From rock dreams to operatic 'persona'
Korean baritone Kim Tae-han, winner of the 2023 Queen Elisabeth Competition, did not grow up dreaming of an operatic career. During his middle-school years, he hoped to become a rock singer. When he later told his mother that he was seriously considering life as a professional vocalist, her advice for him was "to study classical singing first." That suggestion proved decisive.
During high school, while majoring in classical singing, Kim’s perspective began to shift.
“While preparing for exams, I was introduced to German art songs. Listening to recordings by Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and Jonas Kaufmann, I realized there was an entire genre like this, and I was deeply drawn to it," he said at a press conference Tuesday at Kumho Art Hall in Seoul.
"Around then, I encountered opera for the first time through ‘La Boheme,’ and I still vividly remember how incredibly moved I was. That experience became a turning point.”
Now 24, Kim has been named artist-in-residence at Kumho Art Hall, becoming the first vocalist to hold the title since the program was launched in 2013. As artist-in-residence, he will present a four-part performance arc titled “Persona,” a season-long exploration of the many “masks” worn by singers across opera and song.
“I wanted to capture the nature of being both a singer and an opera performer in a single word,” Kim said at a press conference, explaining the conceptual backbone of the series. “Persona,” he added, reflects the profession’s demand for continual transformation — psychological, musical and theatrical.
The series opens with a New Year’s gala of arias on Thursday, followed by an opera gala centered on relationships on April 23 and a French program on love on July 2, and concludes with Schubert’s “Winterreise” on Oct. 15.
Kumho Art Hall occupies a particularly meaningful place in Kim’s artistic journey. He made his debut there in 2022 as part of the Kumho Young Artist Concert series, an experience that proved unexpectedly formative. Preparing for a demanding recital at the hall meant that, less than a year later, he already had a substantial body of work ready when he entered the Queen Elisabeth Competition.
Because he had prepared so many pieces for his recital, Kim said, he was able to draw directly on that repertoire during the competition itself, performing many of the same arias and Korean art songs. Rather than treating the event purely as a contest, he approached it as a series of performances, running through his full program daily from the first round to the final. That mindset, he said, allowed him to stay focused on musical quality and to enjoy the stage.
Kim’s career has taken off quickly, but not by chance. Even before the competition, he had already secured a place at Berlin’s Opera Studio in 2023, joining Staatsoper Unter den Linden. There, he appeared in a wide range of supporting roles.
His next major step comes in the 2025-26 season, when he joins the ensemble of Oper Frankfurt, making his house debut as Guglielmo in a new production of “Cosi fan tutte,” followed by roles in “Carmen,” “Madama Butterfly” and “Tristan und Isolde.”
Going forward, he hopes to "work for steady growth and accumulation and eventually become a superstar," defined by him as a singer audiences trust and return to.
"To do that, I need to build from smaller roles toward major ones," he noted, adding that he eventually wanted to take on all the baritone roles in Mozart's and Verdi's operas.
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