Seoul Philharmonic Performs at Kazakh Goryeo Theater Guarded by General Hong Beom-do

Special Chamber Music Performance Scheduled for March 5-6

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (SPO) will perform on the stage of the Kazakhstan Koryo Theater, where General Hong Beom-do worked as a guard in his later years.

On the 24th, the SPO announced that to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the foundation's establishment and the 80th anniversary of its founding, it will hold a special performance for the Kazakhstani Koryo-saram overseas Koreans at the Kazakhstan National Academy Koryo Theater (Koryo Theater) on March 5-6 at 6 p.m.

The Koryo Theater is the world's first national Korean theater, established in 1932 in Vladivostok, Russia. In 1937, due to the Russian government's policy, the Koryo-saram were forcibly relocated to Central Asia, and the theater was moved along with them. General Hong Beom-do worked as a guard when the theater was in Kyzylorda, Kazakhstan, and passed away in Kyzylorda in 1943. The theater settled in its current location in Almaty in 1968. The Koryo Theater is a performing arts organization and theater representing the Koryo-saram in Kazakhstan, and in 2016, the Kazakhstan government elevated the Koryo Theater to the status of 'National Academy Theater.'

The Kazakhstan performance will feature an 11-member chamber music team led by Han Ji-yeon, the SPO's concertmaster.

The performance will begin with Mozart's 'Divertimento,' filled with brilliant and lively melodies and harmonies, celebrating the 180th anniversary of the birth of Kazakhstan's national poet Abai Qunanbaiuly. This will be followed by the most famous 'Alla Hornpipe' from Handel's 'Water Music' suite, representing the Baroque era's court musicians, and the first part of the performance will conclude with works by Kazakhstan's national composers Yerkesh Kapayev and Manarbek Yerzhanov.

The second part of the performance will include Vivaldi's concerto 'The Four Seasons,' first movement 'Spring,' the second movement of Tchaikovsky's String Quartet No. 1, and a serenade for strings.

The SPO plans to use this performance as a starting point to communicate through music with the Central Asian region and expand cultural and artistic exchanges.

CEO Jung Jae-wal said, "We are very pleased that the SPO, as a cultural envoy representing the Republic of Korea and Seoul, will present classical performances at the Koryo Theater, which holds high cultural and historical value for the Korean people," adding, "We hope this event will be an opportunity for the Koryo-saram community to soothe their homesickness and longing through classical music."