Korean traditional music to be presented in concert at UB

By PATRICIA DONOVAN
News Services Editor

The UB Faculty of Arts and Letters will present "The 1996 Korean Culture Program: A Celebration of Korea's Traditional Performing Arts" tonight at 8 o'clock in Slee Concert Hall on the North Campus. It is free of charge and open to the public.

The popular and elegant international program will be co-sponsored by The Korea Society of Washington, D.C., and the Korean Culture Program of the Korea Foundation in Seoul, Republic of Korea. Last year, the two co-sponsored a program on Korean visual arts that was presented in major museums, galleries and universities throughout the United States.

UB is one of only eight venues on this year's tour itinerary. The others are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smith College, Cleveland Museum of Art, Temple University in Philadelphia, Smithsonian Institution, Duke University and Indiana University at Bloomington.

The program will include a 50-minute introductory talk on aspects of Korean traditional music, followed by a musical performance on traditional instruments by six of Korea's most outstanding musicians.

Several works on the program are of the technically and artistically demanding solo instrument genre known as sanjo, which developed in the late 19th century.

Performers include Byung-ki Hwang, an internationally recognized artist, composer and university educator in Korean music who plays the 12- and 17-string Korean kayagum, a board zither with moveable bridges. Hwang, who has lectured throughout the world, also will present the opening talk on his country's traditional music.

The concert that follows will feature Hwang's solo performance of an original composition, "Ch'imhyangmu," a work that broke new ground in the field of kayagum music.

Korean vocal music will be sung by the prizewinning Korean traditional vocalist Kwansoon Kang, whose performance tours have covered Japan, Canada, Southeast Asia and Europe during the past eight years.

In addition to Hwang, instrumentalists will include Chung-soo Kim, acknowl edged master of the changgo, a double-headed, hourglass-shaped drum with which folk performers are able to create powerful rhythmic excitement.

Yong-gu Lee, a member of the National Orchestra of Korea, will perform on the taegum, a large transverse bamboo flute whose sound is moving even to listeners of different cultural backgrounds. Dae-seog Cheong, an award-winning musician who works with the Korean Traditional Music Orchestra of the Korean Broadcasting System, will perform on the komungo, a six-string zither plucked with a bamboo rod. Finally, Il Won, one of the most acclaimed young masters of the piri (oboe) and t'aep'yongso (conical oboe), will perform on those instruments.