The small South Gyeongsang Province city of Tongyeong was clearly in a festive mood Friday as its annual Tongyeong International Music Festival kicked off.

The streets were adorned with flags and signboards about the event and local merchants were busy selling delicacies and other goods to mark one of the most celebrated festivals for contemporary classical music in Asia.

Students and young artists gathered at the city’s port and enjoyed free performances that were held as part of a fringe festival. Sometimes they went on stage and gave impromptu performances. 

“At this time of the year, I feel the whole city become artistic and happy,” said a local seller of ggulbbang, a honey-coated pastry.

This year’s festival, held through March 28, is set to embrace talent from the East and West, mixing old with new for innovation, with “Free and Lonely” as the theme.

“Being free and lonely is a traditional expression used in Romanticism but is also a basic spirit of an artist. To achieve a certain artistic point you have to walk a very lonely but free way,” said Alexander Liebreich, artistic director of the festival foundation, at a press conference held before the opening performance, “Semele Walk.”

Globally recognized musicians are paying tribute to the free spirit. Composers in residence, Qiang Chen and Pascal Dusapin featured their signature pieces while young, up-and-coming artists such as violinist Clara Jumi Kang and cellist Gautier Capuon will perform a couple of times. 

The Asian Composers Showcase: Concert and Award, presenting the latest pieces by the rookies of Asia, will also heat up the independent spirit while many other small events greet the audience from all over the country.

Liebreich also acknowledged that being free and lonely was the path that the festival has walked since its very beginning in 2002, when it started as a small collection of concerts to honor Yun I-sang, a Tongyeong native and internationally acclaimed contemporary music composer. Because the location is hard to access from Seoul, the festival struggled to generate public awareness and sponsorship, but the plus side of this is relative freedom of political and outside influence.

“I have such big admiration for the organizers and citizens of Tongyeong,” the German director added.

“What we will have to do is to understand the value of the Tongyeong festival and keep up the tradition,” said Kim Dong-jin, Tongyeong Mayor and honorary chairman of the festival.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)