A Shared Language

The Asia Traditional Orchestra Finds Common Ground Through Music

Photos courtesy of Asia Culture Center

Revered American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once said, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” Longfellow recognized the unique ability of music to bring together people of various cultures, in spite of linguistic barriers. It is the recognition of this power that has led to an ongoing collaboration between the newly-opened Asian Culture Center and the AsiaTraditional Orchestra.

The opening of the Asian Culture Complex is part of a much larger government program meant to encourage international cooperation through the arts. The Hub City of Asian Culture Project—as the larger government program which includes the establishment of the ACC is called—is the biggest culture program in Korean history and has a grand vision. According to Asian Traditional Orchestra coordinator, Hong Jun-seo, “the construction of the Hub City of Asian Culture in Gwangju creates cultural collaboration and a venue for communication between countries within Asia.” The official mission of the project includes the exchange of cultural assets between the countries of the Asian continent. As such, the coordinators of the ACC are working to bring acts to Gwangju which highlight traditional art forms from different Asian countries.

The Asia Traditional Orchestra resulted from the 2009 Republic of Korea-ASEAN Summit, a 20th anniversary celebration of the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Dialogue Relationship. ASEAN—Association of Southeast Asian Nations—is a partnership among the nations of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The orch
estra was developed as a means “to promote and invigorate Asian traditional music.” After the ten ASEAN members agreed to create the orchestra, the Asia Traditional Music Committee developed the project. The committee is in charge of its continued expansion. Since its creation, the orchestra has performed at numerous prestigious events including the 2010 UNESCO World Conference on Art Education, the 2012 Cambodian ASEAN Art Festival, and the 2014 Incheon Asian Games.

The orchestra is run independently from the ACC, but the collaboration is intended to be long-term. Every year the Asian Traditional Music Committee—which is composed of one professional and one government official from each of the member nations—holds a conference to discuss the orchestra’s operational plan, cooperative projects and compositional direction. The annual conference is held in collaboration with the ACC. The importance of the conference—and thus ACC’s inclusion—is not just logistical but also artistic since it is during the conference that artists are chosen to create and perform pieces for international events. An important goal of the conference is to ensure the continued quality of the orchestra’s performances since it is vital for their mission that exceptional works be highlighted.

The collaboration between the ACC and the orchestra works well because of the similarities between their missions. Hong says, he ACC is intended to “play [a function] as a hub facility, serving as a cultural research center for exchanges and creations, education, and research projects through systematic collaborations to achieve simultaneous growth for all Asian countries.” Similarly, the orchestra intends to create new cross-cultural artifacts by “harmoniz[ing] different traditional instruments” in an attempt to “grow together and globally promote various Asian cultures through national and international performances.” In order reach these aims, the Asia Traditional Orchestra does not use customary orchestra instruments but instead uses traditional instruments from each of the participating countries: Korea’s haegeum, sogeum, and ajaeng, Brunei’s gulintangan, Cambodia’s tror so tauch, Indonesia’s gambang, Laos’s khene, Malaysia’s gambus, Myanmar’s shawm, Philippines’s bandurria, Singapore’s erhu, Thailand’s ranat ek, and Vietnam’s dàn bầu. Hong anticipates that, along with other ACC programs, the orchestra “will enhance not only Gwangju but also Korea, as an open community consisting of all Asian countries.”

Though the ACC was designed as a means to improve Korea’s artistic output, some are not as optimistic as Hong. Media outlets covering the opening of the ACC, have been somewhat critical of the Hub City program, expressing concerns that the ACC will not have enough pull to draw Korean tourists. A Korea Times article titled “Gwangju’s Asia Culture Complex lacks contents” published last year highlighted that though the ACC was planned to draw 1.67 million tourists annually, only 26.5 percent of Koreans were even aware of the project. The article also highlighted that while many of the artists promoted by the ACC are internationally renowned, they lack name recognition among Korean citizens. Asked about these concerns, Hong emphasized the importance of recognizing the long-term mission of the ACC to create audiences by improving artistic awareness. Hong was confident in the orchestra’s ability to “create opportunities for audiences to experience different countries’ traditional musical instruments by composing and presenting new beautiful musical pieces in front of all sorts of backgrounds.”

It is likely that the ACC may face challenges during its first few years due to the scale of the project and its grand vision. But that should not deter the ACC from bringing unique cross-cultural and international artists to what is now Korea’s largest arts center. The Asia Traditional Orchestra is an excellent example of the types of international collaborations that can foster communication in the way only the arts, and perhaps only music, can.