1 Oct –20 Nov
London’s festival of Korean music
‘There’s more to Korea than K-pop’ Songlines
by
Gray by Silver
Photo
Shin-Joong Kim
Welcome
Now in its twelfth year, the K-Music Festival returns with a bold line-up of Korean and UK artists pushing the boundaries of genre and form.
From 1 October to 20 November, audiences will experience an eclectic mix of experimental sound art, post-rock, contemporary jazz, and cutting-edge classical music at some of London’s most iconic venues – including the Barbican, Southbank Centre, Royal Albert Hall, and Kings Place.
The opening night at Kings Place features a compelling collaboration between cellist Okkyung Lee and multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell, blending improvisation and electronic structure in a genre-defying encounter.
The Barbican will present post-rock innovators JAMBINAI joining forces with the London Contemporary Orchestra and conductor Lauren Wasynczuk to transform their sound into a sweeping orchestral spectacle, combining traditional Korean instrumentation with electronic and cinematic textures.
Korean traditional string trio Hilgeum meet British vocalist and composer Alice Zawadzki in a delicate yet daring exploration of Korean heritage and contemporary voice.
Acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist Park Jiha returns with her latest album All Living Things — a radiant sonic meditation on the textures, rhythms, and quiet power of the living world.
Legendary composer Won Il unveils Dionysus Robot — a bold, immersive interdisciplinary work that blends traditional Korean and electronic sound, shamanic rhythms, kinetic movement, striking visuals, and drag performance.
Gray by Silver bring their introspective blend of Korean sentiment, jazz textures, and improvisational nuance in a quiet yet powerful set.
The festival closes on 20 November with a landmark premiere: pianist Seong-Jin Cho performs a newly commissioned concerto by composer Dong-hoon Shin, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra
From radical sonic experimentation to reimagined traditions, the K-Music Festival 2025 invites audiences to immerse themselves in the voices shaping the future of Korean music — dynamic, unpredictable, and deeply resonant.
About the Korean Cultural Centre UK
The Korean Cultural Centre UK, opened under the aegis of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea in the United Kingdom, aims to enhance friendship, amity, and understanding between Korea and the UK through cultural and educational activities. From the KCCUK’s central London location near Trafalgar Square, our dedicated team works to expand cultural projects, strengthen cooperation with major arts organisations and partners, and encourage cultural exchange.
Visitor information
Monday–Friday 10am – 5.30pm Free entry
Korean Cultural Centre UK Grand Buildings, 1 Strand, London WC2N 5BW +44 (0) 20 7004 2600 kccuk.org.uk
@KCCUK
Partners
Credits
KCCUK Director
Seunghye Sun
Festival Artistic Director Jaeyeon Park
Creative Producer
Ben Lloyd-Evan (Serious)
PR Managers
Joe Boxter
Graphic Design
Steve Franklin
Text Editor
Paul Wadey
Co-ordinator
Miyoung So
The K-Music Festival is presented by the Korean Cultural Centre UK in partnership with Serious.
Okkyung Lee with Mark Fell
Wed 1 Oct 8pm
Hall One, Kings Place
‘A visceral thrill’
The Quietus
‘Exceptionally expressive’
Pitchfork
This year’s K-Music Festival opens with a groundbreaking performance featuring Korean cellist and composer Okkyung Lee, known for her genre-defying style, creating vast sonic landscapes that move freely through noise, jazz, Western classical, and her homeland’s traditional and popular music.
For the acclaimed festival’s opening night, Okkyung Lee joins forces with UK-based multidisciplinary artist Mark Fell in a bold new collaboration. Fell is a pivotal figure in experimental sound and digital art, whose work critiques normative structures and explores alternative systems of creation.
Together, they blend visceral improvisation and electronic soundscapes, weaving intense extended techniques and abstract rhythms to create an unforgettable, immersive experience.
Okkyung Lee’s distinctive approach to the cello has led to acclaimed releases on the iconic Tzadik label, founded by legendary New York composer John Zorn, as well as the influential experimental music label Editions Mego, formerly run by the late Peter Rehberg, and she is featured on over 30 albums. Her works have been presented at MoMA, Serpentine Galleries, GRM (Paris), and Donaueschinger Musiktage. A 2025 DAAD Artist-in-Berlin fellow, she continues to challenge the role of performer and space in contemporary music.
Mark Fell is a pivotal figure in experimental sound and digital art, whose work critiques normative structures and explores alternative systems of creation. Over the past three decades, his projects have spanned installation, composition, choreography and text, with presentations at institutions such as the ICA, Barbican, ZKM, MoMA, and Pirelli Hangar Bicocca.
