As full summer arrived in late June, Korean jazz artists took the stage in Hungary’s capital, Budapest, the city of music. They were there for JazzFest Budapest, marking its fifth year. At this festival, which brings together renowned jazz musicians from around the world, the “Korean Focus” program shone a spotlight on Korean artists—a meaningful occasion to share the depth and appeal of Korean music.

On June 28, sweet, delicate piano melodies filled Budapest’s Fonó Music Hall as the Cho Yoonseung Quintet, led by Korean jazz pianist Cho Yoonseung, took the stage. Their performance opened a run of shows by Korean jazz artists that continued across Hungary in the days that followed.

On June 29, Youn Sun Nah brought her own distinctive voice to the stage at the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary. Then, on July 3, at Rákóczi Square in Budapest, Near East Quartet took the stage, blending Korean sensibility with the language of contemporary jazz, followed by Yonglee & the Doltang, who presented another side of Korean jazz through their avant-garde and experimental sound. To conclude the first half of the year, on July 5, the rising traditional jazz group One Mind Trio delivered a performance at Jedermann, a renowned jazz venue in Budapest. Their distinctive musical world left audiences looking at Korean jazz artists with even keener interest.

This exchange was led by the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary, developed jointly with JazzFest Budapest and Korea’s leading jazz festival, the Jarasum Jazz Festival, held in Gapyeong-gun County, Gyeonggi-do Province. Rather than a one-off encounter, planning began in 2023 with the goal of building an ongoing channel of communication between artists from both countries, and the program made its debut in 2024. That year, Sinnoi, Soojin Suh Colorless Trio and Bando were among the Korean musicians introduced, while Hungary’s Nagy Emma Quintet and others took part in the Jarasum Jazz Festival, allowing the musical rhythms of both countries to connect naturally.

That momentum carried into the 2025 Jarasum Jazz Festival, which expanded into a “Hungary Focus” to introduce Hungarian artists in greater depth. Four Hungarian bands, including the Dresch Quartet, took the stage. This year, as if in return, JazzFest Budapest held its own “Korea Focus,” spotlighting Korean artists.

The reach of JazzFest Budapest doesn’t stop there—it continues into the second half of the year. From June 29 to Nov. 20, the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary is hosting “Resonance: Nah Seung Yull Jazz Photo Exhibition,” a show by photographer Nah Seung Yull. The exhibition marks the meaningful collaboration between the Jarasum Jazz Festival, celebrating its 23rd edition this year, and Hungary’s JazzFest Budapest. Through his lens, visitors can expect to feel, in vivid detail, the warmth artists and audiences create together on stage.

The JazzFest Budapest program continues in November as well. Performances by the Kim Oki Quartet, Dongyang Gozupa and a team from the Jeonju International Sori Festival Frontier program are scheduled for Nov. 13–16 at the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary and at Jedermann.

As Korean culture continues to win fans around the world, interest in exploring a wider range of it keeps growing—and alongside that trend, Korean artists are making a more visible mark across a broader range of genres. This year’s JazzFest Budapest stood out as a stage that vividly revealed the many facets of Korean music to the world, showing just how far and how deeply its voice can carry.

For years, the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary has led lively exchange in jazz through sustained, deliberate planning—but it has also worked to create opportunities for Korea and Hungary to get to know each other through other musical and artistic genres. One example is “KoreaON,” an annual festival in Hungary that ranges from K-pop and other dance forms to gugak (traditional Korean music), giving visitors a chance to encounter a fuller picture of Korean culture within a single event.

Through a lens that is sometimes sharply focused and sometimes wide open, the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary continues to present and guide audiences through Korean culture—leaving local audiences with a growing sense of it as something deep and richly varied.

Q — What led the Korean Cultural Center in Hungary and JazzFest Budapest to begin this collaboration?
The idea took shape during a 2023 meeting with Attila Kleb, JazzFest Budapest’s artistic director—that exchange between the Korean and Hungarian jazz festivals could build a platform for artists from both countries. Until then, artists had mostly been introduced through one-off events or single performances, and I always felt the lack of a lasting space for exchange. That led to the collaboration with Korea’s Jarasum Jazz Festival.

Q — Does this collaboration hold personal meaning for you?
Over the past three years, the program has introduced jazz musicians including Youn Sun Nah, Cho Yoonseung, Son Sungjae, Soojin Suh, Sinnoi, Park Jin-young, Yonglee & the Doltang and One Mind Trio to Hungary’s jazz scene. Running it, I’ve seen that focusing on the essence of a genre—rather than a single artist—can be a remarkably effective way to introduce it to a local audience.

Q — What do you hope this jazz exchange means for the people of both countries?
Korean jazz has a lineage all its own. From the “modern boy” era of the 1920s, through the years following the U.S. military presence after the Korean War in the 1950s, and on through decades of film and media into today’s K-pop era, Korean jazz has been shaped at every stage by its musicians’ hard work—moving from traditional American jazz, through a European jazz built on classical foundations, into the free jazz that followed and now into an ethnic fusion jazz that draws on Korean tradition. Working here, I’ve come to see that the same kind of history and depth I found in Korea’s jazz scene also exists in Hungary’s. Hungarian musicians, too, have built a rich scene by bringing tradition and the contemporary into balance. I think those similarities and differences between the two countries live inside their jazz, and that programs like this one carry that to fans on both sides—becoming a seed for further connection and a guide into Korean music.

Q — Are there related programs planned for the future?
Since June 29, an exhibition by photographer Nah Seung Yull has been on view in the Cultural Center’s multipurpose hall. In November, the second half of the JazzFest Budapest continues. Where the first half featured leading musicians rooted in the core tradition of Korean jazz, the second half will introduce local audiences to jazz as world music—blending Korean tradition with a contemporary sound.

Q — Looking ahead, what kind of relationship do you hope Korea and Hungary will build through music?
Across classical music, jazz, world music, Korean traditional dance, contemporary dance, sound art, multi-disciplinary art and popular music, we hope to use Korea-Hungary artistic exchange to bring Hungarian art to Korea and Korean art to Hungary. Through that, I hope both countries find new ways to discover each other’s appeal.