Seoul – Asdaf News:
By: Samar Yahya
Music has been the soul of people and during my recent visit to Seoul, South Korea, I had a visit to The National Gugak Center (NGC) which is the center of traditional Korean performing arts that gave me a wider vision on traditions of court and popular music and dance to contemporary musical composition.
NGC that was planned for foundation in January 1950 and opened in April 1951 and ever since, expansion and opening of Halls and the Museum has gone through altered phases.
The NGC has four different pre-eminent performing groups, including Court Music Orchestra, Folk Music Group, Dance Theater, and Contemporary Gugak Orchestra.
The NGC is the house for Korean classical instruments, ancient music scores, ancient documents and articles by famous musicians.
The NGC offers visitors a diverse music and dancing forefront to revitalize ancient court music and dance, traditional chamber music of non-professional musicians, and old popular music that thrived among common people.
The ‘Saturday Performance of Korean Music & Dance’ is one of the most popular programs for foreign visitors.
The NGC History Hall showcases the history of Gugak as well as the Ancient Documents Hall, Virtuosos Hall, and Instruments Hall where highly valued and treasured Gugak archives are preserved.
The NGC has also regional branches; Namwon NGC, Jindo NGC and Busan NGC.
