Part of Nature, Korean Orchestra

Saturday, November 30, 2013.

After a long time KTO at last provided us yet another unique pure musical performance.

This time it was an Orchestra of Korean traditional instruments mainly.

Event was organized at National Theater of Korea (NTOK) near Dongguk University and the famous Namsan Tower.

It was my 4th time to visit this place and to enjoy the performance. This place is beautifully designed, especially the interior.

The services by the NTOK were the very best, as usually, including free shuttle bus pic and drop from 

Dongguk University subway station, hospitable staff at ticketing then leading you to your seat.

About the performance, it was very professional and unique if its time. It was my first time to attend an Orchestra performance but i have seen a few on T.V. This was different as there were mainly Korean ancient instruments used and played by professionals very beautifully.

                 There were about 4 tracks two were performed before interval. First track was a premier..my personally favorite as it was quite dynamic. After that it was another track also involving heavily voiced Korean styled man who sang rhythmically with the music and made it more powerful.

Every track was based on a theme, like a story from beginning through climax towards the end. Themes were related to nature and philosophy though difficult to follow but quite artistically played and presented   

                  For a person like me, who is not fully aware and familiar that kind of language of music was a bit difficult to understand but I am sure that true music lovers, especially students and scholars of musicology would have enjoyed the performance inspiration and motivation. I personally think that it would be a great learning experience for such students.

Many of the tracks were composed by Chung II Ryun, which seemed to be somehow similar at some stage but still different from each other.

There were audiences of almost all ages and categories. I mean there were some business class as well to enjoy the quality music along with some young couples. It was very pleasing to see kids with their families to experience this although some fall asleep in between.

As an overall product it was a nice event to experience an unique and diversified pure music.

I personally enjoyed this a kind of new experience of music and obviously enjoyed the old experience of friends company, which really gets never old.

Long live friends, all music and all colors are with you, buddies.

Icheon Rice Cultural Festival

Like every year, Hanynag University, arranged one day tour for Icheon Rice Cultural Festival.

This festival is held annually and it this was its 15th event.
This is one of the main one day tour arranged by Hanynag University for foreigners.

It was raining, but we still managed to enjoy the event and its all colors. Friends company was the best, and so the Hoody of Hanyang University.

Few photos of the events are here.

There were many stalls and booths one of the crowded one was this cultural dress booth, offering to try King's costume and of Army men. We tried some to look and feel like a Korean Emperor.

Some typical village look stalls with some cooking on old stoves using wood as fuel.

These are the pics of Korean traditional sweet making stall.

Traditional architecture is always well maintained, developed, managed and preserved bu Korean governmental organization, so it was also shown in this pic. Beautiful winter rainy clouds just made every thing washed and clean. I love foggy weather with cool breeze. This pic is one of my favorites now.

 It was yet another memorable tours of my stay in Korea, and indeed one of suggested place if you are in Korea especially during festival days, and very especially for Hanyang foreign students.

Korea In Motion Festival 2013

Korea In Motion Festival 2013

What a lucky day it was for me, on August 31, 2013 along with a bunch of the naughtiest friends of mine, i attended this very colorful event of well awaited festival Korea in Motion, at Gwanghwamoon Cheonggye square of Seoul. 

The festival is simply called KO in MO, and it was well promoted before it is started properly.

The festival is all about Korean Performances, which are internationally famous. These performances are being provided to the tourists from all over the world in half of the original prices. This festival is held annually and is one of the very long festival of Seoul.

Opening ceremony of KO in MO  was surprisingly interesting as they showed 3 famous performances from the KO in MO festival live there for free.

Before the performances, anchors asked some questions to audiences present, questions were quite simple one, as i knew all the answers. For the very first question I raised my hand along with many others but luckily I was pointed out to answer in mike so I did, and guess what I won gift box from KTO. Waow,.. it was great. Gift Box included CD and a-T shirt personally singed by group members of famous music group MBLAQ, then 2 tickets of a performance included in KO in MO. That is why is was a very lucky day for me. 

The first performance after that prize winning quick quiz session was musical, theatrical but in Korean Language so was not that much appealing  but was interesting enough to hold the audiences till the end. 

After that performance while all of us were waiting for next performance, there came the rain..what a dramatic it was for all of us. People went off the show and stood under shades but the show continued with a thrilling performance of Drum Cats. Showers and drums quite a rare combination to be seen live though it was exciting and memorable indeed.

Showers kept on interfering but show moved to next level of excitement when some superbly stunning dance performances and B Boys move on the wet stage, being showed by the group Schoom. It was really brave to do those moves in raining as it was very slippery so not easy to hold and grip.

Then thanks God, rain stopped and we were back in the arena, but all our seats were captured by young Koreans especially girls who were waiting in the rain for one group...yes the MBLAQ.
When the appeared on the stage the opening ceremony turned into a concert. The camera flashes, videos making, shouting, singing along, oohz and aahz...all were there...and we were really enjoying that environment there.
MBLAQ performed on few of there famous tracks, one catchy tune was.."ohh yeah" which we still have in our minds especially when it is time to study... ;-)
In the end,,,shows was finished formally but but our spirits were not. Hanging out with friends is the ever best thing for me, so we had some good snaps there at Cheonggye Stream then walked around the streets, had fun a lot there before we planned for dinner at Itaewon finally.

