Born: Seoul, Korea
Korean P’ansori - Master

"Society is changing so fast with scientific inventions and industrialization...we are being pushed from behind, not really being able to enjoy what we inherited, because we are so busy...but that’s just when I feel that those who know these traditions teach...so it will bring balance into our future society."

P’ansori is a Korean performing art that presents a dramatic story through speech, gesture, song, and drum accompaniment. P’ansori singing is passionate and punctuated by the incredibly powerful rhythms of the drum. There are five existing p’ansori stories. All of them can be traced back to the early 1770s in Korea. Moods of the characters in the story, such as respect, grief, love, and humor, are conveyed through the voice of the singer and through various vocal techniques.