Performers
Okkyung Lee (Cello)
Mark Fell (Electronic)
Mark Fell
Photo by Eun Chun
JAMBINAI with London Contemporary Orchestra
Sun 5 Oct 7.30pm
Barbican
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‘There’s more to Korea than K-pop’
Songlines
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‘Korea’s JAMBINAI impressed with their genre-blurring sound, applying traditional folk instruments to eruptive instrumental drone-rock reminiscent of Sonic Youth’
The Times 8 K-Music Festival 2025
Post-Rock band JAMBINAI make their Barbican debut in a rare and electrifying performance with the London Contemporary Orchestra (LCO) led by Lauren Wasynczuk, an American conductor known for her vibrant style.
JAMBINAI sound less like a band than a force of nature, fusing the full dramatic range of post-rock dynamics to Korean folk roots to create an exhilarating, vivid and unique fusion. Their instrumental music is coloured by combining traditional Korean instruments like the haegeum, geomungo, and piri with crushing guitars and cinematic textures.
Formed in Seoul in 2009, JAMBINAI have earned international acclaim, including 5 recognitions in the Korean Music Awards and a breathtaking performance at the Closing Ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics. After captivating audiences during their sold-out appearance as part of K-Music Festival 2023, they return ready to unleash their bold and immersive signature sound, unlike anything you’ve heard before.
Opening the show is Dal:um, a dynamic folk duo featuring the gayageum and geomungo.
Performers
Ilwoo Lee (Piri, Guitar, Vocals)
Bomi Kim (Haegeum, Vocals)
Eunyong Sim (Geomungo)
Jaehyuk Choi (Drums)
B.K Yu (Bass)
London Contemporary Orchestra Lauren Wasynczuk (Conductor)
Produced by the Barbican Part of the K-Music Festival 2025, presented in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre UK
by Siyoung Song
Photo
Hilgeum with Alice Zawadzki
Sat 18 Oct 7.45pm
Purcell Room, Southbank Centre
Hilgeum are a rising Korean trio redefining traditional string instruments with a bold, contemporary voice. Formed by Yoin Cho (gayageum, a 12-string zither), Yerim Kim (geomungo, a six-string zither), and Somin Park (haegeum, a two-string fiddle), the group weaves emotionally resonant, intricately layered music that speaks to a new generation.
Alice Zawadzki
In 2025, Hilgeum will make their London debut at the K-Music Festival, joining forces with the British award-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist and composer Alice Zawadzki Known for her expressive voice and genre-defying artistry, Zawadzki will blend seamlessly with Hilgeum’s rich, textured strings to create an intimate, cross-cultural performance.
The trio’s 2022 debut album Utopia explores cinematic soundscapes, while their 2024 EP WASTELAND takes a bold turn into raw, emotionally charged territory. Hilgeum have performed at major venues including the National Theater of Korea and represented Korean culture on the global stage, with standout appearances at the Hide & Seek Festival in Brussels and Les Polysons Festival in Huy, solidifying their reputation as one of Korea’s most captivating and innovative contemporary acts.
This programme is presented in partnership with the National Asia Arts Center and the EFG London Jazz Festival
Performers
Yoin Cho (Gayageum)
Yerim Kim (Geomungo)
Somin Park (Haegeum)
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Photo
Yeyoung Choi
Park Jiha
Wed 22 Oct 7.30pm
Rich Mix
Acclaimed composer and multi-instrumentalist Park Jiha returns with her latest album All Living Things —a radiant sonic meditation on the textures, rhythms, and quiet power of the living world.
At the K-Music Festival Park Jiha showcases her mastery of traditional Korean instruments, the piri (a double-reed bamboo oboe), saenghwang (a freereed mouth organ), and yanggeum (a hammered dulcimer), intricately woven with deeply personal composition and a deft use of contemporary sonics. The result is a soundscape that defies genre at once post-classical, ambient, and cinematic, yet entirely her own.
Since debuting with Communion in 2018, Park has released Philos (2019), The Gleam (2022), and All Living Things (2025) on Tak:til / Glitterbeat Records, exploring sound as a form of breathing. Her work includes a BBC-recorded collaboration with poet Roy Claire Potter and her film scoring debut for Garth Davis’ Foe (2023), showcasing her cinematic sensibilities and evolving soundscapes.
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‘All Living Things effortlessly straddles ambient and modern classical, ancient and new’
The Observer
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‘She plays every instrument, crafting a sonic terrarium that maintains an organic warmth despite its meticulous management’
Songlines
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Photo
Marcin T Jozefiak
Won Il’s Dionysus Robot
Fri 14 Nov 7.30pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall, Southbank Centre
Renowned composer and multi-instrumentalist, Won Il, who inaugurated the very first K-Music Festival in 2013 with the National Orchestra of Korea, returns this year with a daring new work: Dionysus Robot
Inspired by Nietzsche’s philosophy of Dionysus and paying homage to media art pioneer Nam June Paik, Dionysus Robot is a bold, interdisciplinary work that fuses traditional Korean and electronic instruments, shamanic vocalisations, kinetic movement, and projected image. This immersive experience unfolds as a contemporary gut — a modern Korean ritual where sound, light, body and technology collide to provoke all five senses. As the title suggests, the piece explores a space where chaos meets control, instinct meets machine, and the sacred meets the synthetic.
