Foreign pansori (traditional lyrical opera) singers in September last year perform at the launching ceremony and inaugural symposium of the World Pansori Association at Hotel Skypark Dongdaemun in Seoul's Dongdaemun-gu District. (World Pansori Association's official Facebook page)
By Margareth Theresia
The inaugural World Pansori Festival featuring the traditional lyrical opera pansori from Nov. 7-8 will take place at Seoul Namsan Gukakdang in the capital's Jung-gu District.
An international music festival to mark the 20th anniversary of pansori's inclusion on the UNESCO list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the festival will promote the value and beauty of the nation representative form of traditional music.
The highlight of this event is the 20-hour pansori relay project, which will run daily for 10 hours over two days with performances combining pansori and the gayageum (12-stringed traditional zither). Sixty pansori singers of all ages and nationalities will perform ranging from students in elementary school to those aged 90 recruited through a public contest in June this year, along with the genre's maestro You Yeong-ae and others.
To promote pansori, the workshop "Eolssigu Hakdang" (Hurrah School) will target locals, expats and students of the opera. Another workshop for expats on Nov. 7 will be taught by renowned pansori master Min Hye-sung, a disciple of the story "Heungboga" and designated National Intangible Cultural Asset No. 5.
Activities for visitors at the event venue include making fans, trying on traditional hair decorations and using cutting-edge photo booths.
Chae Soo-jung, chairman of the association's board of directors, said, "The goal of this event is for singers who love pansori of any gender, age, disability and nationality to share it with the public to make an exciting festival through pansori."
Participating in the opening and closing ceremonies, seeing the relay project and attending the workshops require reservations using QR codes on the event's official poster or Naver Booking (https://booking.naver.com/booking/12/bizes/984747). More information on the festival is available on the association's official website (www.worldpansori.com).
This is an official poster of the inaugural World Pansori Festival. (World Pansori Association)
