Jeonju Sori Festival mixes tradition, experimentation and summer nights
The Jeonju International Sori Festival will return Aug. 13-17, filling five days with 57 programs and 69 performances of traditional Korean music, jazz, classical, contemporary music, and more.
This year’s theme, “Echoes from the Homeland,” promises programming for audiences of all generations, with events staged at the Sori Arts Center and 14 cities and counties across North Jeolla Province.
The festival opens with "Pansori Theater Shim Cheong," a co-production with the National Changgeuk Company of Korea. Departing from the familiar folk tale centered on filial piety and self-sacrifice, this new interpretation reimagines the filial daughter as a symbol of the socially vulnerable who have been oppressed and deprived of their voices and power.
Written and directed by Yona Kim, an opera stage director predominantly active in Germany, the work draws on her operatic experience while remaining rooted in Korean tradition.
Other highlights include “Five Pansori Stories,” in which some of the leading pansori artists perform the five surviving works of pansori, or a traditional narrative song form, and “Sanjo Night,” showcasing the improvisational beauty of sanjo with master musicians.
On Aug. 16, pianist Son Yeol-eum takes to the stage, with a late-summer jazz set by vocalist Nah Youn-sun and pianist Benjamin Moussay to follow that evening.
The festival also welcomes bands that blend genres and push boundaries as it seeks to embrace experimental approaches to traditional music.
Alternative pop band Leenalchi will perform tracks from its hit albums, including the viral favorite “Tiger Is Coming.” Seodo Band will present its self-described “Joseon Pop,” a hybrid of traditional Korean and contemporary pop, while singer-songwriter Song So-hee, a leading voice in the Gyeonggi folk singing tradition, showcases her ever-expanding musical world.
The festival closes with Ahn Eun Me Company’s “Dancing Grandmothers,” a joyful homage to elderly women across Korea whose spontaneous dance movements she has collected and celebrated since 2011.
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