K-pop singer crooning for countryside kids ; Singer Yemin takes show to schools far from cultural centers
Imsil, North Jeolla Province - Twenty-three students, ranging from first to sixth grade, sit in a circle on a wooden-floor classroom facing the snow-covered playground of Maam Branch Elementary School in this mountenous locale. Their curious eyes are fixed on Yemin, a 35-year-old Korean pop singer, who reproduces a roll of thunder, a roar of the wind and the splash of waves with instruments made from beans, cactus, human bones and cow claws. Halting his demonstration of the world's folk instruments
Yemin asks, "Why do you think people have created these instruments?" Hwang Hwan-sung, a second grader sitting next to him, answers, "Just because they needed it, I guess." Laughter fills the classroom. To the students shaking their heads in wonder, Yemin says: "That's because people cannot live without contacting the sounds of Mother Nature." Every student gets one of the 28 instruments and a spontaneous concert begins.
Since mid-September this year, Yemin has held three concerts a week in one of the nation's branch elementary schools in remote villages, and this is the 39th concert of the singer's planned 120 for culturally underprivileged students. For music classes, the students of Maam have to move to its principal school by bus once a week, but on the day of Yemin's visit they had an unforgettable three-hour musical lesson in their own classroom.
"I embarked on this journey to offer students who are alienated from cultural performances an opportunity to relish artistic pleasures and to share my feelings with them," Yemin said.
Using his own funds, he visits every nook and cranny to meet students waiting for his fun-packed concert and then presents small gifts to them. He gives priority to schools with smaller numbers of students, and once held a concert at a school with three students and one teacher. Though the concert tour costs roughly eight million won ($6,200) a month, Yemin does not seek financial assistance from conglomerates or the government to keep his original initiative intact. As his impressive activities have become more known to the public, individuals and institutions have extended their hands by providing gifts and confectioneries for children in remote elementary schools, as well as financial support.
"I have realized that there are many city dwellers with the warm and innocent hearts of children like those in the branch schools," Yemin said. His manager and a photographer accompany him to offer necessary assistance, and his concerts have been performed with the help of magicians, folk dancers and collegiate yodelers, all of who volunteered to join. To enrich the festivity of the Maam concert, a mime artist, Yook Seung-up, presented pantomime and tap dance while entertaining the students with candies and balloons.
"It's the first time for me to sing with a popular singer," said Shim Ji-young, a second grader at Maam. "I am happy to see all the performances and to try rare instruments from around the world," she said. Some parents of the Maam students expressed their gratitude by preparing special dishes for the visiting performers. Kim Yong-tak, 53, one of the three teachers of Maam, said, "I appreciate Yemin's trouble to visit all the way down here just for my students." Many people assume that at the center of his music and concert tour is his special love for children, but Yemin said the driving force for his musical activities is his nostalgia for childlike innocence, which the singer has sought for throughout his four albums.
From his debut album a decade ago, the lyrical singer has used children's voices to convey his unwavering theme of pure heartedness and peaceful coexistence with nature. Since his study at the Cornish College of the Arts in the United States in the mid-90s, he has focused on such fundamental issues as the universe, nature and human beings. For the past couple of years, based on his study of musical anthropology, he has made strenuous efforts to introduce the world's folk music, which is fading away, to a Korean audience, and his recently released fourth album, "My Tree," reflects his affections for the field. After completing the concerts, Yemin plans to leave for the States for his research. "I'd like to further my study of musical anthropology and find out the point where human beings and music encountered," he said. His music is greatly influenced by his father who has nurtured the singer's philosophical views since childhood by answering, in sincerity, all the questions he might have had about life. "I want to be a father like him," Yemin said.
At the initial stage of his concert tour, many people, including Yemin, questioned whether or not he can achieve his goals, but now he has the confidence to complete the mission. "My musical horizon has broadened thanks to the branch school concerts, and whenever I finish one concert I am encouraged to head straight for the next school with great enthusiasm, as I am eager to meet new faces," Yemin said. He added that the concert tour is an important way for him to contribute to society as a singer.
The most precious thing that he learned through the concert tour is that what students in remote areas need is not cultural performances, but love and care. In some schools he visited, 70 percent of children were from broken families. "My concert tour for underprivileged students is not the kind of thing that can be done with money. Love and devotion count much more," Yemin said. Finishing the folk instrument demonstration Yemin takes out a guitar and says, "Raise your hand if you think your village has objects mentioned in my song."
Then he starts singing a trademark song, "A love story of a hillbilly boy." The students raise their hands with all their strength to every word of the song: a stream, floral hat, evening glow and a hillbilly boy. "I am happy to sing my song in a place where you can actually interact with the natural environment mentioned in the lyrics," Yemin says. Then the singer and the students sing in harmony.
(shj@heraldm.com) by Seo Hyun-jin (Staff reporter)
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