Crown-Haitai Confectionery Group is not just a so and so confectionery company in South Korea. Its chairman’s devotion to advocating gugak, or Korean traditional music, has led the company to organize several global tours of gugak performers, including one in Vietnam for the first time.

According to the Korean confectionary giant, a gugak concert organized by the company was finally staged at Hanoi Opera House in Vietnam. It was the first gugak performance to be ever staged at Vietnam’s top cultural monument in its 107-year history.

Crown-Haitai Confectionery has been a pioneer in not only developing mouth-watering snacks but also sharing Korean culture, especially traditional music, with the world under enthusiasm of its chairman Yoon Young-dal.

The first series of the global gugak performance was staged in Tokyo, Japan, in 2010, with an aim to introduce Korean traditional music to the global audience. It was followed by a series of similar performances in Berlin, Vienna, and Prague. The latest performance in Hanoi was staged by 12 gugak masters including Lee Chun-hee with Yangju Music Ensemble.

Crown-Haitai Confectionery Chairman Yoon, who initiated the gugak global tour program, has been a well-known gugak lover, advocating that gugak is a boastful cultural legacy of Korea highly acknowledged by people around the world for its originality and artistic value.

Under his direction, Crown-Haitai Confectionery has invested its time and capital to promote gugak both at home and abroad. The company opened Crown-Haitai Hall dedicated to gugak performance in Namsan, central Seoul, where regular performances are staged by young gugak musicians. Yoon himself also learns pansori, traditional Korean narrative singing, with employees.

To further promote the Korean traditional music, Crown-Haitai Confectionery set up Rageum Orchestra dedicated to performing gugak and pansori in 2007. It has also been hosting an annual performance since 2008 during Full Moon where the country’s top gugak masters come together on stage. It is also the organizer of Changshinje, the country’s largest fusion gugak performance every year since 2004, and co-hosts Seoul Arirang Festival together with Seoul City government, providing Seoul citizens the opportunity to enjoy the traditional Korean folk song.

By Lee Duk-joo and Lee Eun-joo

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