PENAMPANG: Sabah’s Jesselton Philharmonic Orchestra (JPO) performed alongside 24 talented Korean musicians and eight world class opera vocalists from Korea at the Sabah Cultural Centre last night at 8pm.
The first-of-its-kind concert in Sabah, the Opera Gala Friendship Concert is a Malaysia-Korea collaboration made possible by the Korea Opera Company Association with the support of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Environment Sabah, Sabah Art Gallery and Sabah Cultural Board.
“Not only it’s the first of such collaboration between us and Korea but it is also the first opera concert in Sabah.
Besides the main concert, the Korean vocalists and musicians have also agreed to volunteer their time and expertise to be involved in outreach programmes, free masterclasses and workshops involving schools, colleges, universities and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the mornings of March 27 and 28 at the Sabah Art Gallery and Kian Kok Middle School.
The International Operation Charity of Korea (IOCK) had also donated 10 violins for five selected primary schools in the Kota Kinabalu area with scholarships to learn under the JPO for free.
“This goes to show Korea’s commitment to ensure good ties with us and their commitment to promote unity through music. This is I think another aspect we should look at it (good ties between countries). There’s another aspect to it that people don’t really look at. Normally if it’s unity it’s football, sports, politics (laughs). But music is also one wonderful way of such unity,” said curator of Jennifer P. Linggi, during the media preview of the concert at Sabah Art Gallery, here on Thursday.