The Russian embassy celebrated with a concert on Friday the life of a renowned Russian mezzo-soprano who, for many Koreans here, came to represent the lives of so-called Koryo-saram, ethnic Koreans mostly from Central Asia.

Lyudmila Nam was born in Kazakhstan in 1947. She died in 2007 at age 60. At the peak of her career she performed as a soloist for the world-famous Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. She also contributed to South Korean-Russian diplomatic relations with her performance at the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts the year Seoul hosted the 1988 Summer Olympics.

Lee Yeon-seong, a bass vocalist and former student of Nam, led the annual commemorative concert, which also featured the “Moscovia” Russian Embassy School Ensemble.

Russian Ambassador Konstantin V. Vnukov hosted at the Russian chancery several foreign envoys, government officials and VIPs, including Kazakh Ambassador Dulat Bakishev, Belarusian Ambassador Natallia Zhylevich and Uzbek Ambassador Alisher Kurmanov.

In 1990, Nam returned to South Korea to sing in the opera “Carmen.” That performance spurred more in years to come, including a nationwide tour in 1994. In 1997, she accepted an offer to teach at a university in Daegu. In 2000 she received national honors from South Korea and, in 2003, from Russia.

For many South Koreans, Nam represented Koryo-saram broadly. Through her, many people here learned for the first time the history of ethnic Koreans living in countries across the former Soviet Union, but especially Koryo-saram living in Nam’s home of Kazakhstan.

(ephilip2011@heraldcorp.com)