'Trip of a lifetime' to Jeju, South Korea
After months of planning, Foden’s Band set off on ‘the trip of a lifetime’ as featured artists at the 2024 Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival, this year held between the 7th - 16th August.
The annual festival, being staged for the 29th time on the beautiful South Korean island of Jeju, is one of the leading events of its type in the world. The festival has welcomed many globally renowned wind ensembles over its 29 years of existence. However, for a brass band to be invited to perform at the festival is a rarity. The Cory Band were the first to do so in 2022 and their successful appearance paved the way for another top British brass ensemble to light up the festival this year in the form of Foden’s. The advent of British style brass bands performing at the Jeju Festival has undoubtedly been greatly aided by the two most recent artistic directors of the event; firstly euphonium superstar, Steven Mead, and now the leading international trumpet soloist, Jens Lindemann.
The journey to the far east is, of course, a fairly lengthy one and after 24 hours of travelling, Foden’s Band members arrived at their hotel on the evening of August 7th.
After a day of acclimatising to the extreme South Korean heat and exploring Jeju city, the band’s first performance was at the opening concert of the Jeju Festival which took place in the stunning auditorium of the Jeju Arts Centre. Foden’s appeared alongside the Jeju Wind Orchestra, the Barcelona Clarinet Players and the Jeju Union Male Chorus in front of a terrifically enthusiastic audience of around 1000 people. The opening concert was also recorded by National TV to be transmitted at a later date . The extremely warm reception afforded to the band and its soloists wherever they performed became one of the standout highlights of the trip. At this opening event, Foden’s were also delighted to accompany the festival’s current artistic director (and one of Foden’s vice presidents), Jens Lindemann, in a performance of William Himes’ beautiful setting of ‘Amazing Grace.’
Subsequent concerts over the next 3 days were held at the Seogwipo Arts Centre (on the south coast of the island), the Jeju Culture & Arts Centre and the wonderful outdoor venue of the Jeju Seaside Concert Hall. Wherever they performed, Foden’s Band members were bowled over by the size and quality of the venues - quite something for an island roughly the size of the band’s home county of Cheshire!
Featured soloists during the band’s performances in Jeju were Richard Poole (soprano cornet), Mark Wilkinson (cornet), Melanie Whyle (flugelhorn), Jonathan Bates (tenor horn), John Barber (trombone) and Gary Curtin (euphonium).
Undoubtedly, Foden’s Band’s time in Jeju was musically enriching, but members made sure that they took full advantage of the free time available to them to explore the fascinatingly beautiful island - including beaches, caves, waterfalls and museums - and to experience South Korean culture and cuisine (not just fried chicken and Korean lager, although this was undoubtedly popular!). What an amazing destination South Korea and, in particular, Jeju is!
After a return journey, Foden's Band arrived back home in Sandbach late on August 13th with its members weary but thoroughly buoyed by the most thrilling of overseas trips. It’s to be hoped that this is not the first and only visit that the band makes to the Jeju International Wind Ensemble Festival and that this appearance helps to pave the way for more brass band performance opportunities in this part of the world.
Review courtesy of Mark Bousie
