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| Jazz musician Nah Youn-sun poses in front of the National Theater of Korea on Namsan Mountain in downtown Seoul. Nah is the artistic director of this year's Yeowoorak Festival held at the theater from July 1 to 26. / Courtesy of Herb Music |
Nah Youn-sun to lead Yeowoorak Festival
By Kwon Mee-yoo
Korean jazz musician Nah Youn-sun has a large following across the globe. She performs more than 100 times a year in various parts of the world, spending more than half the year on the road. This year, instead of traveling all over the world with her music, Nah took up a new challenge.
Nah has been appointed as the artistic director of the Yeowoorak Festival, a Korean music festival at the National Theater of Korea (NTOK) on Namsan Mountain in central Seoul.
Running from July 1-26, the series of concerts hosted by the NTOK pushes the boundaries of "gugak" (Korean traditional music). The title of the festival, Yeowoorak, comes from an abbreviation for the Korean sentence, "Yeogi woori eumagi itda" meaning "Here is our music." Established in 2010, the previous editions of the Yeowoorak Festival were helmed by Korean-Japanese crossover musician Yang Bang-ean.
"I was offered to the post at the beginning of the year. At first I declined because I thought I was not capable of it. I paid a visit to NTOK CEO Ahn Ho-sang in person to politely refuse the suggestion, but he persuaded me the other way round," Nah said at an interview with The Korea Times. "I've held concerts at NTOK and have a respect for Ahn for his thought-provoking ideas. He asked me to give hope to young gugak musicians and I thought maybe I could bridge them to the world based on my international experience."
Nah said gugak goes well with jazz as both are based on improvisation. Jazz musicians could bring a piano and play with anyone anywhere. Gugak is similar — as long as they have the instrument, they can improvise with any kind of musicians.
Soon after named as artistic director, Nah met young Korean musicians to find out what they listen to, what they want to perform and what kind of music they dream of.
"Korean music is relatively new in the world music scene and it has great potential. I wanted to give them opportunities to play with world-class musicians from different genres," Nah said.
Nah admitted that she is no expert in Korean traditional music. "I planned to learn more about Korean music and it was one of the reasons I took a hiatus this year. However, I became in charge of the gugak festival and I had to seek advice from other musicians and gugak producers," Nah said. "I was amazed to discover so many great gugak musicians. I felt ashamed of not knowing these marvelous musicians in the past."
One of the musicians Nah found for the sixth Yeowoorak Festival is Jeong Eun-hye, Jung is a "sorikkun," or Korean traditional singer reciting in a rhythmical tone, who starred in the National Changgeuk Company of Korea's "Medea" and "Different Chunhyang." Now she left the national troupe and established her own "Jeong Eun-hye Company."
"I was listening to gugak radio and came across Jeong's singing while driving. I was so shocked by her 'Sae Taryeong' (Song of Birds), with impeccable sense of rhythm and unique voice. I am so glad that I found her and excited about her collaboration with Finnish jazz pianist Iiro Rantala at the Yeowoorak Festival," Nah said.
While busy arranging the festival as a director, Nah will also take part in three concerts as a musician.
"At first, I didn't want to perform, but I gave in. I will join geomungo (Korean six-string zither) player Heo Yoon-jeong for the opening 'Yeowoorak Collective,'" Nah said. "In 'Tomorrow of Yesterday,' poet Ko Un will recite a new poem for Korean music, accompanied by me and the Bulsechul Band. 'The Journey has Began' will be the finale of the festival with repertoire combining gugak and jazz. I don't know what will come out from the collaboration yet. It's all about improvisation anyway."
Though the Yeowoorak Festival gives a new twist to Korean music with international guests, the audiences are still mostly Koreans. However, Nah was not impatient about the festival's growing influence.
"It will take time. Some of the world's best world music festivals began with only a handful of people, but it took several decades for them to attract tens of thousands of spectators," Nah said. "If Yeowoorak keeps good programming and guest musicians invite Korean musicians overseas, gugak musicians will get fan base abroad, which will broaden the horizon of Korean music."
For more information about the festival, visit www.ntok.go.kr or www.facebook.com/ntokourmusic or call (02) 2280-4114.
