Curious Classics – Silk, Wood and Soul

Yi Ji-Young is one of the world’s foremost soloists of the Korean gayageum, a classical twelve-string zither similar to the Japanese koto. For her virtuosity of the instrument and deep expertise in Korean musical heritage, she herself has been designated a national cultural treasure of Korea.

Yi Ji-Young began to play the gayageum already at age five. She is now a professor at Seoul National University and has released no fewer than 40 albums with a focus on Korean sanjo, traditional music with 2,000-year-old roots in shamanistic culture. The music has the capacity to evoke imagery and stories, she says.

“My entire life passes by when I play sanjo. A life that began like a hard and brutal winter. It moves into spring, when my beloved and I meet, and I experience a great sense of calm. But then time moves far too quickly. As I approach the end and everything becomes quiet, I sometimes begin to cry.”

At this evening’s concert, we will hear several samples of sanjo, instrumental music in which a solo instrument is accompanied by the percussion instrument known as the janggu.

In partnership with Re:Orient

Curious Classics package – buy at least 3 concerts and receive 15% off