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🇰🇷 South Korea /Environment & Climate

Kyung Hee to Stage Peace Concert Linking Climate Crisis and Love

From Hankyoreh · () Korean

Translated from Korean and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Press release Official statement New plan
  • Kyung Hee Educational Foundation will hold a free peace concert on Sept. 21 at Kyung Hee University’s Grand Peace Palace.
  • The production portrays an environmental activist and a literature student whose differing views on climate and art develop into mutual understanding.
  • The event will combine classical music, popera, dance and theater, with performers including soprano Hwang Soo-mi, LA POEM and actors Cho Han-chul and Jung Young-joo.

A climate activist who trusts numbers and a literature student who believes love and art can move the world will meet again at Kyung Hee University in a new musical play about peace.

Kyung Hee Educational Foundation will stage “The Lovers of Paris in Kyung Hee: Love at 1.5 Degrees” at 7:30 p.m. on Sept. 21 at the university’s Grand Peace Palace. The free concert marks Peace BAR Festival 2026, the 45th United Nations World Peace Day international conference, and the second Miwon Peace Prize ceremony.

The production treats the 2015 Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees as a declaration of peace for the survival of humanity and the planet. Its story brings together the climate crisis, human love, scientific reality and artistic empathy. Yun-seo, an environmental activist who met Min-jae in Paris, emphasizes facts and numbers, while Min-jae, a student of literature, believes love and art can change the world. Their conflicting views on the climate crisis and humanity’s future lead them to meet again at a global climate peace conference at Kyung Hee in 2026, where they recognize that peace can be completed through understanding one another.

This concert was planned so that people could reflect together and empathize through art with the common challenge of the climate crisis. Classical music, theater and dance will combine with Kyung Hee’s philosophy of peace to deliver a message of emotion and solidarity across generations and disciplines.

· Lee A-kyungThe production’s general director explained the artistic purpose of the concert.

Classical music, popera, dance and theater will be combined with Kyung Hee’s historical and peace-related symbolism. World-renowned soprano and Kyung Hee professor Hwang Soo-mi will play Yun-seo. Pianist Kim Tae-hyung, crossover group LA POEM, actors Cho Han-chul and Jung Young-joo, dancers from the university’s ballet company, and the Millennium Orchestra will also participate. Student performers from the music and theater departments, along with a children’s ensemble from Kyung Hee Elementary School, will join the production.

The concert forms part of this year’s Peace BAR Festival, which will explore new paths to peace amid overlapping civilizational crises under the theme “Peace or Collapse: Toward a Civilizational Aesthetics of Planetary Society.” The Miwon Peace Prize will go to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, founded in 1945 and known for warning about nuclear threats and existential risks. Tickets are free and can be requested through the QR code on the concert poster.

Like the meaning of 1.5 degrees in the Paris Agreement, I hope deep understanding and love for one another will become the starting point for peace that protects the future of the planet and humanity.

· Lee A-kyungShe connected the concert’s message to the Paris Agreement’s temperature goal.
About this summary

Originally published by Hankyoreh in Korean. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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