Presenting Korean traditional music as living practice
Gayageum master Eunsun Jung
This month, the College of Music welcomes two acclaimed Korean traditional musicians to campus for a weeklong exploration of performance, culture, teaching and collaboration.
Organized by Assistant Professor of Ethnomusicology Stephanie Choi, the colleges first-ever Korean Traditional Music Artist Residency, Sept. 22-26, features gayageum master Eunsun Jung and percussionist Seojin Kim who will lead workshops and class visits, engage local K-12 schools, participate in conversations with students and faculty, and present a泭 on Sept. 23. Teaching Professor of Collaborative Piano Suyeon Kimalong with Choiwill perform in the recital as collaborators.
For Choi, the residency is an opportunity to present Korean traditional music as a living traditionrooted in the past, but still泭taking on new forms in the present. My goal is to introduce Korean traditional music not only as a cultural heritage from the past, but as a living musical practice that continues to shape our communities through performance and collaboration, shares Choi, noting that direct participation is an important complement to more traditional forms of learning.
I learned that theres a profound difference between learning about music through a textbook or media and actually participating as a performer or listener. Direct participation allows you to become part of a musical community and to experience the culture and history embedded in the music in a more personal and immediate way.
The timing of the public recital adds another layer of significance: The performance falls during the week of Chuseok, one of Koreas major traditional holidays which will be observed on Sept. 25 this year. I think the timing makes the recital especially meaningful as an opportunity for both the university and broader Colorado community to gather around Korean music and culture.
For those encountering Korean traditional music for the first time, Choi hopes the residency challenges assumptions about what it means for a musical tradition to be traditional. I hope audiences recognize that Korean traditional music is not something simply preserved unchanged from the past, but a living medium sustained through music making as a form of human interaction, she shares.
Percussionist Seojin Kim
Through collaboration with the Center for Asian Studies and Center for Humanities & the Arts, the residency invites conversations that reach beyond music and into questions of culture, history and society. I hope the residency encourages conversations about what we mean by tradition in the first placehow traditions are preserved, transmitted, transformed and sometimes reinvented as societies change, says Choi.
Korean traditional music provides a particularly compelling lens for those questions. While K-pop has become a powerful part of South Koreas global cultural identity, the gayageuman ancient Korean string instrument with origins dating to the sixth centurycontinues to embody cultural ideals of harmony and balance.
The residency also reflects the colleges泭universal musician approach by inspiring students to explore perhaps unfamiliar musical practices and consider music through multiple perspectives. Engaging directly with Korean traditional musicians encourages students not only to broaden their musical knowledge, but also to think across performance, scholarship, education and cultural contexts, Choi says.泭
In sum, students will have the opportunity to encounter music as connected to history, culture and human relationshipswhich Choi sees as essential to developing multiskilled and multifaceted musicians.
The residency is particularly meaningful to Choi as its the first event she has organized at CU 勒貊勛圖. It brings together several dimensions of her own workperformance, research, teaching and community engagementwhile laying the groundwork for future interdisciplinary collaborations.
The Korean Traditional Music Artist Residency runs Sept. 22-26 with the public recital at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 23, in Grusin Music Hall. The residency is co-organized by the泭College of Music and the泭Center for Asian Studies with support from the泭Center for Humanities & the Arts and the泭Roser Visiting Artist Program.