Music

The Korean classical music community has continued to produce artists of the highest international standard in both vocal and instrumental music. For instance, five young Korean artists won five prizes in the disciplines of piano, solo vocal and violin at the International Tchaikovsky Competition held in 2011, one of the top three international music competitions.

Korea has continued to produce distinguished vocalists of whom Sumi Jo (soprano), Hong Hei-kyung (soprano), Shin Youngok (soprano), Kwangchul Youn (bass) and Samuel Yun (bass baritone) are eagerly sought after by classical music lovers in many parts of the world. Regarding instrumental music, Yeol Eum Son (piano), Dong-hyek Lim (piano), Sarah Chang (violin) and Zia Hyunsu Shin (violin) regularly perform for their fans - mostly in Korea, the USA, and various European countries.

Lee Hee-ah, a four-fingered pianist, is also a widely acclaimed pianist not only for her great performances but also for her heroic fight against a challenging physical condition.

They were preceded by Korea’s first generation of classical musicians, including two pianists, Han Tong-il and Kun-woo Paik, who fascinated international audiences between the 1950s and the 1970s and who still play to many enthusiastic fans.

Chung Myung-whun, a world-renowned pianist, has received more acclaim for his conductorship in recent years. He has conducted some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic, before going on to serve as the musical director and resident conductor of the Opéra de la Bastille in Paris. Chung also served as the principal conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and now leads the One Korea Youth Orchestra. He is also widely known in the global music scene as a member of the Chung Trio with his two sisters, violinist Chung Kyung-wha and cellist Chung Myung-wha.

Musical Theater

Korean theater goers have recently begun to pay more attention to musical comedies presented on theater stages. The increased demand for goodquality musicals has resulted in the performance of world-famous musicals such as Jekyll & Hyde, Chicago and Cats either by the original or Korean teams, and the production of new musicals written and directed by Korean talents. Some of these Korean productions have been invited to perform in Japan and Southeast Asia. Korea’s thriving musical theater scene has resulted in the creation of a group of stars such as Choi Jung-won, Nam Kyung-joo and Jo Seung-woo, whose reputation has grown with stage musicals, and Yoon Bok-hee, Insooni and Ock Joo-hyun who have become great musical actresses based on their success on the K-Pop stage.

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Modern Dance and Ballet

The launch of the National Dance Company of Korea in 1962 provided the momentum for a surge of interest in modern dance in Korea. The changed environment eventually led to the birth of a great dancer, Sin Cha Hong (or Hong Sin-ja, born in 1943), who is now credited as Korea's first avant-garde dancer and premier performance artist. She learned dance from Alwin Nikolais in the United States and worked there until 1990, and then returned to Korea to involve herself in various activities related with modern dance.

Korea in the 1980s saw the foundation of two ballet companies, Universal Ballet (1984) and Seoul Ballet (1986), which are still actively producing classical ballet performances in Korea and abroad. The increased popularity of ballet resulted in the arrival of distinguished ballet dancers including Kang Sue-jin, who became the first Asian to be a member of the Stuttgart Ballet in 1986. Now, she is an Artistic Director of the Korean National Ballet.

Other successful ballet dancers include Seo Hee who joined the ABT Studio Company in 2004 and became a principal dancer at the ABT in 2012, and Kim Ki-min who became the first Asian ballerina to join and become First Soloist at the Mariinsky Ballet in 2011.

Park Seon-mee, a student at the Korea National University of Arts, became the first Korean to win the Moscow International Ballet Competition, one of the three major ballet competitions in the world, in June 2017.

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Modern Art

Lee Jong-sang, a veteran painter, focuses his work on traditional Korean painting. Lee U-fan, Park Seo-bo, and Lim Ok-sang are also Korean painters well known for their unique styles.

Works of prominent artists can be enjoyed in Insa-dong and Samcheongdong in Seoul, where many art galleries are located such as Gana Art Space, the Seoul Art Center Gongpyeong Gallery, and the Kyung-in Museum of Fine Art.

More recently, Cheongdam-dong in Gangnam-gu south of the Hangang River has emerged as a hub of Korean fine art. As for international art events, the Gwangju Biennale launched in 1995 has grown to be a major contemporary art exhibition in Asia.

Modern Literature

Han Kang is the very person who proved the potential for globalization of modern Korean literature. Her novel, The Vegetarian, won the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, which is regarded as one of the world’s three most prestigious literary awards. Han Kang was also chosen to win the 2017 Malaparte Prize, Italy’s authoritative literary award, for her book, Human Acts.

Shin Kyung-sook has also contributed to spreading the Korean Wave to the international literary world. The English-translated version of her novel, Please Look After Mom, published by Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group in the United States was listed in Amazon’s top 10 best sellers soon after its release. The book was promptly published in about 30 countries in Asia (including Japan) and Europe, and in Australia. In June 2012, the author held a successful meeting in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, to mark the publication of her work in the Slovenian language.

The opening of the Korean Studies Department in Sofia University, Bulgaria, in 1995 led to the interpretation of a selection of Korean contemporary novels and short stories for local readers including A Dwarf Launches a Little Ball by Cho Se-hui and Our Twisted Hero by Yi Mun Yol.

The King Sejong Institute, an institution established in 2008 to support Korean language education conducted across the globe increased the number of its affiliated schools from 17 in 2008 to 171 in 54 countries as of July 2017.

Meanwhile, the 78th International PEN Congress took place in Gyeongju, the capital of the ancient Silla Kingdom for one thousand years, in September 2012. The gathering, held in Korea for the third time after 1970 and 1988, attracted 900 men and women of letters from 114 countries across the world, including Nobel laureates such as Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clézio of France, Akinwande Oluwole Wole Soyinka of Nigeria, and Ferit Orhan Pamuk of Turkey.

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