Gwangju City’s ‘28th Imbangul Gugak Festival’ Presidential Award Goes to Seo Jeong-geum

Gwangju City Hall

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced that Seo Jeong-geum (Gyeonggi-do, 44), a pansori master division contestant, won the prestigious Grand Prize President's Award with a section from the "Simcheongga" in the 28th Im Bang-ul Gugak Festival national competition.

In this competition, a total of 72 contestants, including 32 masters and general division participants such as Lee Kyung-ah (Incheon, 37) who won the Excellence Award and Jeong Seung-hee (Jeonju, 37) who won the Outstanding Award, as well as 40 students, were awarded prize money totaling over 170 million KRW.

Held from the 20th to the 23rd under the auspices of the Im Bang-ul Gugak Promotion Association at Bitgoeul Citizen Culture Center and the May 18th Memorial Culture Center, the competition strictly followed quarantine guidelines and featured 447 participants from 410 teams nationwide competing fiercely.

Notably, the competition included three divisions and seven categories: student division in pansori, instrumental music, and dance; general division in pansori, instrumental music, dance sijo, gayageum byeongchang, nongak, and fusion pansori; and the pansori master division.

On the first day of the competition, the event honoring the artistic spirit of the late Im Bang-ul and the side event "Im Bang-ul Pansori Talent Show" saw 79 citizens participate, showcasing their skills by freely choosing from songs frequently sung by Im Bang-ul such as "Ssukdaemeori," "Honamga," and "Chueok."

Additionally, to ensure fair judging, a judge lottery system and judge observation system were implemented, and the scores from the preliminary and final rounds, judged by 88 judges, were disclosed immediately after the performances.

Kim Jun-young, Director of the City’s Culture, Tourism and Sports Office, stated, "We hope that the 28th Im Bang-ul Gugak Festival will solidify its status as Korea’s representative gugak festival that discovers new gugak talents, producing capable newcomers who will lead the future of gugak and promoting Gwangju as a city of artistic excellence."

Meanwhile, the Im Bang-ul Gugak Festival commemorates the achievements of National Master Im Bang-ul and has established itself as Korea’s premier gugak festival dedicated to finding the best vocalists who will lead the future of traditional Korean music.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.