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Home > Events > Banned and Forgotten in Cold-War Korea: The Piano Concerto and Songs of Kim Soon Nam

Banned and Forgotten in Cold-War Korea: The Piano Concerto and Songs of Kim Soon Nam

The 2011 Ciro Zoppo Lecture Concert, UCLA Department of Musicology

Wednesday, June 01, 2011
4:00 PM
Jan Popper Theater
Schoenberg Music Building
UCLA


Lecture and Piano – Hyun Kyong Chang
Second Piano – Ryan Rowen
Tenor – Daniel Suk

In 1988, the South Korean government lifted its 35-year-old ban on the performance of compositions by Koreans who left the South during the Korean War (1950-1953) to join the Workers’ Party in North Korea. This lecture concert features rediscovered works of one such composer, Kim Soon Nam (1917-1986). These pieces provide glimpses into the diverse range of musical styles that flourished in Korea in the 1940s, before the country was divided into the capitalist-democratic South and the communist North.

This lecture discusses how the tensions of the Cold War shaped the cultures of the two Koreas, exploring the ideological struggles that contributed to Kim Soon Nam’s tragic personal history. It also considers why many of Kim’s works remain unperformed in South Korea.

The performance features two songs for tenor and piano (“Mountain Flower” and “Iron Foundry”) and a piano concerto that survives only in an arrangement for two pianos. These works demonstrate how Kim fused elements of traditional Korean music with techniques representative of early Soviet compositions.

Reception and Musicology End-of-Year Awards Ceremony to follow in 1230 SMB.

Cost: Free

Special Instructions

This event is open to the public.

For more information please contact

UCLA Department of Musicology Tel: 310-206-5187
bvannost@humnet.ucla.edu

Sponsor(s): Musicology

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