The Korean Cultural Centre in Egypt held a work presentation to celebrate the end of the ‘2022 Overseas Korean Traditional Music School’ at the Egyptian National Academy of Art on 15 September.
This course was prepared to promote the excellence of Korean traditional music in Egypt, where K-pop is the main focus of Hallyu fans, and to foster self-reliance.
As part of the National Gugak Globalisation Project of the National Gugak Centre, the Overseas Gugak Culture School invited Lim Yong-Nam — a member of the National Gugak Centre Folk Orchestra Yeonhui Club — as a lecturer.
Lectures were held for two weeks starting from 4 September by selecting a total of 40 people who were interested in Korean culture and Korean traditional music and Arab music majors.
At the closing ceremony, all the graduates wore traditional performance clothes and generously demonstrated the skills they had learned so far. In addition to the exciting performances of Seoljanggu and Samulnori, Lim Yongnam and Eo bowon performed Seoljanggu and folk songs to show off the beauty of Korean traditional music.
Additionally, Arab music professors and majors that graduated from this course presented Arabic traditional music and presented a special stage where Korean and Egyptian traditional music were harmonised.
Rahma Mohammed, 22 — a graduate of the Korean Language Department at Ain Shams University who completed this course — said: “For the past two weeks, I have been listening to Janggu classes directly from experts and making music together with other students. It was an amazing experience.”
For his part, Director of the Cultural Centre Seong-Ho Oh mentioned that after the end of the course at the Gugak Culture School, the plan is to promote the regularisation of Samulnori gatherings, so that the Korean Wave can be self-sufficient in Egypt. Additionally, the Korean Cultural Centre said that it would provide Egyptians with opportunities to experience various cultures by holding cultural lectures that cross both modernity and tradition.
