Traditional Korean Music Has New Home

The road that stretches along Jongno Street from Danseongsa to Biwon (the “Secret Garden”) to Changdeok Palace’s main gate, Donhwamun, is commonly known as Kuk Ak-no, or “Korean Music Road,” because of all the retail stores selling instruments related to Korean traditional music and all the music schools lined up on both sides of it.

On February 3, the road’s Korean Music Hall (photo), the first concert hall reserved exclusively for traditional music acts, held its grand opening. It will provide room for those without expertise in the field to immerse themselves into the world of Korean classical chamber music.

The hall, built by the Korea Changgeuk Institute, is about 100-pyeong in size and has a stage designed to resemble the main floored room of a traditional Korean home. The seats are shaped like traditional guesthouse seats.

Just being in the audience gives guests a comfortable feeling. Guests may view performances while helping themselves to a cup of tea from a small dining table placed in front of them.

The hall was busy on the night of February 3 as around 200 Korean traditional music personalities showed up for the official opening ceremony featuring gayageum solos and traditional narrative song performances. Members of the audience weren’t shy about making their own impromptu contributions to the live acts on stage, either.

As part of the grand opening celebration, renowned artists, some of whom have been awarded the title of intangible cultural assets, including Baek In-young (gayageum), Lee Ok-cheon (pansori), Park Su-gwan (Eastern folk songs), Kim Geum-suk (Gyeonggi folk songs), and Jeong Myeong-suk (exorcism music) will perform from February 8-12.

“Ma-eum,” a Korean classical chamber music group, will be the resident group at the Korean Music Hall and will regularly stage traditional solo acts, group acts, and music for plays. The young nine-member group, comprised of students who majored in traditional Korean music at Chugye University for the Arts and Dongguk University, helped build the hall by moving bricks and supplying wood for the construction themselves.

Gwak Seung-ho, the leader of Ma-eum, said that he plans to help the Korean Music Hall establish itself as a downtown concert arena where traditional Korean acts, such as classic operas and dances, and hybrid chamber music are all easily accessible to the public. “The harsh reality is that we practice on a bowl of ramen. But the fact that we now have a hall built exclusively for traditional music in Jongno, the heart of Korean traditional music, gives me more than enough delight,” he said.

For more information, call 02-742-7278.

Seung-Hoon Cheon raphy@donga.com