[Features reporter] From classical to traditional Korean: Lee Hanurij's bold new sound "Unselected Ambient Loops 25-25"

Eun-hee, I heard you have a story on a young composer who's pushing the boundaries of music.

Tell us more.

Yes, Soa.

Nineteen-year-old composer Lee Hanurij is one of the most in-demand young composers on the global classical music scene.

Recently, he took a bold leap into new territory, making his debut in Korean traditional orchestral music.

His new piece, "Unselected Ambient Loops 25-25," was recently premiered in Seoul under the baton of conductor Choi Soo-yeol.

Let's take a look.

19-year-old classical music composer Lee Hanurij has unveiled his first traditional Korean music piece.

He won the Bartók World Competition in Hungary when he was just 18.

This young talent has also written a commissioned piece for pianist Lim Yun-chan, the youngest-ever winner of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition at just 18 years old in 2022.

Now, Lee has entered a completely new territory by composing his first piece for Korean traditional orchestra, a bold step that bridges tradition and modernity, and breaks down the walls between Korean and Western music.

The opportunity came when conductor Choi Soo-yeol, currently serving as the principal guest conductor of the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra, invited Lee to write a piece.

Choi describes the Korean traditional orchestra as "a branch of contemporary music; a special genre that allows us to express the present through ancient instruments."

Lee Hanurij's debut in the genre came to life through the Seoul Metropolitan Traditional Orchestra's concert, filling the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts on Thursday night with the richly layered and resonant sounds of "gugak," Korea's traditional music.

In an interview with representatives from the Sejong Center, Lee described his piece as "an attempt to construct an entirely different kind of sentence using the vocabulary of gugak, one that unfolds loosely, hazily, without clear peaks or dramatic climaxes."

Lee Hanurij, premiering his work "Unselected Ambient Loops 25-25,"; his debut composition for a Korean traditional orchestra experimentally explores the unique tones and sonic possibilities of traditional instruments.

Quoting him, "In this piece, the loop functions more like a memory; fading, warping, and merging into new contexts, yet never entirely vanishing."

As pianist Lim Yun-chan puts it, he is "one of the most outstanding composers of our time."

The future of the music world isn't just bright, it's dynamically unpredictable.