Portrait of Hwang Byungki: Korean Traditional Music

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Category: Performing Arts

May 30–June 7, 2007

Traditional Korean music made a strong impression on American audiences when one of Korea’s most celebrated composers and performers, Hwang Byungki, took to the stage for an East Coast tour organized and supported by the Korea Foundation and The Korea Society.

Hwang, a composer and kayagŭm virtuoso who has performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall and Paris’ Musee Guimet in the past, played a one hour and ten minute program of elegant classics, including “Sounds of the Night” and “Moon of My Hometown.” The program also included several of his contemporary compositions, which strike a singular balance between natural and abstract sounds. The New York Times has written that Hwang’s work “suggest[s] the musical equivalents of mystically inspired watercolors, [which] musically illustrate the concept of translucency with finely spun webs of sound created by extremely delicate strummings.” Hwang was accompanied by five of Korea’s most prominent musicians: Park Jaeho (taegŭm), Heo Yoonjeong (kŏmungo), Ji Aeri (kayagŭm), Kim Woongsik (changgu) and Kim Nari (vocals).    

Packed auditoriums were the rule during Hwang’s three-city tour, which began on May 30 at Boston’s Museum of Fine Art. The June 2 performance in New York, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium, drew an audience of 500. The June 5 performance at the Smithsonian’s Meyer Auditorium in Washington, D.C. drew a full house. Dozens of fans who had arrived with the hopes of buying tickets at the door had to leave disappointed.

The crowds were as enthusiastic as they were large. Each performance received standing ovations. If the tour had a low note, it was that it wasn’t longer. But American aficionados of Korean culture weren’t left completely adrift by Hwang’s departure. His last show, played at the Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium on June 7, was part of a special event to celebrate the opening of the new Korea Gallery at the National Museum of Natural History.