Jo Mingyu South Korean Singer Born 1990 in Taebaek

Early life

Jo Mingyu, whose name is also romanised as Cho Minkyu, was born on 19 November 1990 in Taebaek, South Korea. His mother worked as a kindergarten teacher and his father taught at a technical high school in the town. His mother had wanted to become a singer herself and encouraged both of her children to study music. His older sister learned piano, and he started voice training at a young age. The family moved to Chuncheon in 1998. After his sister stopped playing the piano in 2004, his mother focused on his musical training, which he later described as a turning point in his life.

He entered Seoul Arts High School in 2006 and finished there in 2009. He then went on to Seoul National University, where he studied vocal music and later completed a master's degree. In 2013 he chose to continue into the university's graduate programme, working under the opera singer and professor Kwangchul Youn. He also gave singing lessons in the university dormitory and began working with the Seoul Metropolitan Opera.

Career

While still a student he entered numerous singing competitions, reaching the semi-final, final or winning stage in several of them. In 2011 he became the youngest finalist in the DongA Music Competition, and that year he also provided the singing voice for the actor Lee David in the war film The Front Line. Not every contest went well. He failed to win several, received sharp criticism, and for a time felt unsure about his future.

In 2015 he was a semi-finalist at the Montreal International Musical Competition, after which he carried out his compulsory military service as a conscripted policeman. At the Geneva International Music Competition in 2016 he was told that his light leggero tenor would make it hard to win leading roles in opera. He considered giving up singing until he saw the first season of the television talent show Phantom Singer and decided to enter the second. He reasoned that crossover music might suit his voice better than opera.

On that programme he picked his own team members. He chose Ko Woo-rim for the second round and trained him, then added Bae Doo-hoon in the third round to broaden the group's character, and Kang Hyung-ho joined the team for the final. Because he weighed each singer's timbre against his own before choosing, he was nicknamed "Strategist". The experience led to the crossover vocal group Forestella, in which he serves as leader and leggero tenor.

Alongside the group he has recorded as a soloist. His first solo single, "Sinsegye: New Age", came out in February 2020. In December 2021 he released his first mini-album, Sinsegye: Parana, and followed it with a two-day solo concert in Seoul. His music is classified under classical and crossover.

Public roles

Jