[News Culture] Jeongga Ensemble Ari is taking one of Korea’s most restrained vocal traditions beyond its familiar solo form, building an autumn concert around the sound of voices moving together.
The ensemble’s 2026 annual concert Donghaeng will take place Oct. 7 at Jangcheon Hall in Seoul’s Kwanglim Arts Center. Rather than treating traditional jeongga and modern Korean art song as separate worlds, the program places them on a single continuum, beginning with centuries-old repertoire before moving through newly written works and contemporary art songs.
That approach has long defined Ari’s work. Jeongga — the broad tradition encompassing gagok, gasa and sijo — is often associated with finely controlled solo singing, where breath, diction and subtle melodic movement carry much of the expression. Ari has instead explored what happens when that vocabulary is distributed across a choir, using harmony and layered voices without sacrificing the music’s spaciousness and restraint.
Donghaeng opens from that traditional foundation. Taepyeongga, Moran-eun and Gilgunak anchor the first part of the concert, but the emphasis is less on faithful museum-style presentation than on hearing familiar material through a collective vocal texture. Kang Joon-il’s arrangement of Moran-eun is among the works that reshape the repertoire for ensemble performance.
The middle of the evening shifts toward music written closer to the present. Lee Geon-yong’s Dara Dara and Jeogi Jeo Kkot Museun Kkoilkka, composed by Jeong Bo-hyeong to lyrics by Kim Pil-yeon, extend jeongga’s vocal language into contemporary composition rather than abandoning it.
A special collaboration with cellist Kim Dae-yeon and Ari-byeol further opens the palette. First Love and When Mom and Dad Were Young pair the ensemble’s voices with cello, adding a warmer chamber-music texture before the program moves fully into Korean art song.
The final section brings together works including Let’s Meet on the First Snowy Day, Majung and I Will Come Find You. The closing number gathers the full cast onstage, turning the concert’s title — Donghaeng, or “walking together” — into more than a thematic label.
Ko Sang-mi, artistic director of Jeongga Ensemble Ari, will conduct, while Seo Jeong-hee will guide the audience through the program as host and commentator. The performers include concertmaster Hong Hyun-su, members of Jeongga Ensemble Ari and Ari-byeol, with Shin Eun-kyung on piano, Park Sang-jin on piri, Han Jin-seul on daegeum and Pung Won-hyeon on percussion.
For Ko, the point of the evening is not simply to place old and new repertoire side by side, but to show how one can grow naturally into the other.
“When the clear, delicate sound of jeongga is shared among many voices, it becomes choral music, and when it meets the songs being written today, it continues into another musical language,” Ko said. “I hope the performers and audience can experience that journey together.”
The concert is supported by the Arts Support Matching Fund program operated by the Arts Council Korea and the Korea Mecenat Association. Samwon Printing Co. is sponsoring the event, which is presented by Jeongga Ensemble Ari and organized by Seoul Fusion Music.
Reported by News Culture M.J._mj94070777@nc.press
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