Pansori is one of the most beloved traditional performance arts of the Korean people. Traditionally, pansori consists of one vocalist and one percussionist, with the vocalist singing and chanting poetry or stories, accompanied by the percussionist¡¯s drumming between verses. At the Washington Korean Dance Company, located in Falls Church, Virginia, artistic director Ms. Eun S. Kim offers lessons on a variety of traditional Korean performance arts, including pansori.

The majority of Ms. Kim¡¯s students are Korean, but one of her star pupils is a young lady by the name of Lauren Ash-Morgan. After graduating from Ithaca College with a bachelor¡¯s degree, Lauren sought after different teaching programs around the world and ended up accepting a position as a music teacher in Korea in 2005. It was during this time that Lauren seized the opportunity to learn about Korean music and performance arts. After a trip to the Seoul Nori Madang in Jamshil, Lauren was inspired to enlist in classes at the National Center for Korean Traditional Performing Arts, and it was there that she began taking up the gayageum, a long string instrument which is laid horizontally across the performer¡¯s lap. With her interest in the Korean traditional arts sparked, Lauren said that she became intrigued with pansori when she saw a performance broadcast on television, and was moved by the way the performers were able to express such heartfelt emotion through powerful vocals.



Lauren Ash-Morgan performs three separate chang, or traditional songs, which are used as training exercises for pansori vocalists. The names of the three chang performed are as follows: Sa-chul-ga (a short poetic verse), E-eo-do Sa-na (traditional chang), and Jindo Arirang (a traditional Korean folk song from the Southern region of the Korean Peninsula).

Pansori singing requires the vocalist to push air out through the diaphragm, in order to produce the loudest and clearest sound possible. Ms. Kim often instructs her students to imagine trying to grab someone¡¯s attention from a distance, when singing. The pansori vocalist must not only command the attention of the spectators, but must also hold their attention. The force with which the verses are sung, allow the vocalist to convey a range of emotions. Pansori vocals often resemble cries of sorrow, but also reflect other emotions such as pride and love.

Being an avid aficionado of music and a soprano in her choral group at school, Lauren found pansori to be a great exercise in learning to project her voice. Upon her return to the United States, Lauren decided to relocate to the Washington DC metropolitan area, partially for its large Korean population. She was accepted into the graduate program at the University of Maryland, where she is studying for a master¡¯s degree in Music Education. She chose to focus on Korean performance arts in the United States as the topic of her master¡¯s thesis. She is currently in her third year at graduate school, and meets with Ms. Kim once a week for lessons on various Korean traditional performance arts.

By Stephanie Chang