CulturalFest Countdown: Meet Hanwoollim UW

It's almost time for the CulturalFest Performance Showcase on February 10! Learn more about one of this year's performers, Hanwoollim UW.

Tell us a little bit of your story.

Hanwoollim UW consists of a group of students interested in learning Samulnori (a.k.a. 4 sounds), which is a type of Korean traditional folk music involving percussion instruments. Our club name, Hanwoollim, also means one sound. This club started 2 years ago with one Korean international student who wanted to share his culture on campus through music. We have collaborated with the professional group, Oolleum, and have done many performances including parades! Now, we're 17 members strong and looking to invigorate the presence of samulnori in the Seattle community!

What do you hope the audience will take away from your performance? What do you hope they will learn about the culture that your performance represents?

We hope to show how energizing and exciting Samulnori can be! Samulnori is not well known around Seattle, and we want to share and preserve the tradition of Samulnori in Korean folk culture with our performance.

Is there anything else you would like people to know about your performance?

One thing people should consider is our chant. We will have a moment where we start chanting phrases in Korean. The chant we say is basically a song about the life of a farmer and his wish to have good harvests. We also want people to know that while our performance involved sitting down, we can also do other types such as parade style performances that involve more visual entertainments such as a YeolDooBal, which is a hat with a ribbon attached.

Learn more about Hanwoollim UW on Facebook or by email, and come see their performance on February 10!