Drums and sax instead of a barrel drum: Choi Jun's Pansori Likes Jazz, 1 October at Donhwamun

Key points

• Pansori Likes Jazz, a composition recital by the singer Choi Jun, plays for one night on Thursday 1 October at Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater.
• The set pieces of pansori's five tales are rearranged for grand piano and a jazz band: Lee Kwang-hyuk on drums, Lee Sang-jin on bass, Kim Hyun-dong on guitar and Koo Min-sang on saxophone.
• All seats are 20,000 won, booked through the Seoul Namsan and Donhwamun theatres' website (sgtt.kr). KOPIS, Korea's performing-arts database, registers the show as starting at 7.30pm, running 90 minutes and open to all ages.

In pansori the singer's only partner has, for centuries, been one drummer holding a barrel drum. On 1 October at Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater in Jongno-gu, Seoul, that seat is replaced wholesale. The singer Choi Jun sings while playing a grand piano, and a jazz band of drums, bass, guitar and saxophone carries the rhythmic cycle. According to the theatre's own announcement, Pansori Likes Jazz sets out to combine pansori with jazz, rearranging the best-known set pieces from the five surviving tales for a jazz line-up.

Choi Jun was the first performer in Korea to work under the name piano-byeongchang. Instead of the traditional division between singer and drummer, one person handles the piano and the singing at once — a form he has been refining since 2010. The recordings have kept pace: after Piano Byeongchang | Pansori in 2014 and Piano Byeongchang | Jeongga in 2016, he released Chunhyangga in 2023, Heungboga in 2024 and Jeokbyeokga in 2025, working through the five tales one at a time. Piano Byeongchang Choi Jun: Jeokbyeokga played this same stage last November, and in May this year he gave Han River Pungnyu: Singing the Beauty of the Han at Seongbuk Media Culture Maru.

This concert takes a further step from that body of work. The band is Lee Kwang-hyuk on drums, Lee Sang-jin on bass, Kim Hyun-dong on guitar and Koo Min-sang on saxophone — the same names KOPIS lists in the performance record, alongside Choi Jun himself. The theatre says the improvisation jazz brings will give familiar set pieces a grain rarely heard in pansori as it is usually performed. The intent is less to reproduce the original than to test how far pansori, a traditional vocal art, can stretch when it meets another genre.

Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater opened in 2016 as a venue dedicated to Korean traditional music. The city bought a filling-station site opposite Changdeokgung Palace to build it, and Culture Bridge runs it under contract. It mixes a traditional hanok with contemporary architecture, and holds an acoustic indoor auditorium along with an outdoor gugak yard. The KOPIS venue record puts capacity at 138 seats — which, set beside a single performance, leaves a narrow window for getting a ticket.

When the press release went out on 8 September, no start time or running time had been published. The show was, however, already registered with KOPIS on 4 September. That record gives the performance time as Thursday 7.30pm, the running time as one hour thirty minutes, the age guidance as all ages, and the price as 20,000 won for every seat. The presenter is Culture Bridge Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater. The on-sale date is still not stated in any public source as of 11 September, so it is worth checking the theatre's notices. Enquiries are on 02-3210-7001.

Performance details

Ticket prices

When and where is the concert?

At 7.30pm on Thursday 1 October 2026, at Seoul Donhwamun Traditional Theater in Jongno-gu, Seoul. There is one performance only, running 90 minutes.

How much are tickets?

Every seat is 20,000 won, with no grades. Booking is through the Seoul Namsan and Donhwamun theatres' shared website (sgtt.kr).

What is the minimum age?

The KOPIS performance record lists the show as open to all ages.

What is piano-byeongchang?

Instead of pansori's traditional split between a singer and a drummer, one performer plays a grand piano and sings at the same time. Choi Jun was the first in Korea to work under that name, refining the form since 2010 — from Piano Byeongchang | Pansori in 2014 through Chunhyangga, Heungboga and Jeokbyeokga.

How does this differ from conventional pansori?

The accompaniment normally provided by a single drummer is taken over by a grand piano and a jazz band of drums, bass, guitar and saxophone. The best-known set pieces from pansori's five tales are newly arranged for that line-up, and the theatre points to jazz improvisation as the substantive difference.