Daegu Vying for Back-to-Back World-Class Embarrassment

Hostship for 2024 WASBE International Conference at Emergent Risk 

October 21st, 2021

Reported by Lee Jong-un, yakup.com

An international organization comprised of experts from worldwide is expressing deep concerns and warnings towards controversy raging in the Daegu Metropolitan City in Korea.  The city has been selected as the host city of an upcoming world-class event lead by that organization.  However, the mayor, city officials and certain group of stakeholders do not seem to be aware of these concerns and warnings, and it is increasingly becoming unclear whether the event will actually be held as planned.  Following the recent controversy over the Daegu mayor's false claim that he could directly source Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccines back in June of this year, Daegu is clearly making a back-to-back homerun that scores a huge world-class embarrassment.

Back in December of 2019, World Association for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) officially selected Daegu as the host city for its biennial international conference.  Since then, WASBE noticed instances of confusions and chaos arising from the host city, and duely expressed concerns and warnings in an official letter dated April 18th, 2021.  Despite of these clear and present actions taken by the organizer, the city officials and the Daegu Music Association without the subject matter expertise continue to exercise their vested interests, thus causing a controversy as a result.         

The domestic wind music expert community in Korea sees WASBE's selection of Daegu as the starting point of the current ongoing controversy.  The background is as follows.  Daegu representations submitted a bid proposal in December 2019 in order to host the WASBE biennial international conference planned in 2023.  The final review and selection process of the 2023 conference host was held at the WASBE executive board meeting in Chicago, USA, on December 17th, 2019. 

The 43-page bid proposal written in English included an official letter of invitation signed by Mayor Kwon Young-jin dated November 4th, 2019.  The mayor's letter included an intention, as well as commitment, to actively support the 2023 WASBE conference.  As part of the city representations, an official from the Daegu Convention Bureau made an in-person bid proposal in front of WASBE executive board members in Chicago.  The bid presentation included the following key points.

The first point is about the local organizing committee (LOC) and the committee panels.  The 43-page bid documentation included a two-page section titled "local organizing committee", and listed twelve committee panels at the time of bid process.  Keeping in mind that this was a bid proposal, the word "local" refers to the town or city with intent to host the event.  The word "organizing" means those organized with that specific intent.  For the word "committee", at the time of bid there were 12 committee panels including current and former WASBE members, subject matter experts, and other stakeholders such as the city representations.  Profession Lee Kang-il of Keimyung University in Daegu, who is a current WASBE member, was included as well.

The second point is that in the bid Daegu was described as the birthplace of Korea's wind music.  The bid proposal highlighted that the first music band in Daegu was launched in 1915, followed by the city's first 30-member brass band in 1919.  As the center of Korea's wind music, it was emphasized that Daegu indeed has a rich history and heritage spanning over 100 years.  Based on such backgrounds, it was also highlighted that the city has the most number of wind ensembles at elementary, middle, and high schools and universities.

With above points in mind, WASBE finally decided Daegu as the host for the biennial conference in 2023.  For reference, the 2019 conference was held in Buñol, Valencia, Spain, and the 2021 conference was scheduled to be held in Prague, Czech Republic.  However, due to the spread of Covid-19 in 2020 and the pandemic situation, the Prague conference scheduled in 2021 is postponed to 2022, and the Daegu conference scheduled in 2023 to 2024.

After winning the bid, the city officials and the Daegu Music Association notified WASBE by email dated October 19th, 2020 that the "Daegu local organizing committee (LOC)" had officially been formed.  Usually, the LOC formed after winning the bid has a specific purpose of event organization and preparation.  The Daegu Music Association mentioned in the email that the schedule had been delayed due to Covid-19 but the Daegu LOC was newly formed, and that the LOC chairperson is ex officio the chairperson of the Daegu Music Association.

