Mezzo-soprano Kim Chung-ja, a former professor at the Korea National University of Arts and the first Korean to perform on a European opera stage, passed away on the afternoon of the 5th at around 3:40 PM at St. Luke’s Hospital in Yongin while battling cancer, according to her family and students on the 6th. She was 82 years old.

Born in Chuncheon, Gangwon Province, in 1944, the late singer first developed an interest in music while attending middle school in Chuncheon. Her younger brother, Kim Seok-ho, recalled, "It started when a middle school music teacher encouraged her to learn vocal music, and an Irish priest told her, 'You are welcome to play the church piano anytime.'" After graduating from Jinmyeong Girls' High School in Seoul, she moved to Germany in 1963 with the help of a foreign priest. Even while working as a nursing assistant, she did not let go of her dream of music. She studied piano and vocal music at the Leopold Mozart Conservatory in Augsburg, Germany, and subsequently graduated from the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Austria.

In 1970, she became the first Korean to debut on a European opera stage and signed an exclusive contract with the Bern Opera in Switzerland.

Thereafter, she built a name for herself over 16 years across Switzerland, Italy, and Spain—including time as a member of the Karlsruhe National Opera in Germany—and appeared in numerous productions as the primadonna of the Düsseldorf Opera. She also held recital performances in New York, Berlin, Hamburg, and Munich.

She served as a professor in the Department of Vocal Music at Chung-Ang University and Yonsei University from 1973 to 1978, and as a professor in the Department of Vocal Music at the Korea National University of Arts from 1994 to 2010.

Following her retirement, she dedicated her life to caring for orphans in Malawi, Africa. Before retiring, during a 2009 visit to Karonga, a remote area in Malawi, she encountered the "Ruspilo (Hope) Community," which cares for thousands of orphans, and recalled thinking, "This is the place I've been looking for."

After retiring from the Korea National University of Arts in February 2010, she departed for Malawi in September of that year, taking 200 million won from the sale of her country home. She lived there for 13 years, spanning up to October 2022 when she was diagnosed with stage 2 breast cancer, nurturing the orphans of the Karonga region. She helped foster their emotional growth by teaching them to play instruments she brought from Korea—such as keyboards and drums—as well as vocal music and music theory, and by playing alongside them. Community members called her their "music director" and even set up a separate classroom for her. The local chief gave her the name "Lusekero," which means "woman who brings happiness." Reflecting on her journey, Kim said, "On a path I ran along to gain love, I encountered the complete and eternal love I had so deeply yearned for." In an April 2011 interview with Yonhap News, she stated, "Before, I lived by asserting myself as an artist, but while caring for the children in Malawi, I am undergoing a spiritual training of slowly erasing myself. I have found peace of mind."

She raised sponsorship funds in Korea to dig 42 water wells. Her brother Seok-ho shared, "My sister thought, 'Many people helped me become a vocalist, so now it is my turn to help others.' She felt she had to respond to 'God's calling' when she saw the orphans in Malawi." He added, "She used to write letters titled 'News from Malawi' to her sponsors, and a book compiling those letters was recently published."

After receiving her cancer diagnosis, she returned to Korea to recuperate at her home in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, and passed away while receiving inpatient treatment at St. Luke's Hospital.

The late singer's 2014 publication, Kim Chung-ja's African Love (Paolucci Publishing House), details her 30-year musical career and volunteer work in Africa.

She is survived by her son, Daniel Glatzel, who is active as the founder of the Andromeda Chamber Orchestra in Germany. The wake will be set up starting at 11:00 AM on the 6th in Room 21 of the Seoul St. Mary's Hospital Funeral Hall, and her funeral mass will be held on the 8th at the Gaepo-dong Catholic Church in Seoul. ☎ 02-2258-5940

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