Friday evening I met Young-il Kim (my English "student" -- I don't do much teaching) to attend a concert for which she had free tickets. This concert was part of a 17-day Festival held at the Concert Hall at the Seoul Arts Center (same complex where I take my drumming lessons); each evening a different Korean orchestra played. Friday was the Suwon Philharmonic playing Barber, Tchaikovsky, and a piano concerto by Beethoven with a young up-and-coming soloist. I was impressed by the quality of the concert, by the fact that there are so many professional (I'm sure not full time) orchestras, but mostly by the audience. The concert hall was almost completely full, and the preponderance of the audience was quite young. I would guess that over-50's comprised well under 20% of the audience, a ratio probably reversed in most U.S. orchestra performances where white hair predominates.
In addition to the concert we enjoyed the ambiance of the Seoul Arts Center and its "dancing waters" fountain which I'd never previously seen at night. Really quite fun.
On Saturday after drumming class I met friends In-sook and In-ae and In-ae's son, Sang-kyun for lunch. In 1988, when I spent 4 weeks living in In-ae's apartment while attending the Olympics, Sang-kyun was a middle-schooler who provided most of the translation. It's fun seeing him again, now married and thinking about having children.
We ate at a wonderful bi-bim-bap restaurant, one of a chain specializing in that dish -- Bo-Ri-Bap (보리밥).
On Sunday after church, and coffee hour, I walked around enjoying the beautiful weather -- sunny and shirt sleeve temperatures. The City Hall plaza is being transformed again. When I arrived it was a skating rink, which then changed to grass with areas of blooming flowers, and is now being transformed to provide outdoor seating for performances at the Hi-Seoul Spring Festival which will start shortly. There was some sort of a publicity-generating event about global warming taking place on the plaza. As I was looking on, one of the people in charge asked me to join the group being photographed. So I was included in a couple of pictures -- why I'm not sure. The rest of the group was photographed multiple times. Perhaps another fleeting moment of fame? . . .
The Cheong Gye Cheon (restored stream area in central Seoul) has been decorated to celebrate Buddha's birthday which is upcoming on May 2. (Since that's a national holiday Korean friends are distressed that it falls on a Saturday so no day off work.) There are paper lanterns hanging along the stream, and along most of the major thoroughfares, and some interesting sculptures placed on platforms in the middle of the stream.
While walking along I heard the sound of drums and hoped perhaps another Korean drumming group might be performing. Following the sound I discovered
This young man was part of the Yeong Wol Big Band just setting up and practicing a bit to play a little later. They were there to advertise the 43rd King Danjong Festival to be held next weekend about 3 hours away from Seoul. I'd hoped to hear them play but didn't want to wait around for 20 minutes and didn't get back to that location as I continued my walk. After about 2 miles my feet gave out so I grabbed the subway and returned home. Now, somewhat rested, I'll begin my homework. . . .
There should have been some poongmul performances. Last year, Tte, the Yonsei group I was in performed there for the Hi-Seoul spring festival in a competition with other universities. Did you go to the Buddha's bday parade? There were tons of poongmul groups there last year. I love your pictures! they make me wanna go back! ^__^
ReplyDelete