▲ SK Innovation, Korea JoongAng Daily and Heart to Heart Foundation co-hosted “Great Melody in the Forest” event at SK SUPEX Center in Indeung Mountain, Chungbuk, South Korea on May 20, 2022. 15 Ambassador to South Korea and representatives of SK Innovation, SK Forest, Korea JoongAng Daily who attended event take a group photo at the event

On May 20, SK Innovation, along with Korea JoongAng Daily and Heart-to-Heart Foundation*, invited the ambassadors of various nations to South Korea to attend a special event named “Great Melody in the Forest” at SK SUPEX Center, Indeung Mountain, South Korea. The core of the event is the mini concert performed by the winners of the Great Music Festival (hereinafter referred to as “GMF”), the Korea’s largest music festival for the developmentally disabled conducted since 2017 by SK Innovation. It is a music competition awarded by the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, and roughly 1,500 musicians with developmental disabilities participated on stage.

(*) Heart to Heart Foundation: It is a social welfare organization established in 1988. It supports and promotes the welfare of disadvantaged children and their families both in and outside of Korea, and it directs cultural welfare programs such as the establishment of the Heart to Heart Orchestra, which is made up of youths with developmental disabilities in Korea

“Dream with Ensemble” and “Vivace Ensemble,” Grand Prize winners of GMF 2017 and 2021, respectively, are the main performers of the event. Great Melody in the Forest is participated by various countries’ ambassadors to South Korea and their family members. This is the second time SK Innovation, Korea JoongAng Daily, and Heat-to-Heart Foundation has invited diplomatic envoys to South Korea for a musical concert with GMF winners, following the Charity Night Gala 2021 in December last year. The Ambassadors Spouses Association in Seoul (ASAS), which is regularly involved in charity programs and donations for the vulnerable social groups, expressed compassion for the event’s tenor and professed to be an eager supporter.

▲ (Left) SK Innovation held the “Charity Night Gala 2021,” held for people with developmental disabilities, at the Lotte Hotel, Seoul, on December 28, 2021. (Kim Jong-hoon, Chairman of the Board of Directors of SK Innovation (fifth from front left), Cheong Chul-gun, CEO of the Korea JoongAng Daily (fourth from front left), Oh Jee-chul (President of Heart to Heart Foundation), and ambassadors and spouses) / (Right) the developmentally-disabled musicians who received the funds and Konul Teymurova, Interim representative of ASAS (the fourth from the right) are taking photos.), are taking a commemorative photograph

With the same purpose as the Charity Night Gala 2021, Great Melody in the Forest created an opportunity for the artists to perform on stage and interact with the audience in person after a long time of COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, the event was significant in that diplomatic envoys from various countries agreed on the purpose and meaning of the GMF and became staunch supporters of the event and developmentally challenged performance groups.

In particular, Great Melody in the Forest was held at the SK SUPEX Center located on Indeung Mountain, which represents the late former SK Chairman Chey Jong-hyon’s concerns over the ravaged forest after the Korean War as well as his aspiration and endeavors to cultivate the talented people in Korea. This place is considered the symbol of SK Group’s social contribution philosophy, which nurtures and grows people in the same way as trees are tended, and vice versa. Since 1972, SK Group has planted trees in four mountains, including Indeung Mountain, with a surface area of around 4,470 hectares in Korea. Indeung Mountain project is recognized as one of the successful forestry projects in the country and has recently been cited as an exemplary carbon reduction model.

▲ SK Forest CEO Chung In-bo (left) and Maria Theresa Filipino Ambassador to Korea, give welcome speech to the audience at the Great Melody in the Forest event on May 20, 2022.

SK Forest Head Chung In-bo, Head of SK Innovation Value Creation Center Lim Su-kil, Heart to Heart Foundation Chairman Oh Jee-chul, and ambassadors to South Korea and their family members from about 15 countries attended the event. In addition, TV celebrity Carlos Augusto Cardoso Gorito, who sympathized with purpose of the event, participated as a host.

