I. The Wait

A festival is not something that happens by just putting together some performances and gathering the audience. It must have a clear direction, as it generates meaning when connections and links are made in pursuit of that direction. To this end, the Jarasum International Jazz Festival has been exerting efforts to create connections globally for the past nine years. Such efforts have included the Jarasum International Jazz Contest to discover international-level musicians; the Korea International Jazz Case, which is the gateway to promoting exchange between Korea and Asia; MoUs with different international festivals to promote international cooperation; and Focus Stage, a stage that focuses on one particular country each year to introduce and promote its music.

The term "jazz" has within it a meaning that is international. For this reason these types of activities and processes are very common. It is not only Jarasum that has taken on such initiatives; the Kwangju World Music Festival, where I’’ve worked during the last three years, and the Hi Seoul Festival, where I was again involved with the music program, have also undertaken such basic activities. However, as such connections have expanded the demand and need for long-term as well as direct ties have become apparent. However, this is something that is very difficult to carry out, as exchanges happen only once a year and for a few days. Moreover, at times it is not even certain if the festival will take place at all or on what scale it will happen. Because the financial support for such festivals relies heavily on the public sector, there are fundamental problems when it comes to finances.

"What festival can undertake preparation by putting together a budget when it is not certain if the project will take place in two years or three, or if it will even actually take place at all?"

II. The Meeting

The Performing Arts Global Competitiveness Project by the Korea Arts Management Service made the solution become apparent. The program promotes and assists international exchange and cooperation projects between specialists and professionals in the performing arts both at home and globalyl on a mid- to long-term basis. The program drew my attention based on two aspects:

First, the program provides assistance for preliminary work of long-term projects, as well as at their intermediate stage. As mentioned earlier, because of structural issues in international festivals, it is difficult for organizers to carry out preliminary research in preparation for the festival. Also, it is difficult for the organizers to visit a particular country or have people from other countries visit Korea for exchanges and research because of the tight budget. The program allows for this kind of undertaking.

Second, the program allows one to take on a project with the country of interest. In my case, my interest has been the UK. Ordinarily, one would have to take on different kinds of activities in order to create an international exchange project according to one’’s needs and capabilities. That is never easy. For this reason, it is always helpful to meet the right partners. In the program that I participated in under this system I was matched up with the right contacts as according to my interests; with the support of the pertinent organizations in the two countries, I was able to meet the partners that I needed to initiate contacts.
Actually, when compared to exchanges between artists or professional producers, international cooperation between festival directors is limited and focused on the end product. For this reason, the preliminary work before the cooperative project is very important, and I was glad that the program was able to provide such opportunities.



"It is already an international trend of festivals whose contents are mainly drama, dance, or multiple forms of art to participate in the production of the contents through direct international cooperation. However, this is something that has not been seen or tried in a music festival in Korea; there is value in taking on this challenge."

III. Dreaming a New Dream

Before leaving for the UK, I took time sorting through the contacts I already had for management, artists, artistic companies, theaters, and festivals there. Compared to countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, other northern European countries, or France, Spain, and Italy, where they are aggressively trying to export their cultural content, the contacts I had in the UK were mostly artists or management.

While there, I had the chance to meet with directors of jazz festival from different regions like Manchester, Glasgow, and Edinburgh and also had the opportunity to visit major performance venues there. I also had the benefit of learning about how art policies are made by visiting Arts Council England and Creative Scotland. On several occasions I also had the chance to meet and discuss concrete ideas with artists from different countries who have shown keen interest in cooperation.

During research, my main concern was what kind of cooperation would create meaningful outcomes and be suitable and possible for our festival. Because of the characteristics of the jazz genre, I decided that the main point of consideration was to meet the demands of the musicians. Jazz, unlike integrated projects like dance or drama where artists of various genres participate, is a work that is very much dependent on the musician. The actual players actually work based on impromptu improvisations and are used to a process of creating an outcome in a very short period of time. In addition, from the consumer perspective, the many talented young musicians that have returned home to Korea after studying overseas has elevated the quality and level of the jazz scene here. Young musicians are now contemplating exporting Korean jazz overseas and are also exploring possibilities in the global music market. Artists in the UK, meanwhile, are going beyond Europe and looking for opportunities in the Asian market, including China and Japan.



"I was able to dream of creating a project that would create a band composed of Korean and British musicians that would be able develop a unique repertoire combining Korean traditional techniques with jazz—this music would be able to enter the global performance and music market, thus providing the opportunity to elevate the global competitiveness of both jazz and traditional Korean musicians."

IV. Leaving Together

Based on the research that took place in 2011, concrete discussions on a cooperative project began in 2012. I decided to work with Basho, which is an artist management company and music label. Basho Music is not only in charge of the programming at one of the venues of the London Jazz Festival at the St. James Cathedral; every year they also help artists go overseas and produce their works with the support of the Arts Council England. They were the perfect partner.

For the meeting between Korean traditional music and jazz, four musicians were selected because of their understanding of each other’’s music—two Korean musicians, Yunjeong HUH on the string instrument geomungo and Lee Aram on the wind instrument daegeum, and three British players, Tim Garland on the saxophone, Gwilym Simcock on piano and keyboard, and Asaf Sirkis on percussion. Another member was also selected, one who could act as a bridge: Jeungsu OH on guitar.

The band was named the Korea–UK Band Connection, and beginning in July 2012 the members began to exchange emails as well as each other’’s music and pieces in order to get to know each other and began to discuss the nature of the band. In October, the British musicians visited Korea to participate in the Jarasum International Jazz Festival. While in Korea they held two workshops with Korean musicians, and through a couple of rehearsals they built a unique repertoire. In November, the Korean musicians visited London, where the band again rehearsed together and was invited to the London Jazz Festival, which is one of the most famous and prestigious jazz festivals in the world.

They played five pieces, including "Spinning Wheel," an improvisation based on the traditional Korean chiljae beat; "Sinawi," a free jazz reinterpretation of a type of Korean palace music called sinawi; "Constantly," which is Lee Aram’’s music but was arranged by Tim Garland; and "Upon Our Shoulders," composed by Gwilym Simcock. One hour of performance was not enough to match the effort that they poured into the entire project. However, it was a great opportunity to show to the British audience the musical possibilities of Korean music, which they had previously only been familiar with as either healing music or the traditional samul nori and sanjo.



"If one were to ask me where this two years of the connection project has led to, I would say that it feels like going on a trip with good friends after years of preparation based on each other’’s experiences. In 2013 we are planning to participate in festivals around the UK and Europe as well as produce and sell albums. In the end, our ultimate goal is for Korean traditional music to be able to meet jazz face-to-face to create a music that is so unique that there is nothing else like it in the world and in the music market. That is the final destination of our trip."