The Korea Herald

Gugak center, Lee Young-hee to collaborate in New York

The National Gugak Center will hold a special fashion and music gala with hanbok designer Lee Young-hee in New York in October to commemorate the 130th anniversary of ties between Korea and the United States.One-hundred musicians will play royal court banquet music entitled “Music of Peace, Dream of the Dynasty,” adapted from Bongsudangjinchan Banquet, which was dedicated to the 60th birthday of Hyegyeonggung Hong, the mother of King Jeongjo. About 50 other performers, including dancers, will al

March 11, 2012

Gugak center, Lee Young-hee to collaborate in New York

Moon aims to share beauty of ballet worldwide

Universal Ballet president and director to lead company on tour of South Africa this monthMore than 1,000 people gave a standing ovation in November last year at the finale of the Universal Ballet Company’s “Shim Chung” at the Royal Opera House in Oman. Two months ago in January, about 100 middle-aged women crowded a restaurant in Tokyo, Japan, to attend the fan meeting of UBC’s young ballerinos Lee Seung-hyun and Kang Min-woo. The show “This is Modern 3,” which took place few days later at the

March 11, 2012

Moon aims to share beauty of ballet worldwide

Calendar

Exhibitions“Song for Nobody”: Bae Young-whan’s solo exhibition at Plateau in Taepyeongro, central Seoul, looks back on the last 15 years of his artistic career. The artist, who represented Korea at the 2005 Venice Art Biennale, filled the 43-square-meter exhibition space with 26 works that share the same theme, but are very diverse in genre and materials. His chandelier work “Insomnia -- Song of Dionysos” which appeared in director Im Sang-soo’s 2008 movie “The Housemaid,” is on show. The exhibi

March 9, 2012

Eyelike

Springsteen’s anger channeled in new albumBruce Springsteen"Wrecking Ball" (Columbia)Nearly three decades ago, Bruce Springsteen wrote with sadness about a man showing his young son a hometown ravaged by outside economic forces, a town the family was about to leave.He’s not sad now. He’s angry, mighty angry. On the new song, "Death to My Hometown," he wants to "send the robber barons straight to hell, the greedy thieves who came around and ate the flesh of everything they found, whose crimes hav

March 9, 2012

N. Korean orchestra opens musical bridge to Europe

PARIS (AFP) ― South Korean troops may be conducting live fire exercises near the North Korean frontier, and Pyongyang may be ramping up its anti-southern rhetoric, but there may be more harmony on the musical front.Next week, for the first time, musicians from North Korea will perform in Paris with a French orchestra led by a South Korean conductor, Myung-Whun Chung, in a minor diplomatic victory for the international maestro.“I’ve been trying to do this for 30 years,” he said this week. “For pr

March 9, 2012

Boundary blurs between art, household goods

Seoul Living Design Fair 2012 introduces latest designs and inspiring artworksA wide spectrum of household goods is found at Seoul Living Design Fair 2012 currently underway at COEX Hall A in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. The difference between a mart and the fair, though, is that every piece is artistic in its own way. Established by magazine publishing company Design House in 1994, the fair has become one of the biggest events of its kind and attracts about 150,000 visitors every year.Under t

March 8, 2012

Boundary blurs between art, household goods

Sungnyemun celebrates upcoming completion of restoration

The Cultural Heritage Administration on Thursday held a special ceremony at the restoration site of Sungnyemun, commonly known as Namdaemun, announcing that the completion of its restoration is close at hand.The historic gate of Seoul, which is also National Treasure No.1, was severely damaged by arson in 2008. The administration announced last month that the restoration will be completed by December.The ceremony, titled “Sangryangsik,” consists of placing a piece of wood at the highest center o

March 8, 2012

Sungnyemun celebrates upcoming completion of restoration

Japanese conductor Ozawa to take year off

TOKYO (AFP) ― Celebrated Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa is to take a year away from the podium as he struggles to recover after a battle with cancer, his office said Wednesday.The 76-year-old maestro, who underwent surgery for esophageal cancer in 2010 and was treated for a hernia last year, had planned to conduct four concerts in Japan from March 17 but had decided to cancel the performances.“Unfortunately, Ozawa’s condition has not improved enough to conduct, and it has been decided that the f

March 8, 2012

At SXSW media zoo, convergence is annual buzz word

Increasingly, the media zoo that is SXSW looks more like today‘s overlapping media world.The annual South by Southwest Conference and Festival, which begins Friday, gathers thousands of creators, performers, media and industry members for 10 days onto the boozy downtown streets of Austin, Texas. It’s really three festivals -- Interactive, Film and Music -- in one, but each bleeds into the other.The annual buzz word at SXSW is always convergence. Just as the tech and entertainment worlds physical

March 8, 2012

Super Junior to hold concert in Paris

Super Junior, a 10-member K-pop group, will hold its first solo concert in Paris next month, according to reports on Wednesday.The Paris show is part of Super Junior’s world tour titled “Super Show 4” and will take place on April 6 at Le Zenith de Paris where world-famous stars including Neyo, the Pussycat Dolls and the Jonas Brothers have performed. The boy band performed for French fans at the same venue last year along with other K-pop artists under SM Entertainment.In December, the group per

