A Harmonious Beauty of Cultural Sounds in Jeju

Korea-ASEAN orchestra, an orchestra with exotic sounds and spiritual awakening

Another first in the history of Korea-ASEAN relations was made when the Korea-ASEAN Traditional Orchestra performed at Tamna Hall of the ICC Jeju, the venue of the historic Korea-ASEAN Summit. The orchestra performed various traditional songs from Korea and ASEAN member countries with traditional musical instruments from those countries.
The traditional musical numbers included Korea's "Arirang;" "Seloka" from Malaysia; "Orde-E" from the Philippines; "Bengawan Solo" from Indonesia; "Reverie" from Cambodia; "Singapura" from Singapore; and "Rice's Life" from Thailand, among others.
The orchestra truly thrilled the audience of Summit participants and staff, dispelling the initial concern over whether or not the orchestra would work with all of those different traditional musical instruments from ASEAN member countries and Korea. The audience rose from their seats after each number with thunderous applause, enraptured by the flawless performance with the beautiful harmony of sounds, despite the different nationalities of the musical instruments and musicians.
The orchestra is the first one ever formed with 79 Asian traditional instruments from 11 nations: Korea, Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The orchestra is the first starter of the Asian Arts Community Project for the Asian Culture Complex. The orchestra conducts its activities as a cultural mission that will promote Asian music throughout the world, building a cultural community based on Asian traditional music.
The idea of establishing the ASEAN-Korea Traditional Orchestra started with the suggestion of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea to form an orchestra with Asian traditional instruments. This idea was then developed with the support of the 10 ASEAN member nations during the "ASEAN-Korea Meeting on Cultural Collaboration Projects" in 2008 and 2009. The first meeting came with agreed minutes, which progressed to reaching common ground for the joint creation of the ASEAN-Korea Traditional Orchestra. The second ASEAN-Korea Meeting on Cultural Collaboration Projects took place on Sept. 25, 2008. Based on the agreed minutes, the "ASEAN-Korea Traditional Orchestra Representative Committee" was officially organized. The committee consisted of two co-chairmen and 10 appointed committee members who were recommended by their respective nation.
The joint workshop of the orchestra was held from Feb. 17-27 in Seoul. Eleven recommended composers and 56 orchestra members from Korea and the 10 ASEAN states attended the workshop to show the vision of the harmonious music. Aloysius Suwardi, an Indonesian musician who plays Dumdum, showed his passion by cutting his precious instrument to be in tune with the other instruments. nw

The Korea-ASEAN Traditional Music Orchestra performs at a session of the Korea-ASEAN Summit held on Jeju Island May 31-June 2.