Daegu

Daegu hosted the “2023 UNESCO Creative City of Music Daegu Global Forum” on November 9th for two days, aimed at building partnerships between UNESCO Creative Cities. Since joining the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in October 2017, Daegu has been leading annual international forums and performances, with this year’s theme being “Climate Action and Roles of UNESCO Creative Cities”, featuring expert sessions, a case presentation by Creative Cities officials, an opera gala performance, and a cultural tour of Bokseong-ro.

This year, participants included former IPCC Chair Lee Hoe-sung, Dang Quang Tu, Mayor of the newly joined Vietnamese Creative City of Music, Dalat, and Daniele Vimini, Deputy Mayor of Pesaro, Italy, along with officials and experts from eight other international UNESCO Creative Cities, and officials from eight Korean UNESCO Creative Cities.

The event focused on the global issue of the “Climate Crisis,” in light of the rapidly changing climate and resulting extreme weather events such as severe droughts and major floods. It served as a forum for UNESCO Creative Cities to collectively discuss and publicize ideas, centering around “Climate Action and the Role of UNESCO Creative Cities”, with expert presentations, case studies from Creative Cities officials, and panel discussions.

This forum kicked off with a special performance by “HOOLA”, which decorated the stage alongside the audience using upcycling instruments made from various items and tools from Bukseong-ro. The show featured meaningful performances using instruments crafted from recycled materials such as pipe organs and shampoo bottle synthesizers, centered around the theme of climate crisis.

Later in the event, there was a special opera gala performance commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Daegu International Opera Festival. It featured selected music from Mozart’s famous opera “The Magic Flute,” adapted to resonate with climate action and environmental awareness. The performance incorporated recycled and upcycled costumes in collaboration with Daegu designer Kim Kunee, and showcased media art by Federico Pereanez, an artist from London, Canada, a Creative City of Music.

On the second day, November 10th, a session was held to explore concrete and realistic approaches for collaboration between UNESCO Creative Cities. It included meetings between international UNESCO Creative City of Music officials and Korean Creative City representatives to discuss practical collaborative projects. Additionally, the Bukseong-ro Cultural Tour featured various performances by local artists representing Daegu, a Creative City of Music, along with tours of major tourist spots such as the historic houses of Lee Sang-hwa/Seo Sang-don and attendance at the 20th Daegu International Opera Festival Opera Awards.

Through this forum, Daegu shared knowledge and experiences with global Creative Cities and experts in responding to the climate crisis, discussing policy directions accordingly. Aspiring for climate solutions to be a successful gateway to solving numerous environmental problems, Daegu hopes for solidarity and efforts in climate action and global cooperation among the worldwide UNESCO Creative Cities.

A string ensemble from Hanover, a UNESCO Creative City of Music, and a representing ensemble from Daegu staged a fantastic performance on November 22nd in Daegu. This concert was a special event planned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the reopening of Daegu Concert House as a classical music hall, held in collaboration between the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music, Daegu and Hanover.

Four performers from Hanover (violinist Yuliia Van, violinist Sebastian Nowak, violist Johannes Brause, and cellist Lukas Rothenfusses) led by Hanover Chamber Orchestra conductor Hans-Christian Euler, and musicians from Daegu performed chamber music. They also played a special piece by composer Jang Eun-ho (Keimyung University Composition Department, Visiting Assistant Professor). The concert, born from the friendship between the two Creative Cities, ended successfully with standing ovations and cheers from the audience.

Daegu Concert House, where the performance took place, originally opened as Daegu Civic Center in 1975 and was re-opened in 2013 as a premier classical music hall. Over the past 10 years, it has become a venue sought after by the world’s top orchestras, a beloved stage for local artists, a cradle for numerous artists, the leading performance venue of Daegu region, and a hub for UNESCO Creative Cities of Music, bridging the world.

Especially this year, to mark the 10th anniversary of Daegu Concert House’s reopening, a series of rich classical music performances have been delighting audiences more than ever. Following this trend, commemorative performances aligned with the reopening date (November 29th) will offer a rewarding two weeks to audiences. Featuring premium artist performances, collaborations with local artists, UNESCO Creative Cities of Music participation concerts, and Daegu City Arts Group performances, a variety of events will celebrate the tenth anniversary of Daegu Concert House.

