On Friday June 14, 2013 an extraordinary concert took place in Berkeley. The featured artist was Natori Japanese Koto Master Shoko Hikage who was joined by Narae Kwon, on the Korean zither called Kayageum and Thomas Schultz on Piano. It took place in the intimate setting of the Garden Gate Creativity Center in the heart of Berkeley’s Claremont district.

The evening was a portrait concert celebrating the music of renown Bay Area Composer Hyo-Shin Na. Holding a doctorate from the University of Colorado, Hyo-shin Na moved to San Francisco in 1988 where she met Cage, Rzewski, Wolff, Takahashi and encountered the music of Nancarrow.

Hyo-shin Na has written for Western instruments, for Korean instruments and music that combines Western and Asian instruments and ways of playing. Hyo-shin Na has twice been awarded the Korean National Composers Prize and has been widely commissioned.

The concert in Berkeley began with “Night Procession of the Hundred Demons” a composition inspired by the 18th century scroll of the same name by the Japanese painter Toriyama Sekien. Composer Hyo-shin Na was inspired by the wildness and imagination of the painting and thus composed the work based on it. It was skillfully played by Sensei Shoko Hikage on the Japanese koto.

The concert continued with “Koto Music” (2011) of which the composer states “The materials used in this piece are very limited, and there is no development of these materials” . The limited materials were used to good effect and was remenicent of minimalist composers like Glass and Riley. A repeating tone in the middle voicing was the springboard in which motives on higher and lower strings bounced off.

The next piece in the concert “Song of the Firewood” (2010) was a rare treat. A musical delicacy seldom savored: a performance on the rare twenty-five string Kayageum! The Korean kayageum normally has 12 strings and is itself a rarity in the West, but the twenty-five string kayageum is largely unheard. Fortunately, the instrument was brought to the forefront in this portrait concert.

It was deftly played by the gifted Narae Kwon and featured a unique microtonal scale developed by the composer and frought with quarter and one-third sharp tones. Though unfamiliar, its sound was very listenable, a delight to the ears.

“Song of the Firewood” was inspired by a poem by Jaime de Angulo (1887-1950) who was a linguist, poet, and musicologist. The poem reads:

“I am old, twisted, dry. I am cold.
Build the fire.
Heh! heeh-heh. . . he-he-he . . . feel good.
Let the chief call the dancers.”

Like the poetry it inspired Hyo-shin Na’s music started out cold and controlled like wood just begun to kindle and progressively became more out of control as the blaze took shape. One could easily imagine the dancers around the blazing fire as full twenty-five string double-forte sweeps of the kayageum’s strings sent the blaze higher and higher.

The first half concluded with “Five Pieces on Yoshie Hikage’s Poems” (2012-2013). Based on poetry by Shoko Hikage’s mother in her collection of poetry called For the Pink Dianthus. The music had a melancholy feel at times a mood which matched the text well. The poetry was written after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami and this theme runs throughout.

The second half of the concert started on a different note and featured the solo piano of Stanford faculty member Thomas Schultz who played two compositions “Near and Dear” (2012) and“Variations” (1990).

The concert concluded with “Chrysanthemum Song” (2012) inspired by a poem by Japanese poet Kaen (1697-1772) and “Echoes of Harmonious Music” (2012) for twelve string kayageum and thirteen string koto. Both pieces were highly significant. The composer brought two very diverse playing traditions together and made them work together seamlessly. Although the Korean kayageum and Japanese koto are both classified as “zithers” the playing style and technique are very different.

In the program notes composer Hyo-shin Na explains: “Echoes of Harmonious Music“, “is written as a quasi-unison piece where the two instruments follow their own nature (kayageum tends to play music in a triple meter whereas koto almost always plays in a duple rhythm; lavish ornamentation is the norm for a kayageum player and almost anathema for the player of the koto) as well as the path of the piece’s melody.”

The compositions worked and the musicians played well together. It sounded like the instruments had always been meant to play together and now they had a vehicle to do so: the music of Hyo-shin Na.

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I hope you like Kim Jong Un’s haircut, North Korean college kid. You’re gonna have to get used to it.

According to a story published by the BBC today, Radio Free Asia is reporting that North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong Un is now requiring all male university students to get the same haircut as the man they refer to as “Dear Leader.” The new guidelines — a mere suggestion whispered from the barrel of a gun, really — were issued in the capital city of Pyongyang around two weeks ago, and are now being spread around the country.

Turns out that in North Korea, as in America, there are some strong opinions on the distinct look favored by the 31-year-old.

“Our leader’s haircut is very particular, if you will,” the BBC quoted one source as telling Radio Free Asia. “It doesn’t always go with everyone since everyone has different face and head shapes.”

Other sources, such as a former Pyongyang resident now living in China, were even more critical of the style.

“Until the mid-2000s, we called it the ‘Chinese smuggler haircut’,” the presumably fashion-savvy source told the Korea Times.

Despite the similarities to a shady criminal underclass, it’s more likely that “The Kim Jong Un” was originally fashioned as a tribute to his grandpa.

