Sejong Centre for Performing Arts

During August I went to the Sejong Centre for Performing Arts twice.

My first visit was with Young and Angelina to watch a world music percussion performance called “Go Go Sing”. I’m still unsure how the name fits in with the performance, as there were nether go-go girls, nor singing. The performance included three percussion ensembles, from Korea, Japan, and Switzerland. The melodies were primarily created on the marimba or xylophone, but occasionally with other interesting percussion instruments like a sansa. Harmony was also achieved with similar instruments, and the more robust percussion devices like gongs, bells and different drums.

The opening number was by the Japanese ensemble playing a rendition of Ravel’s Bolera. The YouTube-video below is also by a Japanese ensemble, but not the same one; although, the lady looks much like the one of the musicians that performed at Sejong. It might even be the same one. Also, the performance of Ravel’s Bolera at Sejong included four marimbas and a number of other instruments as well.



It was a lovely experience that benumbed my auditory sense – not with the agonizing bethundering* one experience to too loud thumping music at a rock concert; rather with overexposure to beautiful sounds. (* Bethundering is not an English word – I loan it from Afrikaans.)

It was after this performance that Young, Angelina and I went to the Taiwanese restaurant.

Not too long after this (probably the following week), I again visited the Sejong Centre of Performing Arts, this time with other friends, and to see a performance of Peter and the Wolf. The performance involved a clay-animation, accompanied by a live orchestra accompaniment. Actually the show had two parts, the first had only the orchestra playing different pieces from children’s operas and animations, and the second part concerned the actual “Peter and the Wolf”-performance. What I especially enjoyed was how specific musical instruments became the voice, or rather, themes for the different characters in the story. The oboe, for instance, represents the bird, and the French horns represent the wolf.

The majority of the audience included children, so it was fun to see how they experienced the performance -- where they laughed, screamed, giggled, and sneered. Viewing it with children made it a much intenser experience for me, as it helped me to see and hear and feel it less like an adult (and especially an over analysing adult), and more like a child.

The actual animation won an academy award for best short film in 2008. You can watch it in the YouTube-clips below.