Popera tenor Lim Hyung-joo has become the first Korean to be appointed as an honorary professor at Rome Arts College where he graduated last year with a Master’s degree.
Lim’s agency commented: “He was appointed as a professor of Civica Scuola delle Arti di Roma’s vocal music department. His educational background at the school along with his splendid music career seems to have worked.”
The 29 year old will be teaching a course of masters classes on classical crossover music three to four times a year while researching at Civica Scuola delle Arti.
The agency added: “It is significant for one of the prestigious arts schools in such a culturally strong and conservative Italy to recruit a famous popera singer as a professor rather than a classical opera singer or a traditional singer.”
Stefano Palamidessi, the school’s didactic director said: “Since many years back, a lot of Koreans singers have been coming to Rome to study, and that is why we have decided to recruit Lim Hyung-joo, who is not only an alumnus, but unlike other popera singers, he received systematic traditional vocal education at the school.”
Lim was named one of the world’s top five most influential popera singers by the BBC and earlier this year, he received the U.S Presidential Culture Award from President Barack Obama and is the first Korean to be awarded with the UN Peace Medal.
