The 26th Daejeon International Music Festival opens August 18 in Daejeon. Its theme is "Resonance and Cleansing." In a season when air-conditioner units and cicadas cry together, it puts forward an invitation to rinse the mind with classical melodies.
The word cleansing sounds like the language of religion, but in music it is far more physical.
When a string trembles, the wooden body trembles with it, and that trembling pushes the air until it reaches the breastbone of the listener. The smell of rosin on the bow mixes with the smell of stage floorboards warmed by the lights, and between one piece and the next come a few seconds when no one coughs. To ears that have endured three months of noise, those few seconds feel like cold water.
Classical music festivals generally do two things at once. Reviving scores from centuries ago as close to their original sound as possible, and rewriting that sound through the senses of people living here and now. The two do not get along.
Press preservation alone and the stage comes to resemble a display case, push interpretation alone and the outline of the original work blurs. Choosing the word "cleansing" in its twenty-sixth year reads as a sign of a half-step toward interpretation.
Not many people think of music at the name Daejeon. That city has held an international music festival every summer for twenty-six years. For an event that could skip a year without anyone much noticing to reach its 26th edition, there must be citizens who have filled the seats as much as performers who take the stage.
Three weeks remain until the opening. For readers who want to note down the autumn while planning their summer schedule, the 31st Busan International Film Festival runs for ten days from October 6 to 15, centered on the Busan Cinema Center, and the full lineup of invited films will be announced September 1.
On the evening of August 18, in some hall in Daejeon, the first note pushes the air. Anyone who wants to come back with their ears washed can check the train times to Daejeon that afternoon.
Event Information
Date: Opens August 18, 2026
Venue: Daejeon
Theme: Resonance and Cleansing
