Meet writer Bernard Werber on classical music stage
French science fiction writer Bernard Werber is no stranger to Korean readers, having sold more than 12.5 million copies of his works in Korea since the publication of the Korean-language edition of 'Empire of the Ants' in 1993.
Next month, however, his encounter with Korean audiences will take place on stage at a classical music concert when Werber takes part in the world premiere of Korean composer Kim Texu's 'Chimeric Suite.'
In fact, Kim wrote the piece based on Werber's 2023 novel 'Le Temps des Chimeres," ('The Age of Chimeras'), which will be published in Korea later this year.
On Aug. 27, the Sejong Soloists and Werber will take the stage, with the writer lending his text and voice for the performance, which will have subtitles in English and Korean provided on screen. The performance will also feature flutist Choi Na-kyung, also known as Jasmine Choi, and Denis Sungho, a Korean-Belgian classical guitarist and producer.
'Le Temps des Chimeres' is set in the near future after World War III, depicting a world where hybrid life forms, created by combining human DNA with animal DNA, begin to appear. The story features 'humans merged with moles' who live underground, 'humans merged with bats' who fly through the skies, and 'humans merged with dolphins' who live in the water.
"It's a work that predicts the future, depicting events that could happen in the near future, about 10 years from now," the writer told reporters during an online press conference on Tuesday.
Kim's music felt like film music, Werber said. 'It gave me the impression that the music itself became sentences, connecting one sentence to the next.'
He added, 'Each instrument expresses a specific element. In this performance, water is represented by the guitar, air by the flute, and earth by the violin.'
This will be Werber's first time onstage for a music concert, but music has accompanied him for a long time.
While writing this book, Werber said he listened to a lot of Bach, whose music also appears in the novel.
Thanks to his mother, who was a piano teacher, he was exposed to music from a young age. At 11, he was inspired by Vivaldi's piccolo concerto and went on to learn the piccolo. While writing his novel 'The Thanatonauts,' he frequently listened to Debussy's "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun."
'Music has universality. It is free from the barriers of language, whereas literature inevitably undergoes some transformation through translation. In literature, each person reads at their own pace, but music has its own pace,' he said.
The Aug. 27 performance is part of the annual Hic et Nunc! Music Festival, founded and supported by the Sejong Soloists. Since its founding in 1994 by renowned Juilliard violin professor Kang Hyo, the Sejong Soloists have earned global acclaim. giving more than 700 concerts in over 120 cities worldwide. "Hic et nunc' means 'here and now' in Latin.
This year's festival, which is in its seventh edition, takes place from Aug. 26 to Sept. 4 at the Seoul Arts Center, Ewha Womans University and other venues.
Werber and the Sejong Soloists will also take the concert to Sejong, Daejeon, Gwangju, Daegu and Busan.
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