Sojeong Shim Is Reimagining the Harp for Contemporary Pop
For around twenty years, Sojeong Shim knew the harp through the discipline of classical music. Today, however, she does not want the instrument to remain confined to an elegant, delicate or almost heavenly image. In her music, the harp can create rhythm, support a pop structure and become electronic, percussive or even aggressive.
The difference is not simply a matter of adding the harp to a song’s arrangement. For Sojeong, everything changes when the instrument shapes the harmony, rhythm, vocal writing and movement of a performance from the beginning.
After studying at Seoul National University, she completed her master’s degree at the Eastman School of Music in the United States. Following years of performing as a classical harpist, the South Korean harpist, singer songwriter and composer began developing a personal language combining vocals, contemporary production and visual performance.
In 2026, this journey brought her to the final eight of Korea’s Next Wave, South Korea’s national selection for the inaugural Eurovision Song Contest Asia. With her original song “EHERADIYA”, Sojeong finished second behind JUNHEE’s “DEEP DIVE”, introducing her work to an audience far beyond the classical music world.
The competition did not give her the ticket to Bangkok, but it showed her that listeners were ready to recognise her as more than a harpist who sings. They could see an artist with a musical and visual world of her own.
In this interview with CZMOS, Sojeong Shim discusses the possibilities she is opening for the harp, the way “EHERADIYA” brings Korean tradition into a contemporary pop performance and why finishing second at Korea’s Next Wave feels like a beginning.
Quando l’arpa diventa il punto di partenza
You have said that you do not want to be seen simply as “a harpist who sings.” What changes when the harp becomes the starting point of a pop song rather than an element added to the arrangement?
For me, there is a big difference between adding a harp to a pop song and creating a song that actually begins with the harp.
I have played the harp for most of my life, so I understand the instrument not only through its beautiful or delicate qualities, but also through its limitations, its physicality, its rhythm and the many different textures it can create. When I write with the harp from the beginning, those characteristics can influence the harmony, the rhythm, the structure and even the way I use my voice.
That is why I do not really want the harp to function as decoration in my music. I want it to have a reason to be there.
At the same time, I do not want every song I make to sound like “harp music.” I am a songwriter first, so the song and the emotion always come first. Sometimes the harp can be lyrical and beautiful, but sometimes I want it to be rhythmic, percussive, electronic or even aggressive.
I think that is where my identity becomes more interesting to me. I am not simply singing while playing the harp. I am trying to discover what kind of contemporary music can exist when the harp is part of its foundation.
Beyond Elegance and Fragility
The harp carries strong associations with classical music, elegance and even fragility. Which of these expectations do you want to preserve, and which ones are you deliberately trying to challenge?
I do not actually want to reject the traditional image of the harp completely. I love its elegance, its beauty and the incredible history of the instrument. Classical music is where I came from, and that training is still a very important part of who I am.
What I want to challenge is the idea that this is all the harp can be.
People often expect a harp to sound soft, romantic, heavenly or delicate. I can understand why, because the instrument can do all of those things beautifully. But after playing it for around twenty years, I know there are so many other personalities inside it.
It can be powerful. It can create rhythm. It can be dramatic, strange, raw or unexpected. With an electric harp especially, I can experiment with sound and performance in ways that are very different from the traditional image people may have in mind.
I actually enjoy that contrast. If the audience begins with one expectation of what a harpist should look or sound like, I like having the opportunity to surprise them.
I am not trying to destroy the elegance of the harp. I want to keep that beauty, but give it more possibilities.
How Tradition Becomes Part of “EHERADIYA”
“EHERADIYA” brings Korean musical and cultural influences into a contemporary pop performance. How did you decide which elements could become part of the song without turning tradition into a decorative reference?
This was something I thought about a lot while creating “EHERADIYA”.
I did not want to simply place a few “traditional Korean sounds” on top of a pop track and call it Korean. I wanted the Korean elements to affect the character and energy of the song.