The Solasian Youth Orchestra Program, which is held every August in Daegu, Republic of Korea is a perfect opportunity for young musicians/students from 18 to 28 to experience how to cooperate and communicate with other orchestra members, a conductor, and a soloist in an orchestra performance.

First held in 2018, this is a week-long project in which about 100 young musicians/students, selected through auditions, receive practical orchestra training, mentoring opportunities and perform for a week with an orchestra. This workshop helps young musicians come one step closer to their dreams of becoming mature musicians and, ultimately a member of an orchestra..

This year the recruitment target for the ‘2023 Solasian Youth Orchestra in Daegu was a total of 82 players who would perform J. Sibelius – Violin Concerto in d minor, Op.47 and D. Shostakovich – Symphony No.5 in d minor, Op.47. The number of performers for each instrument included violin (26 performers), viola (10 ), cello (10), double bass (7), flute (3), oboe (3), clarinet (3), bassoon (3), horn (5), trumpet (3), trombone (3), tuba (1), and percussion (5).

However the number of applications far exceeded these numbers, with over 270 applicants, resulting in a 3:1 overall competition ratio and a 10:1 ratio for certain instruments such as violin. Out of 270 applicants including 6 applicants from the UNESCO Creative Cities of Music (Ambon, Indonesia; Norrköping, Sweden; Lliria, Spain; Metz, France; and Tallinn, Estonia), only 82 young musicians were accepted including Toomas Hendrik Ellervee from Tallinn, Estonia.

The Solasian program is expected to serve as a platform to strengthen international cooperation among UNESCO Creative Cities of Music in the fields of music education and talent development not to mention promoting friendship and providing opportunities to experience different cultures.

For participating young musicians from UNESCO Creative Cities of Music accommodation for up to 10 days in Daegu will be provided by Daegu Concert House. Daegu Concert House is the first venue in Korea to provide young musicians with practical training and a foothold to becoming a professional orchestra member.
The main performance of this year’s Solasian Youth Orchestra at Daegu Concert House Grand Hall was held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, August 8.

Conductor Samuel Lee noted after the main performance that it had been very successful and he was very impressed by the passion for music all the participants in this year’s Solasian Program had. He highlighted the fact that he saw how much improvement they had made over the course of only a week. He also added that he would look forward to seeing them again as professional musicians in the near future.

UNESCO Creative City of Music Daegu Office organized Korean cultural programs (one-day/half-day tours) for Mr. Ellervee (Estonia) with a tour of not only Daegu but also Gyeongju, the ancient capital of the Silla Dynasty for over 1,000 years which made for a memorable visit. Those who are interested in participating in the Solasian Youth Orchestra program next year, please feel free to send emails to kik9133@korea.kr

*Solasian is a compound word: Sol meaning ‘the Sun’ and ‘Asian’

Via Trio, a classical crossover performance troupe of Daegu, successfully performed in two creative cities of Katowice, Poland and Llíria, Spain. They showed their unique collaboration with K-pop OLD & NEW with string instruments.

Via Trio is the first Korean musicians officially invited to Glastonbury Festival in England, one of the world’s most prestigious festivals, where they received rave reviews. Formed in 2007, Via Trio, a world music ensemble, is an artistic group composed of violin, guitar, haegeum (Korean traditional musical instrument, a vertical fiddle that has two strings) or Gayageum (Korean traditional musical instrument, twelve-stringed zither), etc.

Since 2009, they have been regularly touring Europe under the title of ‘We are going to Europe to play Arirang,’ and have performed more than 230 times in 60 cities in 25 countries. “Arirang” is a representative Korean folk song that was registered as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2012. In addition, Via Trio has been invited four times to Glastonbury Festival, the largest contemporary performing arts festival in the world that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. They hold the record of being Korea’s first and most invited performers to the Glastonbury Festival.

