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네이버 공유 카카오 공유 트위터 공유 페이스북 공유

‘Dasrum’ (SRO) Performances in Shanghai and Beijing

The “Dasrum” group was especially busy in December 2008, with New Year’s concerts in China in addition to the usual year-end performances. Dasrum is a Korean music chamber orchestra composed of only female members, who dedicate their full-time efforts to the group’s performances. It has performed abroad since 2005, with the recent events in China being the group’s third appearance there.



Korean Cultural Service in Shanghai
The Korean Cultural Service Shanghai opened in July 2008. Based on the warm greeting from Korean Cultural Service Director Ha Hyun-bong, I had a sense of confidence that our performance in Shanghai would be successful. The venue for our concert was a 200-seat auditorium that occupied two floors of the building. I found the room somewhat disappointing in regard to its acoustic system, although it was well built and equipped. For any performance abroad, we always bring along our own microphones, which are designed to pick up the delicate sounds of our traditional Korean musical instruments. We also packed a variety of equipment because of a problem we experienced with cables on a recent tour. Indeed, it would have been especially difficult to stage our performance in Shanghai without the equipment we had brought along.
By the time the concert got underway, there was an audience of about 240, taking up all the regular seats and additional seating that was hastily arranged. I was rather worried when the audience showed little reaction to “Sujecheon,” our opening work. But there was an eruption of applause for Kwon Yong-mi, a leading member of the ensemble, who played a bamboo flute concerto from “The Pamirs.” Then, for a pansori presentation, we elicited the audience’s participation by teaching them chuimsae interjections, for encouragement of the performers. Indeed, the audience enthusiastically interjected various chuimsae, to everyone’s delight. There seemed to be a number of Chinese in the audience with a familiarity of Korean, as their shouts of eolssigu, jota, and jal handa sounded much like what we might hear in Korea.
Traditional and modern aspects are integrated into Dasrum’s music and performance. Combining tradition with contemporary elements, based on tradition, our music program reflects the history and creativity of Korean music. This program format is based the audience’s feedback to our local and overseas performance during the past 19 years. Based on the experience of our previous concerts, the Shanghai event was successful as well. The audience’s familiarity with Korea’s popular culture was evident when the group performed “The Kingdom of the Wind,”derived from the music of a computer game, and the original soundtrack of “Iljimae,” a Korean television drama.

On December 31, the final day of 2008, we departed from Shanghai and made our way to Beijing. For whatever reason, the trip seemed longer than our flight from Seoul to Shanghai. But everyone was relaxed after having completed one of the two concerts in China. When we arrived in Beijing, it was already dark but we could sense a leisurely atmosphere, despite the year-end hustle and bustle.



Korean Cultural Service in Beijing
The Korean Cultural Service in Beijing was housed in a building together with other Korean cultural organizations. We were pleased to meet the Korean Cultural Service Beijing Director Park Young-dae, who had so willingly agreed to host our performance. Of course, we first had to inspect the audio system at the performance venue. The group had requested for the rental of various equipment in advance, which was available at the venue. However, the mixer was defective, constantly resulting in annoying static. With our own microphones and cables we made various adjustments and discarded the mixer unit. As people might say, we were able to “make it happen.”The Korean Cultural Service Beijing building includes a small auditorium of 104 seats. The size of a performance venue or the number of people does not matter as much as our ability to give a performance that can touch the audience and leave them with a positive impression. Many Chinese and Koreans attended the concert even though it was held on January 2, right after the New Year’s holiday. And again, there was not enough seating for everyone.
As in Shanghai, we started with an explanation of the concert program, with the help of an interpreter. But rather than the prepared text, I thought it would be more interesting to have an informal approach, off the top of my head. This might a burden for the interpreter, who could not prepare for my spontaneous remarks. In addition, few Korean interpreters are knowledgeable about Korea’s traditional music. But the music and performance of Dasrum are intended for an informal atmosphere, so I hoped the audience could understand my impromptu explanation.
To encourage the audience’s participation, I asked the people simple questions about our musical instruments and to guess if they could tell which of our group members were married. People who came up with the correct answers were given CDs of our music. In any case, I sensed that the audience warmly embraced our group and music. As for chuimsae during the pansori performance, I encouraged the audience to shout out jota, in Korean, and hao, in Chinese, in order to inspire the performers. At a question and answer session after the performance, many people asked about our musical instruments, revealing their keen interest in traditional Korean music.
Professor Zhou Yubo, of the University of International Business and Economics, enthusiastically noted: “The concert showed us the quintessence of Korea’s traditional culture, even more vividly than expected.” He added: “It makes me appreciate the creativity of Korean artists.” A Korean resident told me: “All the performance events at the Korean Cultural Service Beijing have been wonderful, but tonight’s concert was really great.” Everyone uses the same sounds to make music, but each country s their own kind of music. Still, we can all enjoy a wide variety of music, familiar or unfamiliar, because of its capability as a universal language. Perhaps the Dasrum performances can add a new front to the Hallyu phenomenon in China.

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