Seoul to host 10-day contemporary music festival across four venues

The 54th PAN Music Festival - ISCM Korea will bring 10 days of contemporary music to four Seoul venues from Wednesday, October 21, through Friday, October 30, with performances ranging from chamber music to audiovisual works, live electronics and string orchestra premieres.

The international festival, which has a 54-year history, will take place at Geoam Art Hall, JCC Art Center Concert Hall, Ilshin Hall and Seoul Arts Center Recital Hall. Contemporary music ensembles from South Korea, Taiwan and Poland will participate.

Hosted by ISCM Korea and organized by Hyundai Culture, with cooperation from Seoul National University College of Music Conducting Center, the festival takes “Polyphonic Futures - Toward New Music” as its theme.

Poster for The 54th PAN Music Festival - ISCM Korea. © Hyundai Culture.

The festival has highlighted the creative work of composers from South Korea and abroad, introduced new musical currents and contributed to the development of Korean creative music and international exchange. This year's program places works by senior composers who helped shape Korean contemporary music alongside experiments by composers working today, exploring encounters among generations, cultures and musical languages.

Organizers describe the theme as a future in which different musical languages, generations, cultures and technologies retain their individual voices while creating new harmony. The program brings together inherited musical traditions and current composition, Asian and European musical cultures, and conventional instruments and advanced electronic technology to explore contemporary music's many possibilities.

The opening concert, “Sounds Connecting Time - Works by Former Honorary Presidents,” will take place on October 21 at Geoam Art Hall. PAN Music Festival Ensemble will perform works by former honorary presidents Baek Seung-u, Lee Man-bang, Jin Gyu-yeong, Park In-ho and Jeong Tae-bong.

The concert recognizes composers who helped establish the foundations of Korean creative music over many years while developing distinctive musical worlds. Organizers intend it both as a look back at Korean contemporary music's historical achievements and as a consideration of how the artistic legacy of earlier composers continues through new work.

Two concerts at JCC Art Center Concert Hall on Friday, October 23, will explore the relationship between electronic music and visual art.

At 5:30 p.m., the audiovisual concert “Seeing Sound” will present works selected through an open call alongside Korean premieres of works by internationally active composers including João Pedro Oliveira and Bekah Simms.

The program treats sound and images as elements that influence one another to create a shared artistic experience. By combining music with images, space and the passage of time, it aims to offer a sensory experience extending beyond listening alone.

At 7:30 p.m., Korea Festival Ensemble will present “Dialogues with Electronics,” featuring works by Korean electronic music pioneer Kang Suk-hee and internationally prominent contemporary composers Tristan Murail, Pierre Jodlowski and Michel van der Aa.

Live electronics will be central to the performance, with instrumental playing and electronic sound interacting in real time. Sounds produced by performers will undergo electronic transformation and spatial expansion, bringing human performance and advanced technology into musical dialogue.

Organizers expect the two concerts to demonstrate contemporary music's experimental character and scope for artistic expansion across music and technology, hearing and vision.

International exchange, a central part of the festival hosted by ISCM Korea, continues on Tuesday, October 27, when Taiwan's C-Camerata Taipei performs at JCC Art Center Concert Hall.

The ensemble, which introduces Taiwanese contemporary music and maintains international creative exchanges, will perform works by Korean composers alongside Korean premieres of works by Taiwanese composers.

By placing music from different cultural backgrounds within one program, the concert aims to offer a view of contemporary music in Asia and broaden musical exchange between Korean and Taiwanese composers.

Poland's Ensemble Kwartludium will give an invited concert at Ilshin Hall on Thursday, October 29. The ensemble, which has presented new approaches to contemporary music performance and a varied experimental repertoire, will perform new works selected through an open call and Polish contemporary music.

The concert is intended to connect current composition in South Korea and Poland, showing how different musical traditions and aesthetic approaches can meet and develop through the shared language of contemporary music.

The festival will close on Friday, October 30, with a C-Channel String Orchestra concert at Seoul Arts Center Recital Hall. Presented in cooperation with Seoul National University College of Music Conducting Center, the finale will feature world premieres of new works by four composers: Kim Gyu-ri, Park Geon-won, Tak Hyeon-uk and Han Ji-yeon.

The program also includes music by Alfred Schnittke, who developed a distinctive musical language in 20th-century music, and “Broken Pillar - Homage to Frida Kahlo” by leading Korean contemporary composer Baek Byeong-dong.

Through the string orchestra's expressive range and varied sonic possibilities, the finale aims to illuminate new directions in Korean composition. Its pairing of new works by young composers with music by established figures from South Korea and abroad is intended to connect contemporary music's history, present and future within a single musical flow.

Across the festival, organizers seek to present contemporary music as a living art that reflects changes in the world and in human perception, extending its reach beyond experiments for specialists. Experiencing sound through images, hearing instruments interact with electronic technology and encountering works by composers from different cultures are intended to offer audiences ways of engaging with music beyond familiar listening experiences.

Organizers also envision the festival as a place to carry forward Korean contemporary music's historical achievements, expand international creative networks and explore musical possibilities for the next generation, alongside presenting new works.

Tickets cost 20,000 won for all seats, with a 50% discount for students. The Pan Pass, which provides access to multiple festival performances, costs 100,000 won for general admission and 60,000 won for students.

Reservations are available through Seoul Arts Center Recital Hall, NOL Ticket and YES24. Further details are available from Hyundai Culture.

Hyundai Culture blog: https://blog.naver.com/smdpnp/224424172252

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