Especially this year, Via Trio was invited to the World Music Festival in Katowice and LLUM FEST in Llíria. These special performance opportunities were made possible thanks to the warm hospitality and friendship shown by Katowice and Llíria and Via Trio received a standing ovation in both cities. The title of this European tour was ‘The Past and Present of K-POP.’ Along with the string playing, Pansori (a Korean musical tradition of storytelling featuring vocals and arrhythmic drumming) was uniquely added. From Chunhyang-ga, a traditional Korean pansori song, to Spring Day of BTS, representative K-pop songs were covered with string instruments and Pansori.

“Welcome to our city, they are great musicians and excellent people,” said Vincent from Llíria. Also, Lukasz from Katowice, praised them “They are fantastic!”

Members of Via Trio said, “We are delighted and very grateful to have a meaningful performance opportunity at the UNESCO Creative Cities. We hope that we can continue to be together with Creative Cities through our music.”

To view the video clip of their performance, click on the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/@viatrio/videos

The Ring of the Nibelung, also known as the Ring Cycle (a cycle of four German-language epic operas) is being performed for the first time in Korea by the Nationaltheater Mannheim from Germany during the 19th Daegu International Opera Festival (DIOF) from October 16 to 23, 2022.

The 2022 DIOF kicked off on September 23 and will continue on with its 58-day journey until November 19th. . Throughout this year’s festival, works by world famous Italian composers, Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi, Giacomo Puccini, Gioacchino Antonio Rossini, German composer Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and more are being showcased under the theme of solidarity and diversity.

The opening opera was the epic “Turandot” by the Italian composer Giacomo Puccini. It was a collaborative piece by Daegu Opera House and Gwangju Symphony Orchestra.

The second work was by Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, “Don Giovanni” and was performed on October 7 and 8. “Don Giovanni” was selected as one of the greatest operas by the New York Times due to its magnificent music and artistic features.

Italian composer Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi’s “La traviata” and more will also be showcased throughout the festival.

The closing opera has been selected to be the South Korean composer Isang Yun’s opera “Sim Tjong.” You may know that this work premiered at the opening of the 1972 Olympics in Munich. This will be performed on November 18 and 19.

The festival program that attracted considerable special attention before DIOF even opened was the Ring Cycle.

The monumental cycle, which is comprised of four of Wagner’s most celebrated music dramas: Das Rheingold, Die Walkure, Siegfried and Gotterdammerung,
is a very special opera production and will be performed by the Nationaltheater Mannheim from Germany. The 16 hours of music drama will be spread across two afternoons and two evenings on October 16th (Sun.), 17th (Mon.), 19th (Wed.) and 23th (Sun.)

In the past, there have been cases where only one of the Ring series works, such as The Rhinegold and the Valkyrie, were performed at a concert, but this is the first time in Korea that four works of the Ring of the Nibelung are presented as a whole.

It is also noteworthy that a total of 230 opera crew and staff were invited to participate in DIOF including the orchestra, choir, and lead singers of the Mannheim Theater in Germany. This is the latest production that was performed in July this year at the Mannheim National Theater, directed by Yona Kim, the stage director of the year in 2017 as selected by Opernwelt, a monthly German magazine for opera.

Mannheim joined the UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2014 and Daegu joined in 2017. The cycle of four works of the Ring of the Nibelung at 19th DIOF is the result of ongoing international cooperation and exchange between Mannheim and Daegu as music cities of UNESCO. In the future, closer music-related exchanges and cooperation are also expected.

Finally, we would like to issue an early invitation to all of you to next year’s Daegu International Opera Festival, which will mark the 20th anniversary of the festival.

Talented young artists explore long dormant cultural spaces!

The imagination of young artists, awaken Daegu’s cultural spaces!

Let’s travel to these cultural spaces in Daegu with young artists

An event will be held from October 12^th to 15^th in the Bukseong-ro neighborhood of Daegu. The people of Daegu are invited to experience the works of early to mid-20^th century local artists as well as performances and exhibitions that have been reinterpreted the spaces their predecessors worked. The “Fantastic Urban Travelling Troupe,” a collaborative project between Daegu Metropolitan City, youth group Urban Wildlife Reserve Hula, and young artists perform recreations utilizing modern cultural spaces as a medium.

In and around historic Bukseong-ro, the arts–past and present—meet.

This showcase event is a journey back in time for the people of Daegu.

