by ‘You know how far I’ll go if I go crazy… .’
The vocalist who sang IU’s ‘Coin’ and the harmonious dance was a Chinese student. The 16-member big band, ranging from the bar, chorus, and orchestra, comprises international students from Singapore, Malaysia, the United States, France, the Czech Republic, Colombia, and Ghana. The highlight of the event held at the Berkeley Performance Center on the evening of the 8th (local time), the main character of the ‘K-Pop Performance’ was the members of the Berklee Korean Culture Student Association (KCSA), which consists of fans of Korean culture at the Berklee College of Music. The repertoire of this day is three songs, including Crush’s ‘Bad’ and Loco & Hwasa’s ‘Don’t Give Me.
“Not long ago, while listening to a song by Korean rapper Penomeko, I accidentally heard that the pidgin language spoken in Ghana in my home country was mixed with Korean. It was so fresh, and I was surprised.”
Singaporean student Leon Lee (25), an arranger and keyboard player, also sympathized with the attractiveness of Korean culture fusion selected by KCSA drummer Shadrac Opong (30), who recently fell in love with K-pop.
“All genres in the world melt without boundaries.”
While serving in the military in his home country at the age of 17, Lee fell deeply into the music of IU, Taeyeon, and Jannabi. Opong and Lee are just the tip of the iceberg among Berkeley College of Music students obsessed with K-pop. Park Seung-eun (24), a Korean student in charge of directing the performance, pointed out that “at the end of last year, more than 80 student performers and arrangers flocked to recruit a 16-member big band.”
