Performers in the Korean Percussion Ensemble’s concert entered The Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center’s Dekelboum Concert Hall Monday night not by walking on stage, but by dancing and playing through the aisles.
The introduction set the tone for a uniquely interactive concert that encouraged audience members to join in on the performance.
The style of Korean percussion that the ensemble performed is known as “samulnori” — a term which roughly translates to “to play four things” and refers to the four instruments used in the practice. Director Sebastian Wang said the genre began in the late 1970s and draws on traditional folk influences and instrumentation from different regions in South Korea.
“The original form was performed outdoors, very similar to American circuses,” Wang said. “It was done by everyday people, for everyday people, in this original form, and that characteristic has played over.”
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The student ensemble featured performers on the changgo, an hourglass-shaped drum with two heads, and performers on the buk, a lower-toned barrel drum. Another performer played a midsize gong known as a jing, while Wang sat at the center of the students with a handheld gong called the kkwaenggwari.
Due to the lack of melodic difference in the instruments, the buildup and breakdown of the student ensemble’s piece is largely driven by dynamics, tempo changes and vocals. Performers also nodded along to keep time without the need for a director or drum major.
Student performer and junior computer science major Dan Jamison said Wang taught their class different vocalizations of the rhythms in order to learn and memorize the piece without the use of sheet music.
“He even had hand gestures to kind of make sure the rhythms were aligned, going up and down with our arms to mimic the downbeats and the upbeats,” Jamison said.
The performance also featured a piece from Washington Samulnori, a local professional group, and three original compositions performed by Great Circle, a jazz combo group that combines Korean percussion with traditional jazz instrumentation.
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Wang told the audience at the start of the concert that it would be an interactive experience driven by crowd participation. This included teaching the audience chants and cheers to use during the performances and encouraging members to think of it as a rock concert. Listeners clapped along, engaged in call-and-response and bopped their heads to the beat.
“Once the show progressed, I was not expecting it to be so interactive, like [Wang] cueing the crowd,” said senior information science major Serena Alamina.
Jamison said the ensemble showcases how the music school should emphasize lesser-known ensembles because of the opportunities for learning and cultural enrichment.
“It’s really such an amazing thing to have access to these kinds of instruments, these kinds of performances,” Jamison said. “For both people to be able to see them and also perform in them is such an amazing thing to have.”
