culture

The Ninth April Spring People's Art Festival held in Pyongyang on the occasion of the 113th anniversary of the birth of President Kim Il Sung aroused the deep admiration of the Korean people for him and injected great vitality to the general advance for the overall development of socialism.

The performances of all the participating units won a high accolade of the audiences. Especially, the shows staged by the members of the art groups of the Sangwon Cement Complex and Changsong County were extolled as they impressively represented the undying exploits and loving care of the peerlessly great men, associated with their unit and local area, and their present proud reality.

The art group members of the Sangwon Cement Complex showed well the pride and honour of the employees of the complex who are adding lustre to the great golden age of construction through increased cement production with deep yearning for the President who had visited the complex to open up a bright prospect for increased production and take great loving care of workers.

Changsong County, where a new history of "gold mountains" started, is well known to the country.

The performers from the county depicted the history of their remote mountain county, which turned into a place of “gold and treasure mountains” under the wise guidance of President Kim Il Sung and Chairman Kim Jong Il, and the present reality of the county, which is undergoing rejuvenation and change once again in the new era of regional transformation.

Honoured disabled soldiers also participated in the art festival.

The art group members of the Sariwon Disabled Soldiers' Sewing Thread Factory portrayed the history of love shown by the Workers’ Party of Korea and the state for the honoured disabled soldiers and their resolve to return the favour, through natural and truthful representation.

Those of the September Textile Mill enjoyed popularity for the distinctive large-scale kayagum ensemble. They had made a deep impression on the audiences in the previous festivals by staging unique kayagum ensemble pieces. This time, they increased the scale of the ensemble. Scores of kayagum players in elegant and beautiful national costume, together with players of such national musical instruments as janggu (hourglass drum), jottae (a kind of flute) and jangsaenap (a kind of woodwind instrument), performed songs with gusto, vividly representing the present reality in which the Korean people, who enjoy the blessing of having great leaders generation after generation, are vigorously advancing towards a brighter future under the leadership of the respected General Secretary Kim Jong Un.

Among the performers there were innovator couples attracting special attention of the audiences.

O Un Chol and his wife Ri Un Ju are members of the art group of the Kangdong Combined Greenhouse Farm. The husband played the trumpet and the wife took the narration and singing parts in their performance.

O Un Chol blew the trumpet with the skill as remarkable as experts’ as he performed almost every number of their performance. Ri Un Ju, by dint of her characteristic narration, impressively represented the loving care of the General Secretary, who ensured that a large-scale greenhouse vegetable production base was built in the Kangdong area to supply the Pyongyang citizens with fresh vegetables all the year round, thereby capturing the imagination of the audience.