“Kim Jong Un’s haircut is a very particular one, shaved up the sides to make him look like Kim Il Sung did when he was in his 30s (i.e., in the late 1940s),” Bruce Cumings, a Korean history expert from the University of Chicago, told the Washington Post. “This occurred right after Kim Jong Il died, Kim Jong Un was sporting this cut in January 2012 and it was clearly meant to identify him with his grandfather, not his father.”

Regardless of its origins, “The Kim Jong Un” (aka “The Chinese Smuggler” aka “The Kim Il Sung”) will likely be welcomed by those men tired of picking from the 10 state-approved haircuts previously mandated by the socialist utopia. Compared to those looks, the 90’s-by-way-of-the-40’s style of “The Kim Jong Un” is ideal for college-aged kids experimenting with decades-old fashions and irony.

Mark Bender, Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literature opened the program. He introduced Sungkyu Chris Lee MD as the person that had made this performance series possible. He also introduced Chan Park as the acting Performance Director for this new program under the Institute for Korean Studies. Sungkyu Chris Lee MD is the benefactor of this program after encouragement by Chan Park. Lee studied at the Ohio State University before entering private practice in Columbus, OH. He later became part of the faculty at OSU’s Wexner medical training program.

The program began with Chan Park’s Korean Performance 5400 class on traditional Korean drums and gongs. The group was enthusiastic and consisted of a diverse group of students from several different cultures. Chan Park was their leader, and she is also the professor for this class. You can learn about the variety of types of Korean music and the regions in Korea where various music originates.

The main program was a series of performances of Korean artists. Kim Junghee (changoo – traditional drum) and Ji Yunja (Kayageum 12-string zither) have been designated as cultural treasures in Korea. Lee Byungsang is a virtuoso player of the taegeum, a transverse bamboo flute. Hanna Yun is a classical Korean dancer and principal at the Korean School in Louisville, KY. Yun performed the Saluri dance, which is based upon a song of shamanic cleansing. Chan Park performed Korean stories and plays the six-string komungo zither.

This is the first of the series of Korean cultural programs that will be done at OSU that is sponsored by Dr. Lee under Chan Park’s direction. It was a wonderful introduction to Korean music and singing. The audience was appreciative throughout the program. As future programs are planned, they will be announced.

A Gangnam Style mom video has gone viral on YouTube. The clip shows Mike Song and his mom dancing to a K-pop single by South Korean rapper PSY. While it’s hilarious, what’s more catching about the video is how his 60-year-old mom dances flawlessly to the beat.

Huffington Post ran the story Friday about the mother and son pair that has taken the Internet by storm with their choreographed moves.

Watch the YouTube K-pop viral video now.

Gangnam Style is described as “a Korean language colloquialism that refers to a luxurious lifestyle associated with the Gangnam district, an affluent and trendy area of Seoul. The music video depicts PSY dancing at various locations in Gangnam. The song is about ‘the perfect girlfriend who knows when to be refined and when to get wild.'”

Mike’s mom nails the Gangnam Style moves with raw precision and shows that even a 60-year-old can cut a rug with the best of them.

K-pop is short for Korean pop music and has been popularized by PSY’s comical lyrics and mashup of musical genres. But perhaps his whacky dance moves are behind the sudden viral craze about Korean music, the dance scene, teen idols and culture.

Song and his mother take to the living room of their South Korean home and dance in such a fashion, you’ll likely agree that it looks professionally done. It’s great that a mother and son can do something together despite the generation gap.

The Gangnam Style mom video in K-pop style, as of this writing, has over three million views. Bear in mind that Mike uploaded it to YouTube three days ago.

The internet is filled with budding musicians and singers hoping to upload their videos and receive their big break from a simple clip on YouTube. YouTube rags to riches stories like Justin Bieber are incredibly rare and the rest of the unknown musical artists are just hoping that someone will notice their video to help create a career in the music industry.

A popular YouTube video by Korean Indie band, Monsters Calling Home, entailed the group recording, shooting and editing an entire music video while driving around in their Hondas. This not only grabbed the attention of tens of thousands of people from all over the world, but also became noticed by the executives of Honda Motor Company.

The “Honda Loves You Back” program is a way for Honda to give thanks to their fans in very special ways. Sometimes it’s as small as simply paying the parking fee for some Honda lovers at a NHL hockey game, which can be seen on YouTube where the reactions are priceless. However, when Honda saw the unsigned Korean Indie band on YouTube they decided to thank the band for their creativity in utilizing the acoustics inside their vehicles to record their music.

Honda surprised the band by booking them for a musical guest spot on ABC’s, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Not only didMonsters Calling Home make it on the national television show, but Honda is continuing to try and help the Korean Indie band with their musical career.

Check out the Honda Loves You Back Facebook page where they have a huge feature entitled, “Helping Monsters Calling Home Get Their Big Break.”

There is the option of sharing it on Facebook, sharing it on Twitter, downloading on iTunes or listening on Spotify. There are also three videos on the site where users are encouraged to watch the YouTube video that started it all, a video on meeting the band and even a clip on Guillermo’s Fairy Tale Corner.

Check out the video to see how Honda was able to surprise the band with the news of making it on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”