Dream Forest concerts

What’s on in Seoul?  Try heading up north.

Dream Forest (북서울 꿈의숲), a fairly new park in northern Seoul, is not that well known among concert goers in Seoul. It is not a forest, nor is it dreamy, but I’ve been a fan for a while. If it were not for this park, I would have likely moved out from this lively yet somewhat depressed working class —although quickly transforming– area of Gangbuk-gu quite some time ago. 

Besides being a nice park (with trees, paths, and other required park things), Dream Forest is a park where the arts are accessible. With an up-to-date concert hall and performance hall–for classical music, musicals, Korean traditional music, kids’ shows– two small art galleries (one for children), plus outdoor performance spaces, there is almost always something going on, even in winter. A lot of the programming is for families, and most is at a reasonable price, some free.

One concert series from this past year (2013) took on the daunting task of trying to make contemporary Classical music accessible. New music specialist Ensemble TIMF’s New Music Navigation (TIMF앙상블의 현대음악 읽기) had four performances that were well attended. Programs included pieces by the likes of Ligeti, G. Crumb, Piazzolla, and K. Abe to name a few.  The concerts were not just music. Pianist and radio personality Lim Soo-yeon’s laid-back, informative commentary and audience Q and A with performers–questions including “which percussion instrument is the most difficult to play”, “why is this music?”, “Did the composer want to tell a story?” answered with tact and sometimes humour–made the concerts quite fun, not a word usually used to describe concerts of contemporary or 20th century Classical music.

Since concerts and other musical events at Dream Forest are rarely promoted in English, I will try to introduce some here, from time to time.

“This is one of those places you can spend the whole day and you wouldn’t be disappointed. Park your car at the parking lot close to the East Entrance n. 2 (just after Jangwol Elementary School) and start your walk by feeding the deers at the Deer Garden. Then you have to climb some steps and here we are. The view of this wooden platform is just stunning!”

“Back on the large path we headed towards the Dream Forest Museum of Art in search of a proper place to eat lunch. However the cafe at the museum served only drinks and waffles.”

Directions, including by bike.

One upcoming concert is the final round of a Classical music “Survivor” concert series for youth (청소년음악회 최고의 클래식 최종전). Audience members vote on which music should ‘win’. The concert series started out with 40 classical tunes, and on Friday the final seven ‘songs’ will fight it out to be Classical champion.

When: Friday, January 24th, 7:30pm
Where: Dream Forest Concert Hall
Who can attend: over 7 years old
Ticket price: 25,000won
Concert length: 70min
Contact: 02) 743-5001

“하우스콘서트형 클래식공연으로 대형 공연장보다 가까운 거리에서 연주를 감상할 수 있는 ‘청소년 음악회 최고의 클래식’은 클래식큐레이터(해설자)로부터 흥미로운 곡의 해석을 통해 더욱 매력적인 클래식을 접하게 된다. 최고의 클래식은 첫 곡부터 마지막 곡까지 집중하면서 감상할 수 있으며 중간중간 곡을 반복적으로 감상하게 되므로 여러 클래식곡들을 인지 및 기억하게 된다.”

If you’ve been to a performance at Dream Forest, or know about a good one coming up, I’d love to hear about it.