Crossover tenor Im Tae-kyung relaxes the weary with beautiful voice.“Crossover” means “fusion,” or an exchange between different genres of music. Particularly, it is used to imply integration between classical music and pop music. A representative song of the genre is “Perhaps Love” which was sung by Placido Domingo, one of “the world’s big three tenors,” and John Denver in the early 1980s. Crossover is consolidating its position around the world, as the music is providing fresh impact and becoming highly popular.
Crossover is not a familiar genre of music in Korea. But one crossover singer’s popularity is surging, as one of his songs continues its rise to the top of the monthly classical music chart. The person in focus is Im Tae-kyung, a crossover tenor. Let’s meet Lim, who is drawing close attention from both pop and classical music fans because of his masculine vocals that are smooth yet dynamic.
Q: You have been enjoying surging popularity lately, even actively appearing on TV shows. When did you begin performing as a crossover tenor?
A: I came to Korea without any specific plan to become a singer while I was studying in the United States. While I was learning various genres of music from composer Kim Hee-gap, I received a call from Jo Su-mi’s Korean management company, who said they were looking for a male popera singer.
From that occasion, I got the chance to sing songs with Jo Su-mi during the festival on the eve of the World Cup’s opening in 2002, and have been gaining fame ever since. And I became still more famous after I performed together with world-famous divas including soprano Shin Young-ok.
Q: You are known as a crossover tenor. What is the difference between popera and crossover?
A: I understand popera to be opera songs that are arranged in the format of pop music and sung by a classical singer. In a broader sense, popera is intended to imitate crossover. But I don’t stick with just classical music pop songs. If I can still express what a song is originally intended to represent, I want to also incorporate other genres of music, including Korean music. I use the title of crossover tenor because I want to perform a wide spectrum of music.
Q: I understand you studied engineering in the United States. Have you ever studied music formally?
A: I started to take singing and piano lessons when I was six. After graduating from elementary school, I entered the vocal music department at Yewon School and began learning singing formally, because I wanted to study music. After graduating from Yewon, I entered the Institute de le Rosey, a high school in Switzerland, to study as well as get relaxation, because I was in poor health at the time.
Then, I went to the U.S. to study science in 1992, because I had wanted to be a scientist when I was young. I earned a bachelor’s and master’s degree in production engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), an engineering college in northeast America, and I continued to study vocal music as a sub-major during my high school and college years.
Q: It is rare that a person who studied production engineering at college now performs music for a living. What motivated you to perform music?
A: As I said, I acquired a master’s degree at WPI and was set to work with Honda Group after graduating. But I constantly thought I would really regret it later on if I did not enter the music field. From that time, I studied under a mentor continuously in order to prepare for music graduate school.
There was a tenor named “Richard Cassilly.” He was already very famous 10 years before Luciano Pavarotti reached the peak of his career. He was teaching students at Boston University. I sought to meet with him for three months because I wanted to learn music from him. But he would not meet me, saying that he had too many students already. I continuously tried to meet him using various tactics for three months, and he finally took time to meet me in the third month. Thus, I learned music from him for over a year.
Q: You overcame many hardships to get started in music, but you thought about giving it up while studying, right?
A: At first, I experienced severe mental stress while learning from the professor. He seemed to have recognized my talent, considering he accepted me as his disciple. But while giving me music lessons, he did not make any comment about me. He did not say a single word about whether I was doing well or not for six months.
One day, he introduced me to a general manager for a summer camp, and asked me to prepare for an audition at a summer school in Italy. Then he smiled for the first time, saying “His voice is very attractive.” I felt like I had conquered the world at that time. But only two weeks later, he died of a sudden heart attack. I was stunned. So, I thought I had better not sing any more, believing that problems occurred whenever I attempted to perform music. I thought I would never sing again.
Q: What made you to perform music again?
A: I did not sing after the professor died. At that time, I was serving as the head of the Korean students’ council, which was doing volunteer work to help young pediatric cancer and leukemia patients. One day, I had a chance to perform music to help those children. For the first time in my life, I came to think about why I had been born in the world, and wondered whether performing music was my mandate.
Meanwhile, I prayed to God to find an answer, and while I was listening to a pastor preaching, I realized why I had been born when I heard the pastor saying “Follow your heart.” At that time, I felt that my heart was urging me to sing songs, and that it would be wonderful if I could do something positive with my songs. That was the reason I resumed singing.
Q: What is the reason you chose to perform crossover and not classical music?
A: I majored in vocal music, but was not a true vocalist. In a sense, my life itself is an example of crossover. I lived in Korea, the United States and Switzerland, and attended engineering college as well as studied music. I like both vocal music and rock among the music genres, and I enjoy both Korean culture and European culture. To me, crossover music is very natural and comfortable. It was natural I decided to perform crossover music.
Q: What kind of musician do you want to be in the future?
A: I think what matters the most in music is being natural. So I try to deliver the intentions of the composer comfortably and accurately, without distorting them. That way, I am able to effectively absorb and deliver the emotions in the music. I want to be a singer who communicates a good story faithfully. I want to hear people saying “His songs are great to hear” without fail whenever I sing songs.
Q: What are your future plans?
A: As I continue to be faithful in the process of doing small things, I am guided to a destiny that I did not even expect. My wish and plan is that I will be a person who values the process more than the goal, and who is faithful in small things.
“Being strong and passionate is the stimulus. I want to be a singer who reveals touching emotions steadily, little by little.”
Lim Tae?kyung is reaching out to people somewhat cautiously compared with most rookie singers who want to deliver a strong impression. But we have high expectations that he will deliver stirring heartfelt emotions in all his future performances.
