K-Art Song Storytelling Workshop: Re-imagining Peace and Humanity

The Korean Cultural Center Washington, D.C. (KCCDC) proudly welcomes the K-Art Song (Korean Art Song) Cultural Bridge Project to host the K-Art Song Storytelling Workshop: Re-imagining Peace and Humanity—Interweaving Peace Narratives through K-Art Song, where music and poetry open a space to re-imagine Peace and our shared Humanity. This event is jointly organized by the KCCDC and the K-Art Song Cultural Bridge Project team.

Join us for live performances of Korean Art Song—a synthesis of music and poetry whose lyrical storytelling reflects the complex modern history of the Korean Peninsula and its enduring legacy. Through collaborative narrative discourse with participants, the workshop interweaves peace narratives that awaken human compassion and shared moral imagination, inviting us to re-imagine global peace together.

Through selected K-Art Song performances, sound- and emotion-based imaginary dialogues, and lyric-centered conversations, we invite participants to co-create resonant stories of empathy and cultural solidarity on the path toward Peace and shared Humanity.

About the K-Art Song Cultural Bridge Project

The K-Art Song (Korean Art Song) Cultural Bridge Project, affiliated with the Narrative Transformation Lab at the Carter School, seeks to cultivate shared experiences of the narratives embedded in Korean Art Song through storytelling and collective narrative discourse with international audiences. As a nexus model that interweaves live performance with participants’ narrative exchanges, the project aims to evoke empathy, foster moral imagination, and contribute to peacebuilding and community building—bridging intercultural narratives through creativity and imagination.

By integrating artistic expression with dialogue-based methodologies, K-Art Song Cultural Bridge Project explore how Korean Art Song can function not only as a cultural treasure but also as a medium for cross-cultural communication—advancing empathy, fostering intercultural understanding, and contributing to sustainable peace.

As a growing Peace Diplomacy Network, K-Art Song Cultural Bridge Project connect emerging young professionals, composers, researchers, and storytellers across Korea, the United States, and a wider global community, cultivating a transnational network dedicated to creative peace advocacy, collaborative learning, and inclusive global engagement.

Program

Part 1: Fostering Imagination based on Sound and Emotion

K-Art Song Live performances and Open Dialogue

• Self-portrait (Written by Yun Dong-Ju, Composed by YoungJu Jung)

Baritone David Maeng, Piano Austin Reed

• Prologue (Written by Yun Dong-Ju, Composed by YoungJu Jung)

Bass Josh Slutsky, Piano Austin Reed

• A Night for Counting Stars (Written by Yun Dong-Ju, Composed by YoungJu Jung)

Soprano Nancy McClain, Tenor Ross Calvin, Piano Austin Reed

Part 2: Storytelling and Interweaving Peace Narrative

Storytelling, K-Art Song Live Performances and Open Dialogue

• Bimok (Written by Hahn Myung Hee, Composed by Sungeun Jo)

Soprano Nancy McClain, Soprano Julianne Kim, Mezzo-Soprano Rebecca Rock, Piano Austin Reed

• Dream Road (Written by Kim Sowol, Composed by Sungeun Jo)

Tenor Jiheon Sung, Tenor Ross Calvin, Soprano Nancy McClain, Soprano Julianne Kim, Piano Austin Reed

Part 3: Sharing our Takeaway (Narrative Transformation Activity)

Closing Remark & Networking session