Composer Chin Unsuk on Korean audiences

“예전에는 공연 도중에 나가는 사람도 있었어요. 해를 거듭하면서 이제 조금씩 고정관객들이 생기고 있죠. 물론 정명훈 선생님의 말러 공연과는 비교도 할 수 없지만요.(웃음)”

Classical music composer Chin Unsuk talks about growing Korean audiences and the importance of the contemporary music series Ars Nova with the Seoul Philharmonic. From a recent article by reporter Lee Hye-won for Union Press, Seoul, translated by me (:   .

“In the past, audience members used to walk out. As the years have gone by, there has been more and more of an audience, though. Of course we can’t compare with the audience turnout for Chung Myung-whun’s (정명훈) Mahler concerts [laughs].”

Chin Unsuk

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (서울시립교향악단) composer in residence Chin Unsuk (진은숙) spoke at the New Year’s press conference on January 16th at the Sejong Center.

“I often hear that contemporary classical music is ‘difficult’,” Chin said, talking about audiences in Korea. “Listeners say some parts makes sense, but other parts are just incomprehensible and just leave question marks in our heads. This is what is important, I think, because once you’ve got listeners at least questioning, you want to get them to think more. This is what is helping our audience grow, little by little.”

“Once ‘contemporary’ is tagged onto art, it becomes ‘difficult’. It doesn’t matter if this is contemporary visual art, dance or music. Contemporary music is notoriously difficult. Audiences members comfortable with the conventions of Baroque or Romantic music listen to contemporary music for the first time and ask “is this music?” and don’t try to hide their frustration with it. Concert goers who hold onto these conceptions will inevitably hear contemporary music as noise”.

“Because of these fixed ideas about music, contemporary music is labelled ‘difficult’. “Music should be beautiful.” “That is just the way it is.” With that mindset, any music that isn’t so called ‘beautiful’ is dismissed. Music is diverse. Bach’s music is beautiful, right? But I can’t imagine life without Tchaikovsky. Bach’s music seems to be from another world. Certainly Tchaikovsky’s music is wonderful but for me anyway, I couldn’t live without Stravinsky either. Different composer, different style.”

A recent composition of Chin is her concerto for the  Chinese reed instrument the sheng.

The sheng is new to classical music audiences, Korean  or otherwise. Seeing Chinese sheng soloist Wu Wei perform, Chin was blown-away and right then and there promised to compose something for him. Chin said “Writing for a non-Western instrument seemed risky, but I decided not to hesitate, met up with Wu Wei and began to compose.”

The Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra has an ongoing series dedicated to contemporary music called Ars Nova (아르스 노바).  “In the early days of the series, Korean concert goers were quite unfamiliar with contemporary music and audience members did walk out.  Now there is a regular following. That said, when compared with the Mahler series, and the popular repertoire, our concerts certainly aren’t box office hits.”  (She laughs).

Despite this, Chin says the Ars Nova series is influencing the Classical music scene in Korea. “Before, orchestras in Korea didn’t perform contemporary music at all. I think the Seoul Philharmonic is doing a good job. They are adapting to a new system and expanding their repertoire to include contemporary music. These baby steps might not seem like much, but the Seoul Philharmonic’s efforts are significant.

Contemporary music in Korea is starting to get a foothold, but the average concert goer certainly still thinks it is ‘difficult’.

“I’m a patient person,” Chin says. “I’m not a quitter. Results don’t come quickly, but I started in contemporary music with the patience to wait 10, 20 years. Instead of having audiences listen to music they like (already), or focus on what has happened over the course of the long history of music, I welcome interest in the activities of [today’s] composers.

이혜원. “음악人] 진은숙 작곡가 “물음표 붙는 현대음악, 거기부터 시작하면 돼요” 유니온프레스. 2014.01/17. Web, 2014/01/21.

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Read about a younger Korean composer, also based in Germany, here.