Daegu classical ensemble VIA TRIO in Katowice and Llíria

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