Composed of a total of 52 kinds of traditional musical instruments and musicians from Korea and the 10 ASEAN member countries in South-eastern Asia, the ASEAN-Korea Traditional Music Orchestra will create a unique musical harmony at the concert scheduled on May 31, 2009, 8 pm on the 5th floor, Tamra Hall A, International Convention Center Jeju.

The creation of such an orchestra, where musicians will play their respective traditional music together, was first suggested by Korea's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in May 2008 as part of efforts to promote friendship and understanding through cultural exchanges, while promoting Asian music around the world. The foundation of the Korea-ASEAN Traditional Music Orchestra was officially announced during the second ASEAN-Korea Meeting on Cultural Collaboration Projects held in September 2008 in Korea to promote exchanges among traditional Asian musicians.

For the workshop and rehearsals held from Feb 18 through 28, 2009, musicians brought their traditional musical instruments and held a series of individual and group rehearsals. Korean members played the daegeum (a large bamboo transverse flute), haegeum (a traditional Korean string instrument) and ajaeng (a Korean string instrument) while Malaysians played the rebab (a string instrument), Filipinos played the tongal (a wind instrument) and Vietnamese played the dan trung, to name but a few.

On Feb. 25, they held their trial performance at Guro Art Valley Theater in front of more than 400 multicultural family members living in Korea. The orchestra gave an awe-inspiring performance, featuring complete harmony, grandeur and opulence. The conductor, performers, multicultural families, and the entire audience gave a standing ovation for the harmony created by the musical instruments from Korea and Southeast Asia.

The orchestra is to hold its first official performance on May 31 to commemorate the holding of a special ASEAN-Korea summit meeting on Jeju Island. It will then make a performance tour to spread the sound of harmony throughout Asia and the rest of the world. The main stage of activity of the ASEAN-Korea Traditional Music Orchestra will be the Asian Culture Complex which will open in 2012. Many are interested to see how its future unfolds.