Korea's 'El Sistema' musicians, music director discuss their experience in Abu Dhabi
On Nov. 27, 2024, Orchestra of Dream, consisting of 15 South Korean students, took to a very special stage together with the Abu Dhabi Youth Orchestra at the Blue Hall, located in The Arts Center at NYU Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.
It marked the first time a chapter of Orchestra of Dream -- there are 50 local units across South Korea -- and the first time any of its members from Seoul’s central district of Jung-gu, have visited a Middle Eastern country.
The joint orchestra opened the concert with “Suite di Festa ROK,” a piece that blends the grandeur of orchestral music with unique Korean sentiment, followed by Dvorak's “Slavonic Dances,” Grieg's “Peer Gynt Suite No. 1,” Bizet's “Carmen Suite” and Verdi's “Triumphal March from Aida.”
The concert was part of the 2024 Korea Season UAE, hosted by the Culture Ministry and organized by the Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Music & Arts Foundation.
Seo Jun-ho, 14, and Kim Eun-ae, 13, were among the 15 students who performed in Abu Dhabi.
The two middle school students described the concert as nerve-wracking yet impactful.
"I’d like to experience something like this again in the future — learning about a new world and meeting new people," Seo said in an interview with The Korea Herald on Dec. 9. Seo joined the orchestra in 2021 as a sixth-grade elementary school student. He plays the trumpet.
"I was so nervous that I made some mistakes. After that performance, I decided to practice even harder," said Kim, who plays the violin. Kim, who is from a multicultural family, joined the orchestra in 2019 as an second-grader in elementary school.
Music Director Seo Hong-jun said the students, who perform regularly in front of more than 1,000 family and friends, seemed ever more determined and focused.
“When conducting a professional orchestra or ensemble, emotions often take a back seat to technique. But with these students, what stayed with me the most wasn’t how well they played, but the fact that they delivered their message so completely on that Abu Dhabi stage,” he added.
Music Director Seo said this kind of experience can be life-altering for a young person, just as it was for him.
Starting out in a youth orchestra in Gangwon Province, Seo decided to pursue music as a career, specializing in conducting and composing. He studied music in Germany for 11 years, where he also encountered students from El Sistema -- a youth music education program founded in 1975 in Venezuela that provides free music education to children, particularly those from underserved and economically disadvantaged communities.
Upon his return to Korea in 2014, Seo established the Orchestra of Dream in Yeoncheon-gun, Gyeonggi Province. Yeoncheon is located in the northernmost part of Gyeonggi Province, near the border with North Korea.
"I established Orchestra of Dream, thinking this might be the most important task I could undertake as a musician to contribute to society," Seo said.
The Orchestra of Dream program is run by the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service, an affiliate organization of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. Starting with eight regions in 2010, it has now expanded to 51 regional chapters with 2,790 members and 575 educators.
Orchestra of Dream in Jung-gu, Seoul, was launched in March 2020 at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. There are 54 members, ranging from third-graders in elementary school to third-graders in middle school. Most of the students join without knowing how to read music but learn to perform together over time.
Twice a week, the young musicians Seo and Kim gather with the other orchestra members at the Chungmu Arts Center, operated by the Junggu Cultural Foundation.
The 14-year-old Seo will have to leave the orchestra when he graduates from middle school soon, but he will carry his love for the trumpet and music with him. "Learning an instrument has brought something fresh to my pretty ordinary school life, and it might also be my special talent," Seo said.
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