The Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago performs Thursday, October 15, at 7 p.m. in the Dalton Theatre of Kalamazoo College's Light Fine Arts Building, presented by the Connecting Chords Music Festival. Founder and executive director Byoung Kim joins Cara Lieurance for a preview of their multi-genre concert.
Kim, who has played and taught Korean drum for more than 25 years, started the institute in 2013 as its only teacher, with a youth program at its core. "The whole idea was to pass our cultural heritage over to next generation," he says. He gradually brought professional musicians from South Korea, and the institute now has six full-time. Students study gayageum, daegeum, piri, haegeum, percussion and dance, and perform at schools, libraries and local festivals.
Thursday's concert moves through string music, folk song, percussion, and drumming with dance. "We designed it as a journey from intimate and expressive music to powerful communal celebration," Kim says. Gayageum player Hyunchae Kim opens with a traditional sanjo and a contemporary piece on the 12-string zither, an instrument Kim traces to the sixth-century Gaya kingdom. Folk songs such as "Jindo Arirang" follow; Kim says they carry both sorrow and the excitement that helps people overcome hard times.
The percussion pieces draw on nongak, or farmers' music, once played to celebrate holidays and lighten labor. Kim says audiences who know Japanese taiko will hear the difference right away, in both rhythm and philosophy: metal instruments represent yang, skin drums represent yin, and the music seeks harmony between them. In the finale, drummers dance acrobatically while spinning long ribbons from their hats. As for how that custom began, Kim admits, "the truth is that nobody knows."
Kim also founded the Chicago Drum Festival in 2019, gathering Japanese, African, Chinese, Thai and Latin drumming groups for performances that end in a shared jam session, out of a belief that music can bring people together.
The interview was summarized by Claude AI and edited by the author.
