My Date With Amy

I am a professional musician.  I have not been to a concert of good or great caliber in a long while.  How fitting my next one should be here, in Korea.  Amy and I had the fortunate opportunity to go to the Daejeon Culture and Arts Center to see an International Guitar Festival.  It was a fantastic time. 

To begin with, the Daejeon Culture and Arts Center is comprised of more than just a performance hall.  It is a huge complex incompasing an outside Amphitheater used for traditional Korean plays and dramas in addition to an Ensemble Hall used for smaller more intimate performances.  In short, it is a sight to behold inside and out.  The complex also links up with a grand park and it's surrounding areas (I have not had the pleasure of exploring this part yet so cannot write about it).  This example of fine art is said to have been designed as one of the most acoustically sophisticated concert halls and equipped with the finest state-of-the art technology and systems in Korea.  Having been to several high quality and varying performances, I have to say I agree.

Upon walking up to the huge building I was reminded of approaching a delightful example of modern architecture of steel and glass.  It is both impressive and welcoming.  Once stepping through one of the many doors leading into the very large lobby you are greeted with a feeling of "this is nice."  There are two imposing box offices on either side of the entrance catering to the needs of anyone, Korean or not.  There is also a coffee shop set to the far right and the smell of delicious coffee waifs in every direction up to the top of this large building.  There are marble steps on either side of the lobby gently sloping up to the two balcony areas of the main hall. On this particular evening we were not to make our way up to either of these balconies as our seats were as close to the sweet spot of the hall as possible.  We were seated on the main floor in the front of the room about 15 rows from the stage just off of center.  Delightful.  We were able to hear the best of the sound and get the full view we required off of this performance.  We were lucky our tickets were complimentary for this particular concert as the price for these seats was out of our price range.
 
This concert was to be 4 seperate guitar duos backed by the Daejeon Orchestra.  The pieces were mainly more modern pieces for guitar such as Concierto de Aranjuez, "Oyun" for Four Guitars op. 93, and Concierto Andaluz for Four Guitars and Orchestra and finally, L'Italiana in Algeri.  These pieces were played to perfection.  The performers were all professional and played their best.  The orchestra was one of the best I have seen live.  There was an encore performance where one guitarist sat and began a piece then a few bars in two of the other guitarists joined in on the same guitar then a few bars after that the other two guitarists joined in as well so all 5 guitarists were playing the same guitar for this particular song.  It was a lovely and talented performance by all.  There will definitely be repeat performances attended in the future.

Outside

the Lobby

People we met outside who wanted to be in our picture :)

Our Date

After that remarkable performance we continued our date to dinner of delicious sushi.  Eel and smoked salmon with freshly made miso soup and ginger salad.  Yummy.  Talking and meeting up with another friend until the wee hours in the morning with good coffee where we made plans to see the opera, Carmen. 

It was a great date.  Thanks Amy!
I hope we have another one soon!