UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Coreyah will make its Penn State debut with a kaleidoscopic program featuring nouveau K-pop and Korean legacy musical styles at 8 p.m. Wednesday, April 24, in Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center at University Park.
The general-admission event is free and open to all ages, but registration is required. Register online.
Visit Coreyah online for more information about the main event, a pre-event talk and an after-concert dance.
Coreyah performs a unique and imaginative blend of customary percussion, flute and stringed instruments with driving, rhythmic percussion to create a traditional Korean folk-modern rock fusion. The artists are Kim Dongkun (daegeum, sogeum, tungso), Ham Boyoung (vocal), Jeong Jun Kyu (percussion, Chulhyungeum), An Sangwook aka “Kyungyi” (percussion), Kim Yerim (geomungo) and Ko Jaehyeon (guitar).
“Their performances are not only engaging and fun, super danceable, they are also packed with history and occasion and culture. They are deeply rooted in Korean tradition, the music and feature a lot of Korean folk instruments — like wind, string, vocal and percussion styles,” said Shawn Choi, the band’s representative.
The Seoul-based band toured the United States annually from 2016 through 2019, then the COVID-19 pandemic derailed the tradition. This year’s tour is the band’s first since the pandemic.
An Sangwoo, the band’s founder and percussionist, described the program as being participatory — “a blend of traditional Korean written tradition meets clap.”
“We clap with basic rhythm of the Korean styles. We do a lot of clap in our show and invite the audience to clap along,” he said.