Abstract:
In 1959, Kim Jin (1926–2007) premiered his gayageum sanjo in Yanji, the capital city of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, more simply known as Yanbian. Kim Jin had just returned from North Korea after four years of gayageum study under An Gi-Ok (1894–1974), a sanjo master who himself had been the student of Kim Chang-Jo (1856–1919), said to be the founder of gayageum sanjo in Korea. Despite Kim Jin’s enthusiasm, his sanjo was not favorably received by the Chinese Korean community in Yanbian, and he subsequently stopped performing sanjo live in any concert setting, instead devoting himself to teaching gayageum sanjo as a member of the music faculty at the Yanbian Arts School, the only higher educational institution for Korean performing arts in China.
