They say that the finest work of pansori can make your heart stop beating. Pansori is a traditional South Korean form of storytelling, operatic in style, that relies on the authenticity, intensity and power of the singer’s voice to express stories of love, death, tradition, honor. A perfect performance does not strive for purity or perfection of voice; rather it embraces all sides of the human experience. One of pansori’s virtuosos is Ahn Sook Sun, a living legend in Korea’s cultural history. For Ahn, the only way of mastering the ancient art is for each singer to build her own authentic sound.

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