The event began with the unveiling of a special memorial hall, which was presented for the first time at SK SUPEX Center, Indeung Mountrain. The memorial hall recreated the Tree of Life zone, the second zone of Green Forest Pavilion, which is the name of SK’s exhibition hall at CES 2022. In the middle of the exhibition hall is an oak tree, surrounded by huge displayed on four walls that showed a special video that reminds visitors of the importance of environmental protection and SK’s willingness to reach Net Zero by 2050. The impressive light and sound effects enhanced the message, and with 10 mobile devices provided at the entrance of the hall, visitors can also experience the AR effects by holding the devices against the walls.

▲ (Upper left) A puzzle board made of birch trees that have the signatures of the guests who attended the Great Melody in the Forest event. / (Upper right) An Ambassador to South Korea who participated in the Great Melody in the Forest event gives his signature on the board. / (Bottom) Participants of the “Great Melody in the Forest” event look around the special memorial hall at the SK SUPEX Center in Indeung Mountain

The concert officially started with the performance of Mellow Kitchen, a jazz-pop saxophonist from TooL Music Entertainment. TooL Music Entertainment is a social enterprise that creates social values through supporting music for people with disabilities and offering music career guidance for youths. Mellow Kitchen set the tone of the event by performing “In the Forest,” “Beautiful Day,” and “Way Back Home.”

▲ Mellow Kitchen, a jazz-pop saxophonist, performs at the “Great Melody in the Forest” event on May 20, 2022, at the SK SUPEX Center in Indeung Mountain.

The concert continued with the performances of the GMF winning teams. Eun Seong-ho, a solo pianists, also a member of the “Dream with Ensemble” that won the honorable grand prize at the first GMF, started with Carl Philip Emanuel Bach’s “Sonata in A Major, Wq. 55 No. 4” and garnered a big round of applause from the audience.

Following Eun’s stage was the clarinet ensemble from “Dream with Ensemble.” The ensemble performed Johann Strauss Ⅱ’s “Tritsch-Tratsch Polka. Op.214” and J.S Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of man’s desiring” among other pieces, and captivated the audience’ hearts.

▲ (Upper left) Pianist Eun Seong-ho, a member of the 1st GMF-winning “Dream With Ensemble,” plays at the “Great Melody in the Forest” event and the audience who enjoy his stage (upper right) / (Bottom) “Dream With Ensemble” performs at the “Great Melody in the Forest” event on May 20, 2022.
(Source: Park Sangmoon, Korea JoongAng Daily)

Then “Vivace Ensemble,” a violin and viola duo that won the grand prize at the 5th GMF, then began their performance. “Vivace Ensemble” beautifully played S. Joplin’s “The Entertainer,” Jean Sibelius’ “Duo in C Major,” and other pieces and dominated the stage.

▲ Vivace Ensemble performs at the “Great Melody in the Forest” event at the SK SUPEX Center in Indeung Mountain on May 20, 2022. (Source: Park Sangmoon, Korea JoongAng Daily)

The event brought a precious opportunity for GMF winning teams to show their talent in front of an audience after a long time since the pandemic burst out. On the other hand, it gave the guests, who are the Ambassadors to South Korea, a chance to appreciate the exquisite harmony created by the enthusiasm of the musicians with developmental disabilities and to encourage their hopes and dreams.

▲ The guests take a group photo before the concert of Great Melody in the Forest event starts (Source: Park Sangmoon, Korea JoongAng Daily)

SK Innovation is looking for teams to compete in the qualifying round for the 6th GMF final selection by June 17, 2022. Following the qualifying round, the GMF final selection will be conducted at the New Millennium Grand Theater of Konkuk University in October, and the 6th GMF is expected to be a concert where players can perform in front of actual audience after two years.

Aside from the event, SK Innovation is assisting GMF winning teams in spreading their wings and dreams across the globe. GMF’s global expansion will be phased in the future by increasing cultural relevance in countries and regions where SK Innovation’s global business sites are located.