Enchanting Sounds of Korea: Beauty & Passion

The New York Korean Performing Arts Center is proud to present its 23rd annual concert of Korean music and dance, directed by Korean dance and music master Sue-Yeon Park, designated by the National Endowment for the Arts as a 2008 National Heritage Fellow. This concert marks the first year in our outreach plan to offer programs throughout New York State.

Korean traditional performing arts span a wide array of styles and genres ranging from dance that originated in shaman rituals to Buddhist ceremonial events. This concert will offer pansori (solo, narrative storytelling opera), seungmu (Buddhist monk dance), buchae-chum (fan dance), heung-chum (dance of joy), salpuri-chum (shaman ritual dance), as well as sinawi (instrumental improvisational ensemble).

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Sue Yeon Park – Artistic Director, 2008 NEA National Heritage Fellow

Sue Yeon Park learned dance and music from Master Yi Mae-Bang, designated a Living National Treasure by the Government of Korea. She herself has now been given the honorific titles of yisuja for achieving the highest level of mastery of the salpuri-chum (Shaman ritual dance) and jeonsuja for the preservation of seungmu (Buddhist ritual dance) by the Ministry of Culture of South Korea.

Immigrating to the United States in 1982, she founded the cultural group Korean Traditional Performing Arts Association (changed to The New York Korean Performing Arts Center in 2010) in order to teach young people and to continue performing Korean music and dance traditions. Her performing group Sounds of Korea has been featured at festivals and in performing centers across the United States. Park also has been a regular instructor at Camp Friendship, an organization in New Jersey that serves Korean-born adopted children. One of her nominators says of her: “She is humble, selfless, poised, and unswerving in her strength of mind to share with and teach people about Korean traditional arts.”

In 2004, Sue Yeon Park received the New York State Governor’s Award for Excellence for her contributions to the presentation and preservation of Korean traditional arts.
https://www.arts.gov/honors/heritage/fellows/sue-yeon-park