Pre-registered participants can stroll through alleys and cultural spaces from 2 pm to 5 pm and experience the charm of places where the traces of early 20^th century Daegu can be found. They can also enjoy unique performances as participants on this journey.

The full-scale excursion begins at 5pm, a time when day and night intersect, suggesting the intersection of modern and contemporary times. The two-hour journey includes a visit to Kkotjari Coffee Shop → Daejiba → Gyeongbuk Literature Association → Muyeongdang, and finishes at On, a creative space where the landscaping and the hanok (traditional Korean home) are beautifully harmonized.

The significance of the Gyeongbuk Literature Association, which was formed in 1957 by Baek Ki-man, who is called the ‘archivist of both the culture and art world,” Kkotjari Coffee Shop and Daejiba, which was a gathering place for poets and local artists are all still worth visiting today.

Muyeongdang Department Store connects the Colonial Period and the Korean War of the 1950s as it frames the story of exchanges among different artistic genres between founder Lee Gi-mu, composer Park Tae-joon, children’s literature writer Bok-jin Yoon, and genius painter In-seong Lee.

Young artists who are currently active in Daegu were inspired by the stories of the spaces where older artists were active and interacted, and they recomposed and arranged the works in the forms of dance and contemporary music, pansori (a Korean genre of musical storytelling performance), vocal music, and jazz. 

One of the participating young artists mentioned that they want to respond as blooming flowers from the seeds of freedom that were sowed long ago.

This event is meaningful in that it reinterprets and presents the spaces and stories left by young artists in the past from the Colonial Period to the Korean War, where culture and arts flourished through exchanges, from the perspective of current Daegu young artists. Rather than remaining in the past, the cultural arts archiving project will continue to be researched and utilized and will set a precedent for using it as living content in the present and future.

Let’s open the door to these dormant spaces together. The fantasy of UNESCO Creative City of Music, Daegu unfolds.

Trailer of Fantastic Urban Travelling Troupe “Travelling to artistic spaces in Daegu”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtY6cONhbYc

In and around historic Bukseong-ro, where the past and present meet – let’s open the door to the dormant spaces, and see the fantasy of the city unfold.

The Daegu Symphony Orchestra’s 477th regular season concert, ‘Winter Day’s Fantasy’, was performed on Friday, June 11th at 7:30 pm at the Daegu Concert House Grand Hall. In particular, the encore song of this performance was played with the message of Daegu praying for democracy and peace in Myanmar. This message will be shared with UNESCO Creative Cities around the world in the future.

Daegu was a city where music flowed even in the midst of the Korean war. It was also the music of Daegu, the UNESCO Creative City of Music, that comforted the citizens of Daegu and showed hope for the future even in the prolonged war against COVID-19.

Music has the power to heal people’s hearts and inspire courage, and music is also a language that people all over the world relate to without an interpretation.

Since the military coup d’état in Myanmar on February 1st, there is still a fierce confrontation between the resistance of the people who risked their lives and the oppression of the military. The sacrifice and sorrow of the innocent people are increasing but it does not seemed to be ending.

As a UNESCO Creative City of Music that supports universal values such as human rights, free of violence, and respect for life, Daegu held a concert today with a message to pray for democracy and peace in Myanmar. It conveyed comfort and solidarity to the people of Myanmar.

In that sense, the prepared encore song is part of the finale of Tchaikovsky’s 5th Symphony, the conductor of Daegu Symphony Orchestra, said, “I chose a dynamic and lively song, not a sad and heartbreaking song.” He also added, “I hope that this music will deliver strength and courage to them.

Daegu Mayor Young-jin Kwon, who watched the performance with the citizens, said in a video message, “I would like to send comfort and solidarity support to the people of Myanmar who are going through a time like war.” Then he continued, “I hope that the sound of solidarity and peace from today’s performance can be communicated to Myanmar and around the world, and I hope that the audiences who are with us today will also unite for peace in Myanmar.”

In the hope that Daegu the starting point of the Myanmar freedom and peace support movement on the UNESC-level, the encore song of the performance containing the hearts of Daegu citizens and the video message of Daegu Mayor Young-jin Kwon will be shared with all creative cities including UNESCO Cities of Music around the world.