Arirang Fills the Sydney Opera House and Moves the Hearts of Koreans Overseas
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- Writer 커뮤니케이션팀
- 보도일자 2012-10-16
The concert, entitled “A Vivid Night of Classics,” was conducted by Korea’s first female conductor, Professor Kyunghee Kim, and featured Professor Jongwha Hong on the violin and Professor Haejeon Lee on the piano, along with several other professors.
This performance was unique in that it was the first Korean university orchestra to perform a solo concert in Opera House. With tickets available for free to Koreans in Australia, the event quickly became a sensation in the Korean community. Within the first two days of ticket sales, the event was sold out with approximately 4000 people seeking tickets. The Opera House’s 2600 seats were filled not only by Koreans, but by some 100 prominent leaders in Australian society, such as Brian Robson, the mayor of Canterbury; the dean of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music at the University of Sydney; Michael Ebeid, the CEO and Managing Director of the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) and a group of diplomats.
At 8 pm local time, the concert started with Suppe’s Die Leichte Kavallerie. Although the members looked nervous, they completed their first piece with confidence and composure. Violinist Professor Hong and pianist Professor Lee then performed the beautiful Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra in D minor by Mendelssohn, eliciting exclamations of appreciation from the audience. Puccini’s Turandot and Verdi’s La Traviata rounded the first set off.
For the second set, Rimsky Korsakov’s symphony, Scheherazade heated things up, with its feature harmony of fantastic and kaleidoscopic notes bringing the concert to a climax. The performance finished to an extended standing ovation and cheering.
After two sets of classical western pieces, the encore was a welcomed change and a great comfort to homesick Koreans in the audience as they were treated to the traditional Korean folksong, Arirang. Mr. Kyung-su Woo, having lived 14 years in Sydney, commented that the Arirang resounding in the hall brought tears to his eyes, the audience’s attitude was wonderful, and the touching performances were also impressive.
The evening was a great start to the newly formed relationship between Sookmyung and the Sydney Conservatorium – a sign of great things to come.
Seunghee Kim, the dean of the College of Music added, “From now on, we will try to make MOU about the exchange of faculty and students with the Sydney Conservatorium through continued cooperation and communication.”