The title itself, “EHERADIYA”, comes from a traditional Korean exclamation that appears in folk music. I was attracted to it because it has a very strong rhythmic energy and immediately creates a feeling of movement and release.
From there, I explored Korean musical colours, rhythms and instruments alongside the harp and contemporary production. On stage, I also worked with instruments such as the haegeum and buk, and the visual transformation of the performance was designed to move between traditional references and a much more contemporary world.
But “EHERADIYA” is one particular chapter of my music, rather than a formula I want to repeat in every project.
My other songs explore very different sounds and subjects. For this song, however, Korea’s Next Wave gave me a reason to think more deeply about where I come from and how those influences could become part of my own musical language.
The most important thing for me was that tradition should not feel like a costume or decoration. It had to participate in the music itself, while still allowing me to reinterpret it in my own way.
A Second Place That Feels Like a Beginning
You finished second in Korea’s Next Wave, introducing your work to an audience far beyond the classical music world. What did that experience reveal about how people currently perceive the harp and your identity as an artist?
One of the biggest surprises for me was realising how many people who had never been interested in the harp before became curious about it through “EHERADIYA”.
After the competition, I received messages from people in many different countries saying things like, “I never knew a harp could sound like this”, or that they had never expected to see an electric harp together with vocals, guitar, haegeum and percussion in this kind of performance.
That reaction was very meaningful to me because it was exactly what I had hoped to achieve.
Of course, finishing second was bittersweet. When you come that close, it is natural to think about what could have happened if the result had been slightly different. I really wanted the opportunity to go to Bangkok.
But very quickly, I began to realise that something else important had happened. People who had never known my name before discovered my music, and some of them decided to stay and follow what I do next.
In that sense, Korea’s Next Wave helped me see that people can accept me beyond the categories I had sometimes worried about. Not only as a classical harpist, and not simply as a singer who happens to play the harp, but as an artist with my own musical and visual world.
I did not win the ticket to Bangkok, but I came out of the competition with a much clearer sense of where I want to go next. For me, that makes this feel much more like a beginning than an ending.
From Ennio Morricone to a New Connection with Italy
CZMOS is based in Italy, and we like to create a small connection between our guests and our country. Is there an Italian artist, musician or creative figure who has influenced you?
One Italian composer I have always admired is Ennio Morricone. What I love about his music is how strongly he understood the relationship between melody, sound and visual imagination.
His music can be very sophisticated, but the emotional idea is often incredibly clear. Sometimes only a few notes are enough to create an entire atmosphere or make you imagine a scene.
As someone who is now thinking not only about songwriting, but also about performance and the visual world surrounding my music, I find that very inspiring. I want my own work to create that kind of connection between sound, emotion and imagery, even though musically I work in a very different world.
Of course, as a classically trained musician, Italy has always been present somewhere in my musical education. I would be very happy if my contemporary work could now create a new connection with Italy in a completely different way.
Building an Identity Beyond the Instrument
Sojeong Shim’s journey begins with the harp, but it does not end there. Her aim is not to prove that a classical instrument can be inserted into pop music. She is asking how pop itself might change when it is composed through the physicality, limitations and sonic possibilities of the harp.
Her relationship with tradition follows the same direction. In “EHERADIYA”, Korean references do not function as visual markers applied from the outside. The exclamation that gives the song its title, its rhythmic energy, the haegeum, the buk and the performance’s visual transformation all participate in shaping the music.
The result, however, is not intended to become a formula for everything that follows. Sojeong wants to remain free to explore different songs, subjects and musical languages. Continuity will not come from repeating “EHERADIYA”, but from continuing to treat the harp as a creative starting point.
Finishing second at Korea’s Next Wave denied her one destination, Bangkok, but opened a much wider space.
It is a space in which the harp is no longer simply the role through which Sojeong Shim is introduced, but one of the tools she is using to build her identity as a contemporary artist. The participant interviewed for this article was introduced to CZMOS by Las Olas Agency.
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