The four-country global grand concert ‘2026 Seoul World Sound Festival’
‘Seoul! On the Silk Road’ opens on May 8 at KBS Hall
Over 100 top-tier artists from Korea, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Italy share one stage
Ahn Joo-eun, the first foreign Cultural Envoy of Mongolia appointed by the government, leads as General Artistic Director on the global stage
Co-sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and two embassies, the definitive model of public-private cooperation in global cultural diplomacy
A 7,000-year musical journey of Eurasia is revived in the heart of Seoul.
Photo courtesy of|Vino Worldwide
Hosted by the Soreal Philharmonic Orchestra and co-organized by the CJeS Foundation and Vino Worldwide Co., Ltd. (Vino Worldwide), 「2026 Seoul World Sound Festival — Seoul! Silk Road to Go」 will be held at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, May 8, 2026, at KBS Hall in Yeouido.
This festival is a large-scale global concert in which more than 100 performersincluding top artists from four countries (Korea, Mongolia, Kyrgyzstan, and Italy), the Soreal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the YS Children's Choirtake the stage together. The millennia-old stories that flowed along the Silk Road connecting East and West are reborn as ‘sound’ and unfold again in Seoul.
‘the first foreign Cultural Envoy of Mongolia’ Ahn Joo-eun, leads the global stage as General Artistic Director
Serving as General Artistic Director for this festival is Ahn Joo-eun, who was appointed in 2026 by the Mongolian government as ‘The Cultural Envoy of Mongolia’. At the Embassy of Mongolia in Korea on April 17, Ambassador Sukhee SUKHBOLD (H.E. Sukhee SUKHBOLD) personally presented her with the letter of appointment. Ahn was the first Korean female director to stage the opera 《Aida(Aida)》 at Sicily, Italy’s world-renowned open-air opera venue ‘Teatro Antico di Taormina’, and she has impressed the stature of Korean opera on the international stage. Since then, she has served as general director for numerous commemorative concerts marking diplomatic tiesKorea-Kyrgyzstan, Korea-Mongolia, and Korea-Italyacting as a cultural bridge between Korea and countries across Eurasia. Ahn said, “I wanted to create the moment when four voices that have journeyed through different times and cultures meet as a single resonance on one stage,” adding, “It will be the one and only grand concert that transcends borders and language to connect emotions.”
A meeting of top vocalists and traditional music masters from four countries
This program is especially meaningful in that it brings together top vocalists from Korea and Italy, as well as traditional music masters representing Mongolia and Kyrgyzstan. The Artistic Director is the Italian maestro Nuccio Anselmo (Nuccio Anselmo, Italy), and the conductor is maestro Kim Ki-woong (Kim Ki-woong, Korea).
oSoprano Cho Hyun-ae (Cho Hyun-ae, Korea)
oSoprano Shin Seung-ah (Shin Seung-ah, Korea)
oTenor Francesco Cipri (Francesco Cipri, Italy)
oTenor Yoo Heon-wook (Yoo Heon-wook, Korea)
oBaritone Choi Moon-suk (Choi Moon-suk, Korea)
■ Mongolian traditional music artists
oUlziibuyan Batdelger (Ulziibuyan Batdelger, Mongolia)
oBulgan Erdenekhishig (Bulgan Erdenekhishig, Mongolia)
oErdene-Khusen (Erdene-Khusen, Mongolia)
oMunkhjin Purevkhuu (Munkhjin Purevkhuu, Mongolia)
■ Kyrgyzstan traditional music artists
oKhapsuren Mudramatat (Khapsuren Mudramatat, Kyrgyzstan)
oGansukh Daibuu (Gansukh Daibuu, Kyrgyzstan)
To this are added the rich orchestration of the Soreal Philharmonic Orchestra and the pure voices of the YS Children's Choir, completing a grand musical narrative.
Co-sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and two embassies… the culmination of cultural diplomacy
Co-sponsored by the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the Embassy of Mongolia in Korea, and the Embassy of the Kyrgyz Republic in Korea, this festival firmly establishes itself as a flagship global cultural-diplomacy event through public-private partnership. The support from the embassies shows that this performance functions not merely as a music event but as a venue for cultural exchange and the promotion of goodwill among the four countries. In particular, with Ahn Joo-eunthe first foreign Cultural Envoy appointed by the Mongolian governmentserving as General Artistic Director for her first large-scale festival in Korea, the performance is expected to set another meaningful milestone in the history of Korea-Mongolia cultural diplomacy.
