Kyung Cho, Soprano

The Buffalo News hailed Kyoung Cho's performance of Mozart's c minor Mass with the Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra as "sublimely beautiful, transcendent, serene, dazzling, and heavenly". After winning several national and international competitions and awards, Lyric soprano Kyoung Cho has performed numerous operas, oratorios, and concerts and some of the performances mentioned here led her to the stages of Carnegie Hall in New York City, Kennedy Centre in Washington D. C. and other prestigious stages in Canada, Europe, The Mid-East, and her native Korea. Her 2008-2009 season performances include Missa Solemnis & Lord Nelson Mass at Haydn Festspiele in Eisenstadt Austria, Mimi in La Bohème with the Opera Theatre of Lakeland, a recital at University of South Florida, Messiah with Sarasota Chorale Society, recital for Palm Beach Symphony, and a concert with the Winter Park Bach Festival. Kyoung Cho has performed with companies such as Komische Kammer Oper Munich in Germany, Slovak State Opera in Slovak Republic, Washington Concert Opera, Utah Festival Opera, New Jersey Verismo Opera, Yale Opera, The Hartt Opera Theater, Connecticut Virtuosi Orchestra, New Britain Chorale/Orchestra, Waterbury Symphony, Boston University Chamber Orchestra, Lawrence University Chorus/Orchestra, Cedar Falls/Waterloo Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic Chorus & Orchestra.

Ms. Cho's operatic roles include Violetta in La Traviata, Mimi in La Bohème, Liù in Turandot, Gretel in Hansel and Gretel, Pamina in Magic Flute, Fiordiligi in Cosi fan tutte, Antonia in The Tales of Hoffmann, and Cio-Cio San in Madama Butterfly. Her oratorio repertoires include Brahms' Requiem, Mozart's Requiem, Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's c minor Mass, Bach's Magnificat, Messiah, and The Creation. In the summer of 2002, Ms. Cho was invited by The Israel International Vocal Institute where she sang in several concerts, master classes, and Gala Concerts under the baton of Maestro Paul Nadler and Joan Dornemann of The Metropolitan Opera Company.

Ms. Cho began her vocal training at Yon-Sei University in Seoul, Korea as a scholarship student. Upon arriving in the U.S., she studied at The Manhattan School of Music where she received her Master's degree in Voice. She continued her opera study at Yale University School of Music and is currently a Doctorate candidate at The University of Memphis where she was a Hohenberg-Scheidt Opera Fellow. She has been a voice faculty at State University of New York in Fredonia and a voice/opera faculty at Luther College in Iowa, and maintained a successful voice studio in New Haven, Hartford, Memphis, Boston, and New York City. She is currently as assistant professor of voice at University of South Florida in Tampa, Florida.

Won Cho, Bass

Bass Won Cho is a celebrated opera singer, voice teacher, opera director with opera scenes from 30 operas and 3 full operas under his directing and producing credit.

As a singer, he is known for the unique range and beauty of his voice as well as his outstanding acting ability. Anchorage Daily News hailed his 2009 performance as "Won Cho steals the show as Don Basilio in Anchorage Opera's Barber of Seville. Cho has a particularly dark, melodic yet rafter-ringing bass that is worth the price of admission all by itself."

Thanks to his energetic voice and stage presence, he is in demand in both concert and operatic repertoire, appearing with many of the opera houses and orchestras in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Mid East, and his native Korea.

Mr. Cho's recent performances included his debut appearance at Carnegie Hall in New York City as a bass soloist in Mozart's Requiem with the Mid-America Production, two engagements of Don Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia with Opera Theatre of Lakeland, FL and Mercury Opera of Rochester, NY, Colline in La Boheme, Osmin in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Commendatore in Don Giovanni with Mercury Opera of Rochester, Leporello in Don Giovanni at Southern Illinois Music Festival, his Mexican debut in Die Zauberflöte with the Xalapa Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven's Mass in C with the Palm Beach Symphony, 4 engagements of Messiah with The Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, Tampa Oratorio Society, Sarasota Chorale Society, and the Florida orchestra, The Creation in Toronto, Missa Solemnis & Lord Nelson Mass at Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt, Austria, and Bach Cantata with The Florida Orchestra. He was the 3rd prize winner of The 31st Vincenzo Bellini International Opera Competition in Italy where Dame. Joan Sutherland was the chair adjudicator, 1st prize winner of The Artist International Music Competition in Toronto, Canada, and a Regional Finalist at The Metropolitan Opera's National Council Audition. He currently is on the roster of Thea Dispeker Artist Management in New York City.

Mr. Cho received degrees from Manhattan School of Music and Boston University. He has served on the faculty at University of Northern Iowa and State University of New York in Fredonia, and currently serves as a Voice Professor at University of South Florida in Tampa, FL.