At the centre of the performance is drag artist and dancer Jimin Mo, who embodies a modern-day Dionysian high priest, leading the audience through a raw, sensory-driven ritual of liberation and transformation.
Won Il, former Artistic Director of the National Orchestra of Korea and Music Director for the 2018 Winter Olympics opening and closing ceremonies, is widely acclaimed for his influential albums Asura and Wonderful Days, which have played a key role in shaping Korea’s contemporary music scene rooted in tradition. His work moves fluidly across genres crafting a sonic language that resonates deeply today. In this sense, Dionysus Robot embodies K-Music Festival’s mission: a bold harmony between innovation and tradition.
This programme is presented in partnership with the EFG London Jazz Festival and supported by the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Korean Foundation for International Cultural Exchange (KOFICE) as part of the Touring K-Arts project.
Performers
Won Il (Composer & Conductor)
Yoin Cho (Gayageum)
Yerim Kim (Geomungo)
Somin Park (Haegeum)
Kwonsoon Kang (Vocals)
Yongeun Park (Violin)
Jiyoung Park (Cello)
Seonggeun Kim (Ajaeng)
Hwiseon Choe (Yanggeum)
Insoo Kim (Percussions)
Wonyoung Shin (Percussions)
Ahyoung Lee (Saenghwang)
Woongwon Han (Bass)
Suyu Kim (Guitar)
Jimin Mo (Dance)
Gray by Silver
Sat 15 Nov 9.30pm
Elgar Room, Royal Albert Hall
‘Exciting and extraordinary new music emerging from Korea! Their improvisation is sublime and beautiful’
Lopa Kothari, BBC Radio
The 2024 Best Jazz Album winner at the Seoul Music Awards, Gray by Silver join the K-Music Festival with their upcoming third album, Time of Tree, blending the emotional depth of traditional Korean music with the expressive language of contemporary jazz and classical.
Formed in 2016, Gray by Silver are led by pianist-composer HanBin Lee, joined by the ethereal vocals of HanYul Lee, the evocative daegeum (bamboo flute) of Taehyun Kim, and the dynamic percussion of Yedarm Pak. In an ever-accelerating musical landscape, Gray by Silver offer a compelling voice — one that embraces improvisation, stillness, and poetic reflection. Their presence on this stage reflects a different facet of Korea’s contemporary soundscape today.
The quartet’s recent international appearances include Lincoln Center in New York, Colours of Ostrava in the Czech Republic, and Jodhpur RIFF in India, alongside festival invitations in Denmark, Japan, and China. Their 2024 album Eternal Gray received the Best Jazz Album award at the Seoul Music Awards.
This programme is presented in partnership with the Royal Albert Hall as part of its Late Night Jazz.
Performers
‘If you take the time to truly stop and experience their music, I promise you’ll be transported too’ Jordana Leigh, Lincoln Center
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HanBin Lee (Piano)
HanYul Lee (Vocals)
Taehyun Kim (Daegeum)
Yedarm Park (Drums)
Photo
Shin-Joong Kim
Seong-Jin Cho: LSO Futures with London Symphony Orchestra
Thu 20 Nov 7pm
Barbican
Following his sold-out Barbican recital in 2023, piano superstar Seong-Jin Cho returns to the Barbican for the world premiere of a piano concerto commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) from Dong-hoon Shin—one of Korea’s most prominent contemporary composers—written especially for Cho.
Dong-hoon Shin’s music has garnered international acclaim, earning prestigious awards such as the Grand Prix at the ANM-BBVA International Composition Competition in 2010, the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Prize in 2016, and the Claudio Abbado Composition Prize in 2022. His works are published by Boosey & Hawkes.
Winner of the 17th International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and currently the Artist-in-Residence with the Berlin Philharmonic, Seong-Jin Cho has performed with leading orchestras worldwide, including a 2024 appearance at the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His acclaimed discography includes his latest release, Ravel: Complete Works for Solo Piano, released in January 2025.
This performance marks the first collaboration between two leading figures of Korea’s new generation of classical music in partnership with the K-Music Festival as part of a wider Artist Portrait series with the LSO, featuring concerto performances with the Orchestra at the Barbican and chamber music recitals at LSO St Luke’s.
This programme is presented by the London Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the K-Music Festival
Performers
Seong-Jin Cho (Piano)
Maxime Pascal (Conductor)
London Symphony Orchestra
Photo by Christopher Koestlin
