Anna Cybele looks out the window at Ureuk World Music House in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Oct. 16. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

Not long ago, I was invited to visit the Ureuk World Music House in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, on a sunny autumn afternoon in rural Korea where local mountains, rice paddy fields and scattered houses have coexisted for centuries. The Music House is dedicated to Master Ureuk, a renowned musician from the sixth century said to be the founder of Korean music, who was exiled to Chungju where he created the gayageum, a Korean 12-string instrument.

Located at the foot of a local mountain, the hanok-style house is owned by Anna Cybele, a musician originally from New York. Sipping traditionally brewed tea, I sat with Cybele to talk about the music house, her inspiration for founding it and her journey.

"When I came upon the very unique traditional lord's house, magical but abandoned, I was so enchanted that I immediately had a clear vision of the porch as a stage where musicians were seated playing, and the courtyard was full of flowers and guests entranced listening to the music," she said.

"Every day for an entire year after stepping foot inside the courtyard, without telling anyone, I worked with a student of mine to research and dream up the possibility of restoring the house as a stage for world music."

Ureuk World Music House is seen among the trees in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Oct. 16. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

This was around 2004. Their research led her to meet an architect who was instrumental in a restoration project for Seoul's Bukchon Hanok Village. She also met the house's legal land owner, the director of the local traditional orchestra and other hanok owners, as well as lawyers, accountants and a local architect who surveyed the house and drew up an estimate of how much its restoration would cost.

"At the end of the year I had established that, yes, it was possible for me as a foreigner to buy the land and have a house and create a business," she said. "However, I didn't have enough personal funds to buy the land, let alone do any of the restoration."

She went to a temple retreat hoping to find insight. But ultimately she decided there was no way for her to attempt the project, and she ended up moving back to New York. But the story doesn't stop there, and she couldn't get that old house out of her mind.

"Within a year, I was living in an amazing apartment in Manhattan, back in school, everything was great… but, I kept thinking about the hanok, and wondering how I could find a way to restore it," she said.

In 2008, she found herself back in Korea and learned that her old university position at Chungju University, now Korea National University of Transportation (KNUT), had reopened.

"I figured it was a sign that I had to find a way," she said. "I saved every penny. In 2012, I met the owner again and told him I had saved the entire amount that he said he would sell the land for in 2004. Despite land prices soaring, he decided to sell me the property, even though it wasn't for sale, because he was happy that I would not destroy the house."

Cybele Pashke stands in the courtyard of Ureuk World Music House in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Oct. 16. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

Cybele is a classically trained singer, as well as a jazz/pop-influenced singer-songwriter. She has performed and studied music in 52 countries throughout the world for over 20 years. This includes 15 winters of musical immersion in India and Pakistan where she studied North Indian classical singing and sarangi (a 29-string violin). She has studied the basics of several Korean traditional instruments including the gayageum, janggu (hourglass-shaped drum) and ajaeng (eight-string bowed zither).

When asked what drove her focus on world music, Cybele said, "The world we live in is full of an amazing variety of cultures and expressive arts."

She added, "To experience them fills life with meaning and excitement — it opens the mind and the heart! I feel so fortunate that I can travel extensively, so I want to share that magic of falling in love with other cultures' arts with those who might have no opportunity to travel. While my initial vision was to have Korean traditional music performed in a Korean traditional house so that modern — and foreign — audiences could more deeply understand and appreciate it, the expanded vision was to create a space for people to come together as a global community and encounter the wonder and excitement of various cultures and traditions together."

The Music House hosts concerts and residencies as well as experience-center programs such as hanok stay, hanbok photo shoots, world instruments and music healing. It holds outdoor concerts that feature world-class musicians from Korea and other countries to promote cultural exchange and understanding.

Visitors can also listen to recordings in the listening room, which archives over 6,000 hours of world music donated by David Ellenbogen, a radio host at Columbia University's WKCR-FM in New York City.

Ellenbogen was the first artist in residence and helped open the house's first concert, which involved musicians from four countries. He also recorded an interview with the conductor of Chungju's National Ureuk Orchestra, along with the music of several of the orchestra's musicians, which he later aired on his radio show back in the U.S.

Cybele plays a small musical instrument in front of a portrait of Ureuk, a renowned sixth-century musician, at Ureuk World Music House in Chungju, North Chungcheong Province, Oct. 16. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu

Cybele said that the mission of the Ureuk World Music House is twofold.

"Firstly, to preserve and promote Korean traditional arts culture in a meaningful and personal way. Through a hanok immersion experience, visitors and audience members can see the traditional house, wear traditional clothes, experiment with playing musical instruments and listen to fine musicians playing traditional music," she said.

"The second part of the mission is to foster peace — on a global level through intercultural interaction with foreign artists in residence, and on a personal level, within the heart, through the healing conduit of music. When South Korean musicians sit on a stage with North Korean musicians or Indian musicians sit on a stage with Pakistani musicians, there is potential for healing the divides of the past, and for creating hope for a more beautiful future."

Cybele explained that the vision for her house was inspired in large part by the work of Kavi Alexander, founder of the Grammy Award-winning world music label Waterlily Acoustics, which features innovative musical pairings of virtuoso musicians from different cultures who might never otherwise come together to play.

For Cybele, her goal is to have patrons support the programs so that a dedicated team can be created to present ongoing concerts with Korean and international musicians who are acclaimed holders of traditional world heritage status.

The Music House is only open in spring and fall. The doors are open to volunteers who want to help tame the summer weeds or change the hanji (Korean paper) on the doors and windows, and any other number of upkeep projects.

The house will reopen for the spring season on April 1, following a "Work/Joy" volunteer weekend. The 2024 concert schedule will be announced at the "Open Heart/Open Stage" event April 6 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Cybele stresses that advance reservations are required to visit, except for open concerts.

She will also give a lecture for Royal Asiatic Society (RAS) Korea on Tuesday, Feb. 27, to share her story about the restoration of Ureuk House. It will begin at 7:30 p.m. at the fifth-floor conference room of Fast Five Tower near Seoul City Hall. Admission costs 10,000 won, or 5,000 won for students with valid ID and is free for RAS Korea members.

Visit fb.com/worldmusichouse for more information and to make a reservation, or youtube.com/@annacybele to watch videos related to the house and Cybele's music.

Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He's also co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative, and freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.