Korean Festival Planned at CSUN

As a means of introducing Korean culture to Valley residents, the Valley Korean-American Assn. will present a two-day festival at Cal State Northridge beginning Saturday.

Sponsored by CSUN’s College of Humanities and the Korea Times, the fifth annual Korean Culture Festival showcases modern and traditional forms of music and dance performed by the Valley’s Korean-American community.

“People who are not familiar with the Korean culture can gain some knowledge and understanding into a different culture,” said Samuel Lee, the association’s president. “Also, second-generation Koreans will have an opportunity to learn something about their heritage and themselves.”

Saturday’s show will begin with opening remarks by T.H. Park, South Korea’s consul general in Los Angeles, Councilwoman Laura Chick, Councilman Richard Alarcon, Assemblyman Tom McClintock (R-Northridge) and Capt. Joseph Curreri of the Los Angeles Police Department.

A youth orchestra and choir, made up of Korean-American elementary and middle school students, will perform Saturday. Musicians will also perform Korean classic music on the kayakum, a 10-string harp-like instrument.

Sunday’s show will be composed of Chinese lion mask and Korean folk dance performances, a tae kwon do exhibition and a singing contest for Korean American high school and college students and senior citizens.

The festival is scheduled from 6 to 10 p.m. both days at the campus theater in the speech-drama building, situated at the southwest end of the campus off Nordhoff Street between Lindley and Etiwanda avenues.

Both shows are free of charge and open to the public.

For more information, call Lee at (818) 772-0292.