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After 40 years of exile Isang Yun's widow, Lee Soo-ja, has set foot on Korean soil again. In 1967 the composer was accused of being a North-Korean spy. After international pressure he was released from prison after 40 days. He was again jailed and tortured, but in 1969 was freed, upon which he moved to Germany.
A year before his death in 1994 (in Berlin), Isang Yun was invited to attend a festival of his music in South Korea, but the trip was cancelled due to conflict with the government.
Last Monday 80-year old Lee Soo-ja arrived in Seoul after an invitation form the Korean government to partake in the 2007 Isang Yun festival. Upon the occasion she remarked: "In political terms, his honor was restored. But there's a long way to go for the restoration of his artistic honor".
The annual gala is organized by South Korea's Isang Yun Peace Foundation in cooperation with Germany's International Isang Yun Society. It will open in Seoul on 16 September and then continues in Busan and in Yun's coastal hometown, Tongyeong, until 10 November.
On 17 September will be the 90th anniversary of Yun's birth.
[source: www.kois.go.kr]