He started singing as a soloist in a gospel church choir, then he studied voice in Seoul, where he also made his
professional debut as Nemorino in 1998.
After winning two singing competitions, in Verviers and in Seoul, he went to Berlin in 2002 for further studies with Harald
Stamm. In 2003, he was accepted into the studio of the Staatsoper Hamburg and sang some tiny roles there to begin with, then
Beppe, Steuermann, Ismaele, Fenton, Duca, Alfredo. From 2006 to 2012, he was a member of the Vienna Staatsoper. His debut role
was Duca, then he sang a mix of comprimario roles (Steuermann, Remendado, Nathanael, Arturo in Lucia, Tybalt, Cassio,
Erster Jude) and main roles (Massenet's des Grieux, Alfredo, Léopold, Rodolfo, Nemorino).
After his Vienna Staatsoper tenure (where he also returned as des Grieux), he sang in Tel Aviv, Modena, Trento, Verona (Teatro
Filarmonico), Warsaw, Hamburg, Bologna, Trieste, Athens, Madrid (Teatro Real), Vilnius, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Daegu, Sydney,
Covent Garden, Chemnitz, Bari... always in main roles, the ones already mentioned plus Edgardo, Werther, Roméo,
Cavaradossi, Riccardo. Only at La Monnaie in 2023, I found him (again?) singing a small comprimario part (the Peasant in
Evgenij Onegin).
In his Vienna years, he had a certain following among the audience, no doubt because of his beautiful timbre. As far as vocal
technique, I found his method of imitating the faults of José Carreras not overly convincing.
Reference 1,
reference 2: Vienna Staatsoper archives, reference 3, reference 4
Picture source
