The Korean-born bass-baritone, Locky Chung (Korean: 정록기), came in 1990 from Seoul to Germany, where he continued his training at the Musikhochschule Karlsruhe with Roland Hermann and in the singing class of Mitsuko Shirai/Hartmut Höll at the college of music Karlsruhe. In 1992 he was winner at the ARD-Wettbewerb (broadcasting corporations competition) in Munich. He also won first prizes at the Robert Schumann competition in 1993 in Zwickau and at the Hugo Wolf competition in 1994 in Stuttgart.
Following his winnings, Locky Chung was invited to appear in opera and to give concerts all over Europe, in the USA, Canada, China, Japan and Korea and others. He gave concerts in renowned venues as Gewandhaus Leipzig, the Berliner Philharmonie, the Zürcher Tonhalle and the Münchner Philharmonie with wide repertoire from ranging Baroque to Modern. He has appeared, among others, with Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra & Choir under the direction of Ton Koopman, the Orchestra del Maggio Fiorentino in Florence under Peter Schreier, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Tölzer Knabenchor under Bruno Weil in Toronto, at the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspielen under Wolfgang Gönnenwein, with Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble & Chor at the Schwetzinger Festival, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and the Rheingau Music Festival under Thomas Hengelbrock, the Stuttgarter Philharmoniker under Jörg-Peter Weigle and the EuropaChorAkademie under Joshard Daus. Under Wolfgang Gönnenwein he sang Requiem by Johannes Brahms on a occasion of a tour to Ukraine, Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) by J.S. Bach in Beuron, Wertheim and Wolfegg, the Markus-Passion (BWV 247) by J.S. Bach under Ton Koopman at the Festival de Montpellier, as well as concert with Chor der Bamberger Symphoniker in Germany and Poland, as well as Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) by J.S. Bach in Italy.
Locky Chung's repertoire covers the big oratorios of J.S. Bach, George Frideric Handel, Haydn, Felix Mendelssohn, Rossini, Bruch and Benjamin Britten as well as concert repertoire of W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Gustav Mahler, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. In 1993 he made his opera debut as Eugen Onegin in the opera of the same name by Tchaikovsky at the National Opera in Seoul. In 2004 he celebrated big success as Papageno in the W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte. His special affection applies for the Lieder singing He gave Lieder recitals at the Hugo-Wolf-Fest in Stuttgart, at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, at the Louvre in Paris, at the Wigmore Hall in London, at the Music Festival in Edinburgh and Asahi Hall in Tokyo, with partners as Julius Drake, Hartmut Höll und Irwin Gage, the actor Udo Samel and the writer Peter Härtling.
Recordings for various broadcasting corporations, including RAI, ORF, DRS, SWR, NDR, WDR und NHK in Japan. Cd recordings include: Hugo Wolf's Ausgewählte Goethe-Lieder (Claves), Haydn's Schöpfung (Harmonia Mundi) under Thomas Hengelbrock and G.F. Handel's opera Imeneo (CPO/WDR) under Andreas Spering.
Since 1997 Locky Chung teaches at the Staatlichen Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe. Starting from 2005 he is actiive as Professor at the Hanyang University in Seoul. |