As dusk settles on Insa-dong, the Korean traditional neighborhood is lighted by the silvery moonlight and filled with the forlorn sound of daegeum.

The stirring sound of the traditional bamboo flute stifles the hubbub of the city center. This is the magic of the Insa-dong Moonlight Hanok Music Concert.

The Insa-dong Moonlight Hanok Music Concert takes place at Euihwaheon located in the Insa-dong PR Center, on first and third Fridays at seven in the evening. The musical event is hosted by Jongno-gu District and overseen by the Insa Traditional Culture Association Corporation, and adds a musical element to the tradition-steeped neighborhood of Insa-dong. Here’s Ms. Shin Ju-yeon of the Insa Traditional Culture Preservation Association.

The Insa-dong Moonlight Hanok Music Concert is held at a hanok-style concert hall in Insa-dong, an area defined by traditional culture. The musical festival was planned to share the beauty of Korea’s traditional arts and culture, discover local resources for tourism, and provide classic Korean traditional concerts to local and foreign tourists. We wanted to make the concert one of Seoul’s signature cultural attractions.

It is unusual to see a concert held in hanok, the traditional Korean-style house, but the hanok is a meaningful landmark by itself. Here’s President Yoon Yong-chul of the Insa Traditional Culture Preservation Association.

This hanok was built on the site where Prince Euichin’s residence used to be. Born the fifth son of King Gojong, Prince Euichin should have inherited the crown, given his personality and intelligence, but Japan chose his younger brother Prince Yeongchin as the crown prince, because Prince Euichin was too interested in the independence movement. This house is a recreation of Prince Euichin’s home. He was also called Prince Euihwa, where the venue’s name Euihwaheon was derived from. This house measures about 132 square meters in area and features Korean-style roof tiles, an impressive girder, and lattice-patterned panes covered not with paper but with glass.

Prince Euichin was the only member of the Joseon royal family who was involved in Korea’s resistance movement. He was once arrested by Japanese police when he slipped away from his Japanese watchers and went to Manchuria, where Korea’s provisional government was located. Although he was under constant surveillance and threatened by the Japanese occupiers, he never yielded to them. Almost a century later the descendents of his beloved people sit in the hanok where the prince’s home used to be and enjoy traditional Korean music.

Insa-dong is known as the center of traditional culture and arts in Seoul. Here’s President Yoon Yong-chul of the Insa Traditional Culture Preservation Association to explain more about the neighborhood.

Being inside the city walls of Hanyang, the old Seoul, Insa-dong was the residential area for princes and princesses, as well as noblemen and scholars. In front of Jogye Buddhist Temple in nearby Anguk-dong there was a government agency called dohwaseo, where royal painters worked and trained throughout the 500-year Joseon Dynasty. With so many artists and scholars living and working in the area, Insa-dong naturally became the heart of culture and arts. That tradition has been passed down to today, making Insa-dong the hub of antique and art business.



Since April the Moonlight Hanok Music Concert has been adding a musical element to the neighborhood’s visual stimulations. If you look up to the sky from the hanok’s courtyard, the moon and the stars are framed by the shapely curving eaves and dark roof tiles. Just outside the main gate lies the 21st century, but this cozy space inside seems to have been transported back a hundred years. Here’s Ms. Shin Ju-yeon of the Insa Traditional Culture Preservation Association to tell us more.

The place you are in is a hanok, where the moonlight shines bright at night. We open up all the windows and doors so the musicians can perform under the moonlight. Don’t you think the serene atmosphere of hanok under the night sky goes well with the artistic entertainment and the aroma of fragrant tea? This concert strives to be intimate and comforting yet to provide first-rate performances by Korea’s top traditional musicians. The classy concert will be offered as a cultural tourism product for foreign visitors.

All the music pieces presented during the concert are simultaneously translated into English, Japanese, and Chinese. The concert venue may be small, but these interpreters help foreigners unfamiliar with Korean music understand the repertoire better and answer any questions they may have.

Today’s Moonlight Hanok Music Concert begins with a daegeum performance. A daegeum player dressed in the traditional Korean costume hanbok closes his eyes and play a piece called Mt. Sangryeong. Its calming melody brings peace to the concert-goers.

The piece that followed the daegeum performance is a musical rendition of Lee Hae-in’s poem “Magic Lily.” This poetess and Catholic nun’s modern poem is transformed into a completely different being by the traditional musical instruments.

Magic lily is a heart-breaking flower. Its leaves wither away by the time the flowers bloom, and the leaves and flowers face away from each other, symbolizing an unrequited love. The sad fate of magic lily seems to be amplified by the melancholic sounds of the Korean string and wind instruments.

If the performance of Magic Lily saddened the audience, Chunhyang’s Love Song lifts up their spirits. Love comes in many forms, and the song of love by Chunhyang, Korea’s most beloved romantic heroine, sings of the unbridled joy felt when one falls in love.

What would love be without flowers? A Korea’s traditional aria about a flower follows Chunghyang’s Love Song, performed by Kim Ki-young, the practitioner of Important Intangible Cultural Property No.30.

Koreans have a few traditional arias, but they are all based on western-style vocalization. There is a real traditional type of arias, passed down from the Goryeo era. The aria I’m going to sing today is about a group of flowers. Peony is the king of all flowers, and sunflower is depicted as the king’s loyal vassal, for it follows the movement of the sun.



Hearing the song about flowers lightens the mood.

I’m from Libya and the concert was very impressive and fantastic. I came from a country far away, but realized that we were able to communicate our feelings. This was a very special experience.

With the lights all turned up, the night’s concert reaches its climax when everyone is asked to sing Arirang.

People, who were sitting comfortably in the hanok’s courtyard, come together as they all sing Arirang.

Even foreign visitors who have never sung Arirang before gather up their courage and join the chorus. Here’s a visitor from Germany to tell us more about her impressions of the concert.

I was surfing the internet for Korean culture and came upon the Moonlight Concert. This is my first concert in hanok. It was really nice. Seeing the musicians dressed up in hanbok made me feel like I’ve traveled back in time. What is most memorable about the concert was Arirang. It’s Korea’s iconic music, something I’ve heard on the radio before, but it felt new hearing the song here again.

The Arirang sung in unison from Euihwaheon reverberates through the entire Insa-dong neighborhood.

Thunderous calls for encore prompts a musician to reappear. This time it’s master singer Cho Ju-seon who chose to sing the part in the Song of Shimcheong, where Shimcheong’s blind father meets his devoted daughter again and regains his sight. Before she begins, she teaches the audience where to show their reactions.

Audience participation is a crucial part of Korean singing. In a smaller venue like this, enthusiastic reactions from the audience are just what musicians need to take their performances up a notch.

That encore performance wraps up tonight’s Insa-dong Moonlight Hanok Music Concert.

Insa-dong, nestled right in the middle of ultra-modern Seoul, is an area defined by the ubiquitous presence of Korean heritage. Visitors can walk the vibrant streets lined with antique shops and art galleries during the day and immerse themselves in Korean traditional entertainment at night under the glowing moonlight. The Insa-dong Moonlight Hanok Music Concert has made the nights at the tradition-steeped neighborhood more culturally satisfying for everyone.