From Mozart to Korean Art Songs: Bass EuiHyun PARK Brings His Voice to South African Stages

From the dramatic depths of Mozart’s opera to the delicate emotions of Korean art songs, Korean bass EuiHyun PARK brought a wide-ranging classical repertoire to South Africa this October, making his first visit to the country with a series of performances across Stellenbosch and Pretoria.

Invited by the Korean Cultural Centre in South Africa, PARK appeared at one of the country’s major multidisciplinary arts festivals, performed live on national radio, gave a recital featuring some of opera’s best-known arias and joined a local orchestra for the final performance of his tour.

For South African audiences, the visit offered an opportunity to hear a Korean operatic voice whose career has taken him from Seoul to European opera houses, as well as an introduction to Korean art songs, a vocal tradition less familiar to many local classical music listeners.

PARK began his musical training in Seoul before moving to Germany, where he completed a master’s degree and a Konzertexamen, the highest performance qualification in opera, at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln. His European stage debut came in 2013 as Pluto in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld at Theater Aachen, followed by his Korean debut as Sarastro in Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Korea National Opera in 2020. He later served as a resident soloist with the Korea National Opera from 2023 to 2024 and has performed as a bass soloist in more than 100 concerts and oratorios.

His South African tour began on 4 October at Woordfees in Stellenbosch, one of the country’s leading multidisciplinary arts festivals. Appearing in a concert titled An Italian Songbook, PARK introduced festival audiences to his rich, resonant bass voice and expressive interpretation of Italian vocal music.

The following morning, he took his music beyond the concert hall with an appearance on RSG. During the interview and live studio performance, PARK spoke about his musical career and his first visit to South Africa, giving radio listeners an opportunity to experience his voice firsthand.

The tour then moved to Pretoria, where PARK took centre stage on 8 October for a recital presented as part of the Korean Cultural Centre’s KCC Music On Stage classical concert series.

Accompanied by pianist Dr Laetitia Orlandi, he performed a programme that moved between opera, European art songs and Korean vocal music. Audiences heard arias from Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Rossini’s The Barber of Seville, alongside songs by Franz Schubert and Italian composers.

Among the evening’s highlights was the inclusion of Korean art songs, bringing another dimension to a programme otherwise rooted in the European classical tradition.

Known in Korean as gagok, these songs set Korean poetry and lyrical texts to music in the Western classical vocal tradition. Often drawing on themes of love, longing, memory and nature, they offer a distinctive musical expression of Korean language and emotion.

For PARK, whose training and operatic career have been closely connected to European classical music, the recital provided an opportunity to bring Korean repertoire into the same programme as some of the Western works that have shaped his career.

His visit concluded on 11 October at the University of Pretoria’s Musaion Theater, where he joined the Gauteng Philharmonic Orchestra for From Vienna to the New World. The orchestral collaboration brought his South African tour to a close, adding a large-scale concert performance to a week that had already taken him from festival stages and radio studios to a more intimate recital setting.

Reflecting on his first visit, PARK said he had been particularly moved by the warmth of South African audiences.

“I was deeply touched by how attentively audiences listened to my voice and music, and by the warm applause they gave after each piece,” he said.

“Despite our different languages and cultural backgrounds, this experience reminded me once again how music allows us to connect with one another. I sincerely hope to return and meet South African audiences again.”

Beyond introducing a visiting Korean singer to local audiences, the tour also created opportunities for collaboration with South African musicians and institutions. From the festival appearance in Stellenbosch to his recital with Dr Orlandi and orchestral performance in Pretoria, PARK’s visit brought Korean and South African classical music communities into closer contact.

The tour formed part of the Korean Cultural Centre in South Africa’s ongoing K-Classics programme, which introduces Korean classical musicians to local audiences while encouraging artistic exchange with South African performers and institutions.

Previous visiting artists have included pianist Yeon-Min PARK, tenor Kyung-Ho KIM, cellist Gunwoo PARK and oboist Kyeong HAM, reflecting the Centre’s continuing efforts to bring a wider range of Korean classical talent to South African stages.