during her studies at the Yonsei University in Seoul/Korea won first prize at the
Dong-A Music Competition in Seoul in 1984, which is most renowned music competition in Korea.
Her outstanding high notes coloratura skill aroused the audience to enthusiasm at every concert. At this time one of her most famous repertoire was the aria “Air des clochettes (Bell Song)“ of the opera Lakmé from the French composer Deliebes, which demand most skillful high notes coloratura techniques.
In 1984, Choon-Ae Kim made her first operatic debuts as the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte) at the National Opera in Seoul.
After her 4 years of successful professional career at a number of venues throughout Korea she moved to Vienna/Austria in 1988 to study art songs, oratorio and opera at the Vienna University of Music and Performing Arts, where she received her diploma in both “art songs and oratorio” and “opera”.
During her studies in Vienna she performed the role of Konstanze in Mozart’s “Die Entführung aus dem Serail” and Titania in Benjamin Britten’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”.
Active in the worlds of concerts and recitals she sang as soloist in a number of ortorio concerts, such as J. Haydn’s The Seasons (Die Jahreszeiten) and The Creation (die Schöpfung), W. A. Mozart’s Great Mass in C-Minor, G. F. Handel’s Messiah, J. S. Bach’s Johannes Passion, notably Uhl’s Gilgamesch at the Musikverein in Vienna. In 2004 at her solo recital she sang the art songs from Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler, Alban Berg, Hector Berlioz and Villa Lobos.
In 1994 Choon-Ae Kim entered “4th international coloratura singing competition” in Luxemburg, winning the first prize, the audience prize and the orchestra prize. At the competition, she was acclaimed as one of the best interpreters of the Violetta’s aria of Verdi’s “La Traviata”.
Since then, she was engaged by a number of theaters and opera houses in Vienna, the Netherlands, Belgium and Seoul for the role of Violetta and other soprano heroines such as Gilda (Verdi`s Rigoletto), the Queen of the Night (Mozart`s The Magic Flute) and Hanna Glawari (Lehár`s The Merry Widow).
She appeared in a number of prestigious concerts in Austria, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, USA, Philippines and Seoul, notably Karl Orf´s Carmina Burana at yearly opening concert of “Hofkonzert Stuttgart” with Stuttgart Philharmonic.
Choon-Ae Kim received her first piano lessons at the age of 6 and began to appear at a number of national broad casting programs as a singer at her early age . Since then singing became her life. | 