Korean Music Troupe to Present Program At UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Those with an affection for transverse bamboo flutes, double-headed drums and six-string zithers will be happy to learn that they're coming to town -- together! -- on The University at Buffalo Faculty of Arts and Letters will present "The 1996 Korean Culture Program: A Celebration of Korea's Traditional Performing Arts" at 8 p.m. in Slee Concert Hall on the UB North (Amherst) 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 various aspects of Korean traditional music, followed by a musical performance on traditional instruments by six of Korea¹s 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 country¹s traditional music, noting its considerable distinction from the music of its neighbors, China and Japan.

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. In it, he employs tuning based on the scale for Buddhist chants to explore a thousand-year-old realm of Buddhist practice in which sensitivity to beauty is sublimated into exaltation through the medium of art.

Korean vocal music will be sung by the prize-winning Korean traditional vocalist Kwan-soon Kang, whose performance tours have covered Japan, Canada, Southeast Asia and Europe during the past eight years. She will present minyo (folk songs) of Kangwon Province, Chin Island in Southwest Korea and mid-west Korea.

In addition to Hwang, instrumentalists will include Chung-soo Kim, acknowledged master of the changgo, a double-headed, hourglass-shaped drum with which folk performers are able to create powerful rhythmic excitement. The instrument reached the apex of its virtuosity in a form of folk music known as farmer's band music, which will be performed here.

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 t¹aep¹yongso (conical oboe), will perform on those instruments.