Society for Music Research
Sunhong Kim organized a three-day field trip to Chicago for Sinaboro (student organization for Korean percussion ensemble at U of M) members from February 25 to 27, 2023. The purpose of this trip was to advance the performing skills on four Korean percussion instruments: jing (large gong), kkawenggwari (small gong), buk (barrel drum), janggu (double headed hourglass drum). With the full support of the Nam Center for Korean Studies, Sinaboro joined a workshop at Korean Performing Arts Center (KPAC) in Chicago. The workshops were five hours long over two days and students were able to acquire percussive technical skills as well as diverse Korean rhythmic patterns (yeongnam nongak) from pungmul genre (rural farmer’s band and music). Suwan Choi was our instructor for the workshops.
Students’ Testimonials:
“I had never been exposed to Korean drumming before, and even with a background in Western percussion, I found Salmunori to be a completely different genre with new techniques and movements.” —Nathan Mah (co-president)
“I have never been very excited about music, but I was truly enamored with how much fun it was to improve our performance and presentation skills.” —Steven Theisen
“The basics of “hoheup” (breathing) really helped me to understand how to move and portray the energy of the janggu. I was always unsure of how to move my body along with the song but through Suwan, I was able to listen to the repertoire and find the places where my body naturally moved to the piece.” —Sharon Gim (vice president)
“The design of the workshop effectively challenged our group through a reintroduction to the fundamentals of samulnori performance, providing us options for restructuring our existing repertoire, and introducing us to new repertoire.” —Mayna Tyrrell
“After the workshop, we brainstormed many ideas (like public performances!) on how we can better promote ourselves on campus and grow our group in the upcoming years!” —Taminah Sultana