PURI, Celebrating 20 Years of Success [Buzz Korea]

This summer the National Theatre of Korea hosted the fourth annual Yeowoorak Festival. Started from July 3rd and running through till July 27th this fantastic and fresh celebration of music has already soothen many souls during the sultry nights of the Seoul summer. You can ascertain some of the supreme traditional music that Korea has to offer, merged with other varieties and styles, fusing together to produce new sounds and experiences to excite the ears and the mind.They offer many indoor and outdoor performances throughout July as well as workshops, mentoring programs and special proceedings for students and other visitors including the chance to make your own instruments and performances.

Traditional Korean band Puri (lead by the artistic director of the National Orchestra of Korea, Won Il) celebrate their twentieth anniversary with this special performance.I was lucky enough to go on Friday July 5th to see the PURI.  Puri is a group of extraordinarily talented guys that perform traditional Korean music. It was really amazing to watch their performance with their utmost skillful way in the KB Haneul Youth. The youth theater is delightful with nice seating arrangements and truly facilitated with many things.

The PURI group uses many instruments including the traditional and modern electronic music, a piano, drum, guitars, and various other instruments in their performance.  It was a blended performance of modern and traditional music with an implausible experience.

The show began with an amazing and attractive show of arts by banging four large hanging metal sheets with their drum sticks writing the word PURI on it, it was incredible move from the team PURI.  They performed different traditional performances with their amazing combination. The drum beating performance was awesome and I liked it the most.  They also perform Pansori which is a traditional style of Korean singing. They also show a pectoral story of the 20 years struggle of the PURI performance.

Over all this was an amazing performance with a true soul of traditional arts and culture. The only thing I hate the most was the timing factor. It was supposed that the show will finish in 90 minutes but it take 140 minutes to end the show and wind up the things.

The Yeowoorak festival has been split into four weeks, each with their own themes and shows. Week one wss “Legend, week two is “Challenge”, week three will be “Crossover” and week four will be “Choice”. Each week you’ll have the chance to see two different performances bringing some of the best traditional and modern musicians together at the National Theatre. I hope you will have fun if you have a chance to see these performances. Thanks to KTO for their support in all the way reaching these kinds of performances.