The chairperson of the Daegu Music Association is neither a current/former WASBE member nor a subject matter expert.  In addition, the association is an entity that encompasses a broad concept of music, and thus lacks expertise in symphonic bands and ensembles.  Likewise, the city officials without the subject matter expertise are expected to assume the roles of host and generous sponsor of the 2024 conference.  However, the city officials and the Daegu Music Association mistakenly described WASBE as "World Wind Music Association" and the biennial conference as "World Wind Music Festival" in official communications written in Korean.  Lacking the expertise, these parties have inappropriately taken the initiative, and have inappropriately exercised their selfish interests towards the event exclusive for the symphonic bands and ensembles.

Neither the Daegu LOC nor the committee panels officially existed at the time of October 2020.  In fact, the Daegu LOC and the committee panels were officially formed on August 25th, 2021, after nearly a year of confrontations and conflicts.  The important point is that the city officials and the Daegu Music Association clearly misled WASBE in all of official correspondences made before August 25th, 2021, that Daegu LOC existed and was in full operation.  And, from those correspondences lacking subject matter expertise and knowledge, WASBE noticed that something was seriously going in the wrong direction.

Consequently, WASBE President-Elect Colin Richardson stated in a letter dated April 18th, 2021 that "this (2022 Prague) conference will feature 14 concerts by outstanding band from around the world...unfortunately, no bands from Daegu applied to perform on the mainstage.  We don't know why they didn't apply".  She pointed out that, despite advance notices made through various channels, there was not a single application from Daegu.  

Her comments have several underlying messages.  First of all, deep concerns were expressed towards the so-claimed, in fact nonexistent Daegu LOC, and that it was not represented by subject matter experts such as current/former WASBE members based in Korea.  Had current/former WASBE members or an expert with prior networking experiences represented the Daegu LOC, a rather absurd "not a single application from Daegu" and "we don't know why they didn't apply" situations would have been avoided.

In addition, strong doubts were expressed as to whether "the birthplace of Korea's wind music" Daegu and the Daegu Music Association were truly sincere towards symphonic bands and ensembles.  As the WASBE president-elect pointed out, the mainstage performance at the WASBE conference is a world-class event that is well recognized by symphonic bands and ensembles from all over the world.  For instance, prior to the 2022 Prague conference, WASBE received numerous enthusiastic applications vying for the mainstage performance.  As a result, the Korean Wind Orchestra based in Seoul, Korea was selected as the only Korean band representation.  Without a single application from Daegu, this raised strong doubts towards Daegu's sincerity, enthusiasm and authenticity towards the wind music.

  

In conclusion, President-Elect Richardson showed a strong distrust towards Daegu and the Daegu Music Association.  In the letter she said "we know that over 100 concerts are already in place in the nationwide competitions and exchanges of KBA (Korea Band Association), through Professor Kang-il Lee, who has been involved with WASBE for many years".  She added "many of the Korean KBA performers, including Professor Lee, are now considered friends, as they have attended multiple WASBE conferences in locations around the world: they know about our events".   The key words here are "they know".

Then, in order to simplify and speed-up communication channels for the 2024 Daegu conference, WASBE made an official position that it would directly work with Professor Lee and two other designees.  This was indeed a letter that contained both deep concerns and clear warnings signed by the WASBE president-elect.

About four months later, on August 25th, 2021, the Daegu LOC and the committee panels were finally formed with confirmation.  Based on our editorial investigation, a list of thirteen panels for the Daegu LOC was reported to Mayor Kwon Young-jin after that date.  Although the controversy over the Daegu LOC seems to have been resolved, deep concerns from the domestic expert community do persist.  This is because more and more expert panels, including current/former WASBE members, decide to breakaway from the Daegu LOC, and the expert representation within the Daegu LOC is continually diminishing as a result.

Armed with an exclusive right to hold its international conference and to designate the host city, WASBE is closely monitoring the ongoing controversy raging in Daegu.  In the past, there were instances where the host city designation was decisively overturned by WASBE.  An expert from the domestic wind music community evaluated the current controversy, by saying "not long after the controversy over the Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine in June, Daegu is hitting a back-to-back homerun that scores a huge world-class embarrassment".