The versatile Bass, Hyong Sik Jo, is already gaining the attention of critics being hailed as a “..delightful comic, with beauty and depth" and able to“..switch seamlessly from jovial to Jovian at the stroke of a baton.”
This is because at a young age he already has encompassed a variety of roles in the Bass-Baritone category from the title roles in Don Giovanni, Gianni Schicchi, and Falstaff, Doctor Dulcamara in L’Elisir d’amore, Don Alfonso in Cosi fan Tutte, Leporello and Masetto in Don Giovanni, Count Almaviva and Don Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro, Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, Grandpa Moss in The Tender Land, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, Bartolo and Basilio in Il Barbiere di Siviglia, Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola, Colline in La Bohème to the dramatic characters of Lo Zio Bonzo in Madame Butterfly, Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Raimondo in Lucia di Lammermoor, among others.
He has appeared with the Connecticut Opera, Bulgaria’s Plovdiv Opera, Aspen Opera Theater Center, Opera North, Long Island Opera, New Rochelle Opera, Opera at Florham, Verismo Opera, Regina Opera, Eastern Opera of New Jersey, New York Lyric Opera, Kaliope Opera, OSH Opera, Palisades Opera, and as a guest artist with Boston University Opera Institute and Queens College Opera.
Mr. Jo also has vast experience on the concert stage having appeared as Elijah from Elijah by Mendelssohn, the Bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Die Schöpfung, Gounod’s Messe Solennelle, Mozart’s Requiem and Vesperae solennes and Beethoven’s Mass in C with such orchestras as the New England Symphonic Ensemble at Isaac Stern Auditorium at Carnegie Hall, the New Jersey Philharmonic Orchestra, Hartford Symphony Orchestra, the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony Orchestra, the Baroque Orchestra of New Jersey and the Aspen Music Festival Orchestra.
Mr. Jo received his bachelor’s degree in Voice from the University of Chung-Ang (Korea), graduating with honors, a master of Music degree in Voice Performance from the Manhattan School of Music, and Artist Diploma in Voice Performance from University of Northern Iowa, and studied Artist Diploma in Opera Performance from University of Hartford.