Soprano Sumi Jo speaks during a press conference that marks the 40th anniversary of her international debut in Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap
Soprano Sumi Jo is marking the 40th anniversary of her international career with a new album, a fresh partnership with K-pop powerhouse SM Entertainment and a yearlong slate of concerts and mentorship projects that she hopes will carry her legacy into the next generation.
At a press conference in Seoul on Wednesday, the 61-year-old singer looked back on four decades of breakthroughs, beginning with her 1986 debut as Gilda in Verdi’s “Rigoletto” at Teatro Verdi in Trieste, Italy.
Since winning major competitions and joining leading opera houses abroad, Jo has built a globe-spanning career that has taken her to the world’s top stages, from La Scala and the Metropolitan Opera to concert halls across Asia, Europe and the Americas.
She became the first Asian to sweep seven major vocal competitions and star as prima donna at five of the world’s leading opera houses. Also, she became the first Asian and first Korean to win a Grammy for Best Opera Recording and Commandeur of France’s Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Her exclusive recording contract with SM Entertainment is central to this new chapter. Under the deal, SM will handle global distribution and promotion of “Continuum” and future projects, using its vast K-pop infrastructure to reach listeners who may have never set foot in an opera house.
“The title of the special album is a Latin word meaning ‘to continue,’ and rather than piecing together songs that I have already sung as a classical artist, I wanted to reinterpret my life through new music and another kind of language,” she said.
Soprano Sumi Jo, right, poses with SM Entertainment Chief A&R Officer Lee Sung-soo during a press conference in Seoul, Wednesday, marking the 40th anniversary of her global career and Jo’s exclusive recording contract with SM Classics, SM Entertainment’s classical music label. Yonhap
Their first collaboration, “Continuum,” underscores Jo’s drive to expand her musical range, pairing high-difficulty coloratura arias with a special-track duet featuring EXO member Suho. Jo said she is “a great lover and proud supporter of K-pop” and wanted artists from “distinctly different positions” to create a new musical language together.
The 11-track set includes works by acclaimed composers such as Yiruma, Park Jong-hoon and Kim Jin-hwan, written to reflect episodes from her life, from the fear and homesickness of her student days abroad to her hopes and anxieties about the future.
Source: Korea Times News
