Pop tenor to perform solo concert in Paris

Pop tenor Lim Hyung-joo is to hold his second solo concert in Paris on Thursday to celebrate the 125th year of diplomatic ties between Korea and France and the 222nd year of the French Revolution.

“Lim Hyung-joo’s Concert for Peace,” organized by the Korea-France Cultural Planning and Exchange Association and the Korean Cultural Center in France, will take place at the Cathedral Saint Louis in the Les Invalids where the tomb of Napoleon is located, the organizers said.

The 25-year-old held his concert at Salle Gaveau in Paris in 2008, the first Asian popera artist to do so.

Lim’s performance will include opera arias, lieder from Germany and France, Korean songs and crossover classical music. Dutch pianist Antti Manninen, who is based in France, will accompany Lim on the stage.

Some 600 dignitaries, including ambassadors to France, officials from the OECD, UNESCO and U.N. Headquarters, have been invited to the concert, the organizers said.

In 2010, Lim became the first Korean recipient of the U.N. Peace Medal at U.N. Headquarters in New York, recognized for his donation of $20,000 to a scholarship fund for descendants of war veterans from 17 nations who participated in the 1950-53 Korean War.

By Kim Yoon-mi (yoonmi@heraldcorp.com)