Korea Performance Digital Book App

Korea Performance Digital Book App

Korea Performance Digital Book App, is a very useful and an unique application for your smart phone developed by KTO especially for the tourists and foreigners visiting Korea and want to enjoy the plenty of vivid and versatile performances famous round the world.

This app also includes lucky draw with many chances to win incredible prizes like air tickets to Korea.

Waow...is in it great...

So why waiting,.....grab it...and enjoy.

 

Midday Korean Dance

Midday Korean Dance

With my one of the best friends in Korea...a truly nice guy Muhammad Mudaris, i attended yet another performance at National Museum of Performing Arts which is located at National Theater of Korea in Seoul...on a very hot day but national holiday of 15th August 2013.

As the name indicates the performance was mainly traditionally Dancefull. The overall event was of about 90 mints with one solo performance while 2 in pair performance and 2 group performance.
Stage was very simple giving main area to the performers. As i mentioned it was quite traditional performances like always language barrier made it a bit comfortable for foreigners.
Performances were of the combination of cultural dance and music based on some theme.
Like if there was a performance having music and lyrics about fields and farmers then there were love stories as well. Love stories dances were very phenomenal and dramatic. While the group performances were very dynamic and of fast pace involving the audiences.
As the pic were not allowed during the performances so we had some snaps at the end of the show that is why missed the shuttle bus as well..

I personally like last performance Named Tae..which was the real one of that show, it involved so many performers and simple traditional instruments so making it a huge performance. The music in it was very fast with different types of drums. Ladies were equally good in drumming and dance and were in the front to perform. There were four drums with wheels so during the performances moving those drums making it more dynamic overall.
I enjoyed there with my friend then had a visit of Seoul for shopping.
I think overall it was a good event. Thanks KTO for providing yet another opportunity to have a memorable hangout with friends

MBC Show Champion

MBC Show Champion.

Yet another, one of the great T.V Music Shows in Korea, MBC Show Champion was on air live form Nurikum Square Art Halls, at Digital Media City subway station in Seoul on 7th August 2013.

It was very humid and hot day, me being so tired still managed to reach there with bunch of best friends. As the show had to go live so we literally rushed towards our destination to be in time and we managed to grab our standing tickets from KTO staff successfully. But waow......it was over crowded. I have not seen that much long waiting lines in Korea before. There were about 2 very very long lines, and 2 more groups of small lines probably of many high school girls who were over excited to watch their super stars performing live on T.V in front of them. 

After waiting for about half an hour in one of the two long ques, wet in the sweat, but gossiping and enjoying we entered in the hall in front of stage.

Pics were not allowed inside by all tried to have some snaps like me.

Show began with some very good performances of new groups.

There were many stunning performances by EXO, VIXX, M.I.B, JUNIEL, AOA, Wassup and f(x).

Crowd was crazy, making noise and shouting. To stand there for a long time was not easy but the great show drove all of us along till the end.

Performance by EXO was very dynamic, this group really has gained much popularity in recent past. Young girls were thier real fan...and i do not know why so.

I personally like the performance by group M.I.B,their song and style was very unique and vivid. The song was Mr. Removed.

After a tough competition between EXO and the famous f(x), the later won the show of the evening. Fan following of f(x) is also very high now a days and on that day as well.

It was very good to see many foreigners there proving that K-POP is really popular worldwide and more and more fans increasing day by day like me and my friends.

Puri

It was 5th July, 2013. At National Theater of Korea, Seoul I attended a very powerful and unique totally musical performance by a group named Puri.
This performance was one of the very best one of Yeowoorak Festival,July 2013.
Me with couple of my friends reached Dongguk University subway station, near from exit 6 we caught Shuttle bus service for National Theater of Korea.
This group is famous for composing a different type of music using many types of old, traditional music instruments mixed with some of the modern ones like electric guitar and piano thus combining both traditional and old music with a unique touch of modern music very beautifully. This group is internationally recognized and that show was also going live on T.V as many cameras were there for recording.
They composed some really amazing tracks using many different music instruments. the group leader also sung couple of traditional songs along with others.
Many types of instruments were used to create such music like different types of drums then flutes.
Song were in Korean language so we foreigners did know what was those all about but they seemed to be very motivating as one of the track moved all the audiences very much and it was very powerful and theatrical.
Stage overall was according to the theme and dressing by all group members was also traditional.

This group consisting of musicians like magicians. Every member of the group is very talented.
As each one can play more the one instrument and some of them can sing beautifully. This group is internationally famous for their unique style of music combining traditional Korean music and instruments with the modern music. This combination of new complex music with simple music is always difficult to compose and to make something worth enjoying. But as i said when professional and experts excel in any field they usually make masterpieces. So it was exactly there in Puri.

Once again a great performance arranged for me by KTO.