This Week

On Tuesday I went to the last concert for the semester with my freshman seminar students.  Not all of them were here (we have a schedule and they choose the ones they can attend) but a good number attended.  A student from Germany (on the right) also attended, and my T.A. Kibbeum  (in the front middle) attended as well.  The concert was a recreation of an historic event at court.  It was great--dance, music, acting.  The students seemed to like it a lot, as well.  Afterwards, we went to a cafe and had some tea/hot cocoa with apple pie and cheesecake.

On Wednesday morning, I was up before the crack of dawn to make it to an interview at Kugak (Korean Traditional Music) broadcasting.  I was out the door by 6 am, but got there at 7 am.  Guess I thought it would take longer to make it across town.  Still, it was nice to sit in the studion and listen to the beginnings of the show.  The radio crew bought be a latte, so I was happy and warm while waiting for my turn.  The sun rising over the buildings from the 11th floor view was nice to see. 

My interviewer, Oh Jung-hae, is very well known in and outside of Korea as the star of the now-classic film Seopyeonje by the legendary film director Im Kwon-taek.  The film was one of the first Korean films I'd ever seen and it blew me away.  Many people credit Seopyeonje with helping in the contemporary revival of interest in traditional Korean music.  A synopsis and info can be found here:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108192/   
Anyway, it was really cool to be interviewed by her on her morning show.  She was very nice, and no, I did not go all freaky fan on her.  It was cool to hear "Jindo Arirang" from the soundtrack right before my interview started, and I said, "Oh, that was from Seopyeonje" and she just smiled.  She's done other things, including another favorite movie Chukje in which she plays a blacksheep of a family. She's a well-known singer and appears often on a variety of television programs.  A famous scene from the movie can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5r9nQgXsw4&feature=related 
I told her my parents were listening live (via online streaming) in the States and she had me say hi not just once, but twice.  It was a lot of fun, and the radio team were thrilled to know the program was being heard overseas.  I hope to meet her again soon.

After the interview, I headed to the Hyatt hotel for a College of Music women's faculty lunch.  We ate and talked for quite a while, and even had a drawing for presents.  The women's faculty usually gets together about twice a semester.  Eating at the Hyatt is nice because there is a pre-main dish salad buffet and a dessert buffet.  Can't get much better than that.  It always feels so elegant to eat lunch there.

The week ended with a dinner hosted by our geomungo professor, Jeon Daeseok.  For the past year, he's been leading classes for professors, graduate students outside of the program, and administrators.  I've been a part of those classes and have loved learning the geomungo.  Taking the class has been a great experience and I hope to continue with the geomungo classes for as long as possible.  We ate dinner at the Hoam Faculty house on campus and then a small group of us followed that up with some makgeolli and other forms of liquor and spicy side dishes at a little place down the street. Most gathered were either in the music school or the school of fine arts (we know how to celebrate).  It was a great ending to a great year of geomungo learning. 

Me with one of my favorite T.A.'s and geomungo players, Seonhwa.

I look super tired (in the worst way), but thought I should post this shot of me with Jeon Dae-seok.  An angel of a man, he is arguably Korea's top geomungo player. It's an honor to learn from him.