Gugak’s quality first: new head of Gugak Center announces her vision

Gayageum player Kim Hae-sook is the new head of South Korea’s national traditional music centre. The musician is the first woman to lead the National Gugak Center since its inception in 1951. She will hold the post for two years.

In a recent press conference, Kim Hae-sook talked about her priority of producing quality music and performance while not getting bogged-down in ‘modernization’ rhetoric. Let’s watch and see where her straight-forward approach leads traditional music in this anything but straight-forward nation.

More about traditional Korean music here.
More on nationalism, modernization and gugak here and here.

From a recent news report from Hangyorae:
“‘Popular’. ‘Modernization’. ‘Globalization’. With these three buzzwords, I take up my new post as the leader of the National Gugak Centre. First, we have got to be careful of a few things. We have to be careful not to lose cultural merit as a cost of popularization, or modernize at the cost of Westernising. Also, in order to globalize, we have to do away with nationalistic rhetoric and thinking.”

On the 21st of January, the first female head of the National Gugak Center in its 62-year history, musician and scholar Kim Hae-sook gave a press conference in Seoul. She let reporters know about the centre’s new management and business plans, among other things. “Through my support of high-value gugak, I look forward to adding to the happiness in peoples lives.” She emphasized the importance of supporting traditional music in the provinces: “The National Gugak Center’s affiliated court music ensemble and dancers, folk orchestra, and Changjak troupe will of course be very active in three centres outside of the Seoul metropolitan area, Namwon, Jindo, and Busan.  The national center will produce theatrical performances and concerts—a whole variety of artistic performances. ”

She is not only interested in popularizing gugak domestically, but wants to do more to raise its status internationally,  as well. “K-pop has been in the spotlight abroad, but we have failed to promote our ‘high’ culture–culture that reflects our identity and our long history–in other countries. We ought to focus on promoting our culture of value. Two years is not long, but we need to focus on music that raises the quality of our art and, with the [Korean] public, I look forward to taking on the role of raising the status of our distinguished traditional culture abroad.”
– Hankyorae news.

Watch Kim performing with two younger gayageum players here.