A special new year’s concert was held to celebrate the government’s move to the Sejong Metropolitan Autonomous City.

Held in the Government Complex-Sejong’s auditorium, the concert’s theme was, “Bringing in an era of cultural enrichment, enabling the people with ‘a beautiful life with culture’.”

The opening act started with the overture from “Die Fledermaus” by Johann Strauss performed by the Korean Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra was led by its new music director and chief conductor Lim Hun-Joung. Baritone Park Jung-sup, soprano Joung Hye-uk and tenor Jin Sung-won sang the "Toreador Song” from Georges Bizet's opera “Carmen” and "This is the Moment” from Frank Wildhorn and Steve Cuden’s musical “Jekyll & Hyde”, amongst many other songs.




The concert continued with a ballet performance. Korea’s top ballerinas Kim Jiyong and Lee Eunwon, and ballerinos Lee Donghoon and Lee Youngchul, danced the “Grand Adagio” from “Swan Lake” and the “Grand Pas de Deux” from “Don Quixote” in a magnificent gala performance. The Korean National Ballet’s newly appointed art director, Kang Sue-jin, was also present at the concert.

Following the ballet, the National Chorus of Korea sang a medley of Korea folk songs and a choral fantasia inspired by Hong Nan-pa’s “Spring In My Hometown,” a song about one’s yearning to return home.

Lastly, the Korean Symphony Orchestra came back on stage to give their interpretation of the fourth movement of Antonín Dvořák’s “Symphony No. 9,” his “New World Symphony”, to close the concert.

Some 600 residents, including families of government employees, were present at the concert, held jointly by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the Ministry of Security and Public Administration and the Sejong Multifunctional Administrative Construction Agency.

Plans for more concerts and art exhibitions are on the way, the culture ministry announced, with shows scheduled for “Culture Wednesday”, the last Wednesday of every month.

By Yoon Sojung, Paik Hyun
Korea.net Staff Writers
arete@korea.kr