From Classroom to Stage: Abu Dhabi Residents Perform Janggu

Forty residents of the United Arab Emirates, from a 9-year-old child to adults in their 40s, spent this month learning the janggu, a traditional Korean drum, and closed their training with a live performance in Abu Dhabi on Thursday. For many of them, Korean traditional music has moved from something heard about to something played.

The 2026 Overseas Korean Traditional Music School was run by the Korean Cultural Center UAE in partnership with the National Gugak Center. Classes ran from Oct. 5 to Thursday at Arirang Hall inside the center. The initiative is designed as the first step in a three-year educational effort with a clear public aim: helping participants form their own gugak clubs and keep performing long after formal instruction ends.

That long-term framing matters for the wider community. Rather than a one-off cultural event, the program is built to leave behind a self-sustaining base of amateur musicians in the Emirates. The Korean Cultural Center UAE said it will continue offering progressive training and supporting participants as they develop independent music groups, sustaining public interest in Korean traditional music locally.

Access was widened beyond the enrolled group as well. The cultural center held a separate one-day gugak class for the general public, giving anyone curious about Korean traditional music a chance to try it without committing to the full course.

Instruction was led by Kwon Oh-sung, an instructor affiliated with the National Gugak Center and a certified practitioner of Namsadang Nori, a traditional Korean performing art recognized as intangible cultural heritage. He taught practical lessons for two classes, guiding participants through the janggu’s basic structure, correct playing posture and stick techniques. From there, students moved on to traditional rhythms and, eventually, the harder skill of coordinating their playing with one another in ensemble.

Meanwhile, organizers pointed to the makeup of the classes as one of the program’s quiet achievements. Participants of different ages and backgrounds shared the same room, the same drums and the same rhythms, something they said demonstrated how traditional Korean music can connect generations through shared practice and performance.

The course concluded with a showcase in which participants, many of whom had never encountered gugak before, performed the material themselves. A certificate ceremony followed for those who completed the program, marking a formal close to weeks of study that began for most as a first contact with Korean percussion.

For the public in the UAE, the significance lies in what comes next. The three-year plan envisions participants establishing their own gugak clubs and informal groups, creating ongoing opportunities to learn and perform together. If that goal is met, the showcase on Thursday will have been less an ending than a beginning, with the skills passed on in Abu Dhabi continuing to circulate through community-led groups rather than fading when institutional support pauses.

The program also reflects a broader effort to make Korean traditional culture something residents can actively practice, not only observe. By combining structured lessons, a public-facing one-day class and a pathway toward independent clubs, the organizers have built a sequence that moves people from curiosity to competence to self-sufficiency.

Whether the clubs take root will become clear over the coming years. But the first cohort has already done the initial work: forty residents, spanning generations, now share a working knowledge of the janggu and the experience of performing together on stage.