It's a concert from the heart
Oct 14 2010 by David Whetstone, The Journal
THE 21st North East Last Night of the Proms is coming up. DAVID WHETSTONE talks to one of the new singing stars in the line-up.
A North East red letter event which has raised over £1.3m for charity comes of age this weekend at Newcastle City Hall. Yes, it’s the 21st North East Last Night of the Proms.
Held annually in aid of cancer-related charities, and for the last few years in memory of founder George Walker, the concert invariably turns the City Hall red, white and blue.
Over the last two decades many truly great voices have been heard on Proms night.
In the early years Benjamin Luxon was the star turn. Janice Cairns has become a celebrated regular along with mezzo-soprano Suzanne Manuell.
Sir Thomas Allen and Graeme Danby have graced the stage and there have been appearances by young singers on the cusp of a great career. Many will remember Jonathan Lemalu, from New Zealand, going down a storm.
A regular for many years was Australian tenor Blake Fischer but his decision to switch his focus from opera to musicals means his services are now required elsewhere.
This meant that for organiser Rosalynde Walker, George’s hard-working widow, a replacement tenor had to be found.
Stepping into the breach on Saturday will be Korean tenor Jaewoo Kim. He will line up alongside Janice, Suzanne and baritone James Cleverton.
In fact, it was James, a Proms debutant in 2001 and present again last year, who secured his services. But it sounds as if Jaewoo was happy to oblige.
“I have been to Glasgow but never Newcastle,” he says. “But I’m really looking forward to it. Jim and I have done many concerts together and we are good mates.”
Jaewoo says the quality of his voice became apparent when he was about 12 back home in Korea.
“I realised I just had a better voice than other people around me because I auditioned for a church choir and I was the only boy selected out of about 20.”
As for pursuing music as a career, that was a bit of a problem. Although his parents had been choral singers, his father died when Jaewoo was five and his mother warned him that singing for a living would be very difficult.
