Chon Wolson

Chon Wolson is a soprano opera singer in Japan and a Member of the Nikikai Opera Company. Despite being born in Tokyo, she is a second generation Korean.

Career

In 1985, Chon Wolson sang the leading part in two operas - Poulenc's La voix humaine and Ravel's L'heure espagnole . She later went on to sing leading parts in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), The Turn of the Screw (Britten), Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Madama Butterfly (Puccini), Salome (Richard Strauss), Carmen (Bizet), and La traviata (Verdi).

In 1985, she gave a solo vocal performance in Pyongyang, North Korea. In 1994, she performed the title role in Carmen (director: Flavio Trevisan) in the Seoul Opera House, South Korea.

She became the first singer in decades to sing songs in Japanese during an event commemorating the Tokyo-Seoul Sister City 10th Anniversary in the South Korean capital, where Japanese songs were prohibited.

In 2002, Japan and South Korea co-hosted the 2002 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament and she appeared in such events as the "Japan-Korea Friendship Concert" (Suntory Hall, Tokyo); the Japan and Korea gala concert "Crossing the Sea" (Tokyo Opera City), Japan-South Korean joint opera Chun Hyangjeon, singing the national anthem before the match and at the welcome of South Korean President Kim Dae Jung organized by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi at the Prime Minister's Official Residence.