Hailed for his “smoothly powerful” and “excellent” voice, Korean bass-baritone Jongwon Han is making a name for himself as one of the top young artists on the rise.
Currently an Adler Fellow at the San Francisco Opera, Mr. Han made his debut there in the summer of 2023 as The Bonze in Madama Butterfly and has since appeared as the Colline in Bohème Out of the Box, 3rd and 4th Noble in Lohengrin, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and covers of Der Einarmige in Die Frau ohn Shatten, Ferrando in Il Trovatore and Belcore in L’elisir d’amore. During the 24/25 season he appears as Tom in Un Ballo in Maschera and covers both Escamillo in Carmen and the bass soloist in the Beethoven Symphony No. 9, and will be featured in both the San Francisco Opera’s annual Opera in the Park concert and the Adler Fellowship’s annual Rising Stars concert.
Other engagements this season include Colline and Sprecher with Opera Naples, The Bonze at the Utah Opera, and concerts in Hawaii.
Mr. Han made his professional debut at the Vernazza Opera Festival (Cinque Terre, Italy) and has been featured in concerts in Osaka, Japan, Seoul, South Korea, and New York City. Other recent engagements have included his debuts at the Atlanta Opera as Schaunard in La bohéme and at the Palm Beach Opera as the Bonze, Bartolo cover in Il barbiere di Siviglia at the Santa Fe Opera, and concert performances of Handel’s Messiah with Dayton Opera, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Penderecki’s Credo at the Oregon Bach Festival, Haydn’s Theresienmesse and Mozart’s Sparrow Mass with the New Choral Society, and Bach’s Cantata BVW 140 in Seoul.
Mr. Han won Third Prize at the 2022 Operalia World Opera Competition and was a Grand Finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. Other notable awards include 2nd Place at the 2024 Dallas Opera National Competition, 1st prize winner of the 2022 Vero Beach Opera Rising Stars, 3rd place & audience choice award winner in the 2022 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, 3rd place winner of the 2022 Giulio Gari International Competition, encouragement award winner of the 2022 L. Loren Zachary Competition, the 2021 Stephen De Maio Memorial Award from the Gerda Lissner Foundation and an encouragement award winner in the 2021 Gerda Lissner Lieder Competition
Mr. Han received his Bachelor of Music Degree from Seoul National University, his master’s degree at the Mannes School of Music, and studied at The Juilliard School in the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program. He was also an Apprentice at the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2022 and joined the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellowship program in 2023.
SEPTEMBER 2024
