Baritone singer Kim Gi-hoon wins BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition

Baritone singer Kim Gi-hoon,won the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition held in the United Kingdom on Saturday.

Established in 1983, the competition is organized jointly by BBC Wales and Welsh National Opera and its winners include some of the biggest names in opera such as Bryn Terfel.

With the win, Kim became the first Korean to receive this main prize at the competition. Kim received 20,000 pounds ($27,600) in prize money.

Korean Baritone No Dae-san and bass Park Jong-min have won song prizes at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in the UK in 1999 and 2015 respectively.

A total of 16 competitors from 15 different countries competed for the main prize this year, including Korean Bass-baritone Ju-sung was also one of the competitors.

During the competition, he sang Largo al factotum” from Rossini`s opera “Il Barbiere Di Siviglia,” composer Kim Joo-woon‘s ”Like the Wind that met with Lotus“ and more. Kim will be performing some of the songs that he sang during the UK competition at his next recital, which will be held at TLi Art Center in Gyeonggi Province on July 8.

Born in Gokseong, South Jeolla Province, Kim started studying music when he was 18. After graduating from Yonsei University, he attended the Hannover University of Music.

In recent years, he has won several international singing competitions. In 2019, he won second prize at the 16th Tchaikovsky Competition for vocals and also took home second prize and the audience prize at the World Opera Competition the same year.

Meanwhile, this year’s audience prize, which is decided through the television audience‘s vote, went to mezzo-soprano Claire Barnett-Jones from England.

By Song Seung-hyun (ssh@heraldcorp.com)