Culture Ministry to host five open air concerts at Blue House through November

Fall is looking like a musical season for the Blue House this year. The Culture Ministry on Thursday announced a series of alfresco concerts at the former presidential compound will be held through November.

The Blue House is pictured in November 2022. [PARK SANG-MOON]

Fall is looking like a musical season for the Blue House this year.

The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on Thursday announced that a series of alfresco concerts at the former presidential compound in Jongno District, central Seoul, will be held through November.

Pianist Sunwoo Yekwon will be kicking off the concert series on Saturday, performing Sergei Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini" (1934) with the Korean National Symphony Orchestra (KNSO) at the heliport of the Blue House.

Korean traditional vocalist Ko Yeong-yeol and girl group Mamamoo's Moonbyul and Solar are set to perform afterward.

The poster for the first installation of Blue House's alfresco concerts on Saturday and Sunday at the former presidential compound's heliport. [MINISTRY OF CULTURE, SPORTS AND TOURISM]

Famous operatic singers will fill the same stage on Sunday. The Korea National Opera, as well as Baritone Samuel Youn, musical theater actor Yang Joon-mo and soprano Rim Sae-kyung, will perform iconic opera pieces such as Giuseppe Verdi's "La traviata" (1853) and Korean works like Choi Yeong-seop's "I Miss Mt. Geumgang" (2021). The Korean Adopted Children’s Choir will also perform with the KNSO.

Tickets to the first two performances on Saturday and Sunday have already been sold out since going on sale on Aug. 21, according to the Culture Ministry.

Upcoming performances at the Blue House include the "K-Music Festival," where singers of various genres, such as K-pop and jazz, will perform gugak (traditional Korean music) from Sept. 28 to 30 at the main garden; original traditional theater performances and Korean orchestral music from Sept. 21 to Oct. 28, at Nokjiwon and the main garden; and crossover performances of diverse musical genres including orchestral sounds with Korean traditional music, on Oct. 7 and 8, at the heliport.

There will also be performances commemorating the 70th anniversary of the U.S.-Korea alliance on Nov. 4 and 5 at the compound's Chunchugwan. Performers have yet to be announced.

Fall foliage at the Blue House is pictured in November 2022. [PARK SANG-MOON]

"The outdoor concerts at the Blue House will become Korea's representative event, like the concerts at Austria's Schönbrunn Palace or Germany's Waldbühne concerts by the Berlin Philharmonic," Culture Minister Park Bo-gyoon said in a press release Thursday. "We hope that not only Korean citizens but also foreign tourists will enjoy the essence of K-music in the clear autumn sky through a variety of performances starting from the Chuseok holiday and continuing through November."

Tickets to Blue House concerts open in five parts. Entries to the remaining four are available on the ticketing platform Interpark.

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]