March 7, 2012

Tim Burton’s monster carousel comes to Paris

PARIS (AFP) ― Peopled with lonely little monsters, dancing corpses and boggle-eyed creatures from the underworld, Tim Burton’s cult universe comes to Paris this week with a show that journeys through his life’s work.Some 500 sketches ― the starting point for all Burton’s films ― whisk visitors deep into the U.S. director’s surreal inner world, with gothic doodles dating back to his misfit childhood in Burbank, a bland suburb of Los Angeles.“These are things that were never meant to be seen by an

March 7, 2012

Controversy grows over recording of JYJ allegedly assaulting fans

Controversy over fans invading the privacy of K-pop stars and the performers’ sometimes violent reactions is growing after the release of an audio recording of JYJ allegedly hitting and swearing at fans.The 10-minute clip released by online news site Dispatch on Tuesday appears to feature Park Yu-cheon cursing at a fan on the phone, accusing them of invading his privacy. The clip is reported to be from 2009.What appears to be another member, Kim Jae-jung, can also be heard assaulting and threate

March 7, 2012

Controversy grows over recording of JYJ allegedly assaulting fans

Lady Gaga sets Twitter fan record

Lady Gaga walks through the campus prior to an event at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. Wednesday Feb. 29, 2012.(AP)Lady Gaga has become the first person to amass20 million followers on Twitter.The pop star cracked the milestone on Monday, beating out other pop culture luminaries such as Just

March 7, 2012

Sherman, composer of Disney songs, dies

LONDON (AFP) ― Robert B. Sherman, the composer of the “Mary Poppins” song “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” and other Disney classics, has died in London aged 86, his publicist said on Tuesday.“He died peacefully yesterday,” a spokeswoman for Stella Richards Management told AFP, without giving any further details.New York-born Sherman and his brother Richard worked as staff composers for Disney between 1960 and 1973, during which time they wrote more than 200 songs for 27 films and two dozen

March 7, 2012

Singing prodigy Charice to perform in Seoul

Charice, a YouTube star who was introduced to the world through South Korean TV show “Star King” in 2007 is returning to the Korean audience. After huge success in the United States and Europe, Charice, an 18-year-old Filipina with an incredible voice, will hold her first live show in Seoul on March 21.“Without ‘Star King’ I would never have been noticed. I owe a lot to that show and am honored to be back,” she said in an e-mail interview.She was praised by Oprah Winfrey as “the most talented gi

March 6, 2012

Singing prodigy Charice to perform in Seoul

K-pop star JYJ under fire for hitting and cursing fans

An audio recording confirmed a rumor that two members of K-pop group JYJ assaulted and cursed at fans, accusing them of invasion of privacy. The 10-minute clip released by online news outlet Dispatch on Tuesday features Park Yu-cheon swearing at a fan on the phone.Kim Jae-jung can also be heard beating and threatening his fans. Kim then warns the victims not to report it to the police. The fans had followed Kim to a bar, Dispatch reported.“Do I have to live like this? I’ve been troubled because

March 6, 2012

K-pop star JYJ under fire for hitting and cursing fans

U.K.’s Tate Gallery buys Ai Weiwei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’

LONDON (AFP) ― Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei has sold part of his “Sunflower Seeds” installation to Britain’s Tate Gallery, it said on Monday.The London gallery has bought around eight million of the 100 million porcelain seeds, which covered the floor of the Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall in 2010, for an undisclosed figure.The public was initially able to walk over the 1,000-square-meter carpet of seeds when they went on show, but the work was later cordoned off when dust created by the porcel

March 6, 2012

U.K.’s Tate Gallery buys Ai Weiwei’s ‘Sunflower Seeds’

IBM making the Louvre smarter

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) ―IBM on Monday revealed an alliance with the venerable Louvre Museum to use sensors, real-time data analysis and other Internet Age tools to make the museum smarter.IBM’s “building whisperer” has been listening to the Louvre to make the famed Paris museum better at protecting art, saving energy, and staying open for its millions of annual visitors.“It is not a job; it is a mission,” said IBM industry solutions vice president David Bartlett, whose passion for figuring out how

March 6, 2012

Photo show captures Bob Dylan, rock star in the making

PARIS (AFP) ― Rare photographs of Bob Dylan, shot over a year-long period in the mid-1960s, go on show in Paris on Tuesday in an exhibit that captures the moment the protest folk singer morphed into cult rock star.From 1961 to 1966, Dylan wrote seven albums that marked the history of pop, but also underwent a radical transformation between the first, “Bob Dylan,” and the last, “Blonde on Blonde.”Entitled “Bob Dylan: The Rock Explosion 1961-66,” the Paris show centres on 60 rare shots by the New

March 6, 2012

Coldplay performs to defend freedom of expression

NEW YORK (AFP) ― Coldplay and Mumford and Sons were among the performers here late Sunday at an Amnesty International concert organized in defense of freedom of expression. The show marked the first time that the “Secret Policeman’s Ball” ― organized by Amnesty International since 1976 ― was held in the United States.Television comedian Jon Stewart was among the performers, sharing the stage with a fake Kim Jong-un, who wanted to dominate the stage at all cost.U.S. actor Ben Stiller and Briton D

March 6, 2012