[Perform-Talk] A Symphony Orchestra At a School for the Blind in Korea

[Ignasi Cambra]

Hey Ella,

I have heard about this group before, but never in such detail and with so much info! I have played many many times with orchestra, but always as a soloist which is, in a way, a lot easier because you're essentially making music with the conductor and the concert master who aren't that far away from the piano. When there are passages where there's a specific section playing something along with me I generally look in their direction and things work out just fine, but I feel like being a member of the orchestra and having to closely follow the conductor's interpretation and cues must be quite difficult! Actually I would assume that being surrounded by sighted musicians in that situation would make things a bit easier, because one could just follow other people's breathing etc. In my view the most practical way to make a relatively large group of blind musicians play together would be to do it Orpheus-style, without a conductor.

Back when I was at Juilliard I remember hearing about a music school for the blind somewhere in New York City. I wonder if they have ensembles similar to the one from Korea?
Sent from my iPhone

> On 2 Apr 2024, at 05:17, Ella Yu via Perform-Talk <perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hey everyone,
> 
> Since I am the google research nerd I am, I just found out that a school
> for the blind in Korea has a wonderful symphonic orchestra made up of all
> blind/visually impaired musicians. Large ensembles consisting entirely of
> blind and visually impaired musicians are really interesting, especially if
> it's a symphony orchestra. (I may be a bit biased because I play
> violin/viola in a symphonic orchestra myself). As you may or may not
> remember, I discovered an all-blind symphonic orchestra located in Egypt a
> few months ago called the AL Nour Wal Amal Orchestra, and I posted my
> findings on them to this group. Now, I think I have found another.
> 
> This orchestra is located at the Hanbit School for the Blind in South
> Korea. The school's performing arts division was founded in 2003 to give
> blind artists more and better opportunities, and the orchestra was created
> in 2011. The school seems to have lots of other ensembles as well.
> Unfortunately, I cannot find a lot of details about the Hanbit school
> orchestra or its programing in general, so I am having to guess and infer
> some things from the sources I am able to locate. A big part of it is that
> a lot of information about the Hanbit school is in Korean, and content
> about them in English is sparse. However, here is a short video about them.
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DH6T9sprLZY
> 
> Here's a performance they did of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake Suite in 2023 at
> their 20th anniversary celebration concert. Their playing is pretty
> incredible, I'd say it's comparable to that of a very advanced youth
> orchestra or a mid to high level university symphony comprised of mostly
> music majors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDmfA69IbEk
> 
> Here is a news story on violinist Jisun Kim, who was with the orchestra
> from 2011-2014 as concertmaster.
> https://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20200730000330
> 
> And here's another more recent interview with her, where she goes into more
> depth about her life and career as a blind violinist. I believe she is now
> pursuing a graduate degree at the Manhattan School of Music, which is an
> incredible achievement.
> https://www.tatlerasia.com/lifestyle/arts/dragon-icons-lacma-party-2024
> 
> And to top it all off, here is Jisun Kim performing Sarasate's Carmen
> Fantasy, which is a highly virtuosic work for violin. She plays incredibly
> well.
> https://www.thestrad.com/video/happy-lunar-new-year-jisun-kim-performs-carmen-fantasy/14391.article
> 
> Here is a concert recording of a piano trio consisting of students/alumni
> of the Hanbit School. The concert took place in 2023 at the Kaufmann Music
> Center in New York, and is done in collaboration with the New Jersey Youth
> Symphony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfTYIjLSo8I
> And here is a link to the concert description.
> https://www.kaufmanmusiccenter.org/mch/event/darkness-to-light-hanbit-trio-j-with-new-jersey-youth-symphony/
> 
> Here is the Hanbit Performing Arts YouTube channel.
> https://www.youtube.com/@HanbitArts
> 
> It is so wonderful to see blind and visually impaired musicians playing
> classical music at the professional and pre-professional level, especially
> on orchestral instruments. I myself chose not to pursue a career in music
> even though I wanted to for most of my childhood, but these musicians are
> an inspiration to me.
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