Hailed for his “smoothly powerful and restrained” voice by San Francisco Chronicle, Korean bass-baritone Jongwon Han was the Third Prize winner of the 2022 Operalia Plácido Domingo World Opera Competition, and is an Alumnus of the Adler Fellowship at San Francisco Opera.
At San Francisco Opera, he has sung the roles of Bonzo in Madama Butterfly, Conte Ceprano in Rigoletto, Tom in Un ballo in Maschera, 2nd Knight in Parsifal, 3rd noble and 4th noble in Lohengrin, Colline and Schaunard in Bohème Out of The Box, Nightwatchman in Die Frau ohne Schatten, La Voce in Idomeneo and Sprecher in Die Zauberflöte, and covered the roles of Ferrando in Il Trovatore, Colline in La Bohème, Escamillo in Carmen, Titurel in Parsifal, Der Einarmige in Die Frau ohne Schatten, Buddha in Monkey King and Belcore in L’elisir d’amore.
Highlights of the 2025-26 season include covering Yamadori at The Metropolitan Opera; his company debut at Lyric Opera of Chicago as Bonzo; returning to San Francisco Opera to sing the role of Pfleger des Orest in Elektra and cover the role of Don Basilio in Il barbiere di Siviglia; and performing Beethoven Symphony No. 9 at the Grant Park Music Festival.
Other recent engagements have included his company debuts at The Atlanta Opera as Schaunard, at Opera Naples as Colline and Sprecher, at Palm Beach Opera as Bonzo, and covering Don Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Santa Fe Opera. Concert engagements have included Handel’s Messiah with Dayton Opera, Beethoven Symphony No. 9 and Penderecki’s Credo at the Oregon Bach Festival, Haydn’s Theresienmesse and Mozart’s Sparrow Mass with the New Choral Society, and Bach’s Cantata BWV 140 in Seoul.
Mr. Han was the Grand Finalist in the 2021 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, 3rd prize & Audience Choice award winner at the 2022 Houston Grand Opera Eleanor McCollum Competition, 2nd prize winner at the 2024 Dallas Opera National Competition, 1st prize winner at the 2022 Vero Beach Opera Rising Stars, 3rd prize winner at the 2022 Giulio Gari International Competition, Encouragement Award winner at the 2022 Loren L. Zachary Competition and 2021 Stephen De Maio Memorial Award winner at the Gerda Lissner Foundation.
He earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Seoul National University and his Master of Music degree from the Mannes School of Music, and studied at The Juilliard School in the Artist Diploma in Opera Studies program. He was also an Apprentice Artist at the Santa Fe Opera in the summer of 2022.
