Edinburgh International Festival which is held every summer is a stage for international artists in the world performing art industry. Every year more than 100 art works of international artists including Pina Bauch, Matthew Bourne, Steve Reich, Claudio Abbado etc are invited to the Edinburgh International Festival, and three performing art teams that represent Korea have been invited to the festival.

This year, Edinburgh International Festival introduces Asian artists of Korea, Japan, China, Vietnam and Taiwan etc. under the theme ’’To the Far West’’. The three Korean performing art teams will introduce play, dance and music of Korea. This is the first time Korean performing art teams have ever invited to Edinburgh International Festival since the foundation of the festival in 1947.



The invited performing arts are The Tempest of Mokwha Repertory Company (directed by Tae Suk OH), Princess Bari of Eun Me AHN Company (choreographed by Eun Me AHN) and Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra (conducted by Myung Whun CHUNG).

Jonathan Mills, Director of Edinburgh International Festival said, "Our festival is focusing on Asian culture this year for the first time in history. We are going to build a bridge that connects Europe and Asia in Edinburgh the city of international festivals in August. There have been diverse artistic connections between Korea and Europe for over hundreds of years. I am deeply impressed by the will and desire to create a new link among the people of different culture." He also addressed that the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival would provide an opportunity to explore and celebrate dynamic and various Asian culture and the cultural influence on history of the Western culture.

Jonathan Mills was appointed as arts director in 2006, and he has shown his interest in Korean performing arts since 2007. In 2008, he participated the Performing Arts Market in Seoul(PAMS) to experience Korean performing arts personally, and in November the same year he saw Princess Bari of Eun Me AHN Company at the Pina Bausch Festival in Germany, and he expressed his intention to invite the performing team to Edinburgh International Festival. With Mokwha Repertory Company, Jonathan Mills expressed his intention to introduce Director Tae Suk OH’’s new work to the festival after watching their performance at Barbican Center in 2006.

In 2006, Mokwha Repertory Company was invited to perform Romeo and Juliet at Barbican Center in London. It was highly regarded as " a preforming art that shows what a true tragedy is"(The Guardian) and "a charming, speedy and fresh performance"(Financial Times) by the local press in England. Another Shakespeare’’ work performed by Mokhwa team was The Tempest. It was a performance expressing the Shakespeare’’s novel based on the historic truth in the Chronicles of the Three States, a classic of Korea. Director Tae Suk OH said, " I hope the European audience to experience a new Shakespeare stage by filling up the blanks in the Shakespeare’’s story recreated by Mokhwa team".

Besides Mokhwa Repertory Company, Comtemporary Legend Theatre from Taiwan will perform King Lear and Shanghai Peking Operate Troupe will perform Hamlet to introduce Asian interpretation on Shakespeare from their perspective at Edinburgh International Festival.

Eun Me AHN Company will perform. The story of Princess Bari is a comtemporary dancing performance based on a shaman tale of Korea. Eun Me AHN, Art Director says "Korean people believe that Korean tales are implying that history is progressed by understanding and love through sacrifices. I wanted to express our philosophy in the performance, because I think this is philosophy of life that I and other artists should believe in." The performance consists of Pansori(traditional dramatic song), Jngga(traditional opera) and Minyo(folk song). These three different types of Korean traditional music will show a ’’future-oriented artistic sound’’ on a stage. Eun Me AHN Company’’s dancing team is widely recognized in the European countries such as Germany, Belgium, Austria etc. And, Dance Europe of England has reviewed that ’’Eun Me AHN is worth to be called as ’’Asian Pina Bauch’’.

Mokwha Repertory Company The Tempest

Eun-Me Ahn Company Princess Bari

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra will participate in Edinburgh International Festival as part of their 2011 Europe Tour. The orchestra with Arts Director Myung Whun CHUNG will play The Forgotten Offerings by Messiaen, Šu by Unsuk CHIN and Pathétique Symphony No.6 by Tchaikovsky. Especially, Šu by Unsuk Chin which is played with an Oriental traditional music instrument ’’Saenghwang(a reed instrument consisting of pipes of different lengths)’’ is perfect for the theme(focusing on Asia) of the festival this year. Wu Wei, musician whose performance was highly regarded as ’’the most inspiring performance’’ by the local press through Europe Tour last year will join the performance with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra.

As part of the ’’Center Stage Korea in Europe’’ program, the three performing arts teams are sponsored and supported by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and Korea Arts Management Service.

Link
 | Press Release of 2011 Edinburgh International Festival