Korean music school assembly: 'Sounds of Korean Soul'

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Just wanted to pass on the good word about a wonderful assembly by six performers sponsored by the Foundation for Korean Langauge and Culture in USA (www.klacUSA.org), The Korea Foundation Washington, DC, Office (www.kf.or.kr), and L.A.'s own Korean Education Center in Los Angeles (www.KECLA.ORG).

The program was 45 minutes or so and included folk and court music, as well as a sample of pansori - the a cappella tradition of singing that's almost operatic in its vocal range (there's a great movie version of one of the most famous pansori tales, 'Chunghyan' - I'll post more separately) - with enough drum and cymbal to stir the blood but not get the assembled multitude too pumped to be able to sit still and listen.

From the opening Gil Nori (drumming and dance) through a prayer song (Binari), a string duet, Samdo Samul Nori (rhythms from three provinces), a mask dance, and even a fusion of Korean music and instruments with rap and hip hop - missed that part, for better or worse! - the performers kept the audience's attention. We have 6th through 12th grade, which is a broad spectrum of ages and attention spans, so that's no small praise.

Because there were three assemblies in all, several of our Korean mothers organized a table of ethnic Korean food, set up just outside the auditorium, by way of bookending the performances, which was a great addition to the overall experience.

The performers also handed out a nicely-produced program to introduce themselves, the morning's program, and the musical instruments they'd be using - another plus.

I'd really recommend this group - perhaps you'd like to check them out for your school

Ray

[Edit by="rrobinson on Mar 5, 2:27:17 PM"][/Edit]

[Anonymous]

I just saw this assembly last week. My students were fascinated by the skills of the beautiful Korean women. It was a great way for our school to get a taste of Korean culture. The history of the instruments was given by the host of the assembly. When I heard that the "Korean Drumming" assembly was coming to our school, I only imagined men, definitely not women. They were absolutely amazing. They changed costumes 3 times.

[Anonymous]

My school was also fortunate enough to see this group perform for our sixth graders. The students loved it! It is one of those assemblies where I forgot I should be monitoring my students - I was captiviated by the drumming techniques.
I'll admit I was a bit skeptical about this group's ability to keep my class entertained for any extended period of time. Just a couple minutes into the first song I lost all worry because it became obvious that this group could entertain! The bell to dismiss class rang during the last song, and all my students sat still and asked if they could stay until it was over! I would definetly recommend this performance.

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