yun
Isang (1917 - 1995), a South Korean who finally took up
residence in Germany for various political reasons that would
read more like a John le Carre Cold War spy novel. Despite his
later residential status, Yun has always been essentially a
Korean composer, and a leading figure in a land who has produced
some of the world's greatest musicians.
Not surprisingly, the legacy of the strong father figure that
Yun has cast over the younger generation of Koeran composers
is a powerful one, and it has created one of Asia's most vibrant
contemporary music cultures.
According to a recent report by the Korean Asian Composers
League (ACL) representative, Korea has at up to 20 symphony
orchestras and has at least 26 composers associations, including
an association for women composers, the Korean Society for Women
Composers, who organize regular festivals to highlight the contribution
of women to the new music scene.
As Korea gears up to host the next ACL festival in 2009 after
the previous festival in Hong Kong (that was held in conjunction
with the ISCM World Music Days in November 07), it is perhaps
timely to provide an insight into the exciting music scene in
Korea.
Here are excerpts from the country report made by Young Eun
Paik, the Vice president of ACL-Korea, that was delivered at
the 2007 ACL Festival Conference and Festival.
"Creation, Tradition, and Education are keywords for the
contemporary music scene in Korea in the year of 2006. Many
composers and composers' groups presented numerous works written
for Western instruments and/or with Korean traditional instruments.
Seminars on traditional instruments or new music with traditional
instruments have been on the increased. It shows that in Korea
there is eagerness to be acquainted with how to combine old
and new instruments together and to experience what various
composers do with these instruments," writes Young.
According to his report, the Korean Composer's Association,
which is the highest ranking organization for Korean composers
in the country, saw an enrolment of 26 different composers'
groups. The KCA reports its expansion in activities to support
the performance-environment of new music in Korea.
 These
include cooperating with the Korean Symphony Festival,
which lasts almost a month long and saw the participation of
twenty Korean symphony orchestras. The KCA gave several commissions,
and arranged for the orchestras to perform the commissioned
works, while also encouraging them to play contemporary music
in general. KCA also set up a new music festival called Korean
New Music Expo that takes place every second Wednesday of
the months from September to the following June of the year.
Ten concerts are provided during the season and a total of sixty
pieces are played. One third of the works performed are invited
while two thirds result from calls for score.
The ACL Korea Committee held their 29th ACL Forum in
Seoul in September 2006. This national forum was graced by Younghee-Paan-Park,
a Korean composer and professor in composition at Bremen University
in Germany, as guest composer. Park shared her current compositional
ideas, trends and activities with many composers and students
during the Forum, and two new music concerts were also presented
to the public, featuring eleven ACL-Korea members works in addition
to Park's own compositions. It was at this Forum that the Young
Composers Competition was held to select Korea's representative
for the Young Composers' Award at the ACL-New Zealand Festival
2007.
The oldest composers' group in Korea, the Society for Contemporary
Music in Seoul, engaged with its Chinese counterparts with its
annual exchange concerts program between Korea and China called
Dong Bang Ki Won that was first held in Seoul. Aimed
at sharing the two countries' musical and cultural backgrounds,
the programme in 2006 invited composers from Sichuan Music Conservatory.
In return, eight Korean composers visited the Sichuan Music
Conservatory in Cheng Du, China, which then hosted a China-Korea
New Music Festival at the Conservatory's Concert Hall.
Other new music festivals organized include the 34th Pan
Music Festival by the ISCM Korea section, and the Seoul
International Computer Music Festival organized by the Korean
Electro-Acoustic Music Society which had over thirty nations
submitting 130 pieces, of which up to forty works were selected.
 Travelling
abroad, the Korean
Society of Women Composers gave three new music concerts
in England to showcase different aspects of Korean contemporary
music. The concerts were a collaboration between City of London
Sinfonia and the Korea traditional music ensemble, Garak. The
Contemporary Music Ensemble of Korea was also one of the highlights
of the ACL Festival in Wellington in 2007, performing a concert
of new music for their ensemble as well as an opera scene by
a young Chinese composer and giving workshops on the Kayageum.
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Apr 08
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