Tenor Seil Kim moved to Europe when he attended Seoul Arts High School. He learned at Conservatorio di musica S. Cecilia in Roma, Conservatoire de musique de Genève, Zurich University of the Arts in Switzerland, and Opera Studio Nederland and studied under the world-famous tenors Nicolai Gedda and Franco Corelli. Starting with the second prize in the Maria Callas Competition in Athens, he participated in famed international competitions and received numerous prizes, for instance, the winner of the Zurich Kiwanis Lied Duo Competition, third prize in Das Lied Competition, second prize in the Osaka Schubert Competition, Lied-Prize in the International Vocal Competition (IVC) in the Netherlands, and the best vocal performance prize at the Verbier Festival Academy in Switzerland.
Currently residing in Amsterdam, he is highly active in various genres such as oratorio, opera, lieder, and so on. He crosses the borders of music stages of world-renowned organizations in Europe and Asia, including The Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Musikverein Vienna, Baden-baden Festspielhaus, Berlin Staatoper, Zurich Tonhalle, Tokyo Suntory Hall, and Seoul Arts Center, as well as world-famous Summer Festivals, such as Verbier Festival in Switzerland, Ravinia Festival in the USA and Bach Festival of Leipzig in Germany.
Seil's careers in oratorio stages are outstanding. The role of Evangelist (the evangelist or author of the Gospel) in Bach's
, called the essence of Oratorio, has a special meaning. 'Evangelist' is a role that corresponds to a narrator who demands the correct delivery of pronunciation and a godly and delicate tone. Recently, Seil was invited by Camerata Vocale Freiburg and Kammerorchester Basel to perform a tenor solo in Bach’s and made a big splash as a tenor solo in Handel’s with Bach Collegium Japan led by Masaaki Suzuki. In particular, in Korea, his tenor Solo has been successfully performed in the National Chorus of Korea's for years and draws several thousands of audiences to his stages at the end of every year.
With his refined stage presence, Seil also presents extremely high standards of Lieder recitals around the world. With the planning and invitation of the Antwerpen deSingel Concert House in Belgium, he held a recital with Rudolf Jansen, a world-renowned music accompanist. Seil's career continues with various cannons such as , , and along with the finest pianists from home and abroad, including Helmuth Deutsch, Minsoo Sohn, Yekwon Sunwoo, Julius-Jungwon Kim, and William Youn who are also known for their diverse performances.
Seil rose to fame as 'Orfeo' based on the Greek Myth Character Orpheus who was the biggest inspiration among the Baroque opera composers. He achieved great success to perform the role Orphée in M.-A. Charpentier's opera at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Orpheus in Gluck's , Orfeo in Monteverdi's which was premiered in Korea with the production of Seoul Metropolitan Opera. Seil was highly praised for his role as Prince Tamino in Mozart's opera produced by Seoul Arts Center, and Don Ottavio in of Korea National Opera.
He was selected as the Next Generation Artist by Arts Council Korea in 2011 and 2012. For his domestic fans, he accepted other roles. He hosted EBS radio program Classic Drive and performed as the host and performer of the Goyang Aramnuri Matinee Concert and the Suseong Artpia Tuesday Morning Concert series in Daegu, and proved his excellent ability as a host.
Seil released five albums until now, including organized by KBS Classic FM Radio, and along with pianist Rudolf Jansen, recorded with Collegium Vocale Seoul.
In 2020, Seil released his new solo album, Schumann's recorded with Markus Hadulla, a professor at University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and professional accompanist, on the SONY Classic label.
Seil Kim has been working on training the junior artists since March 2018 at Kangwon National University (KNU) and also he has been serving as a vice dean of Art, Culture and Engineering department of KNU since 2022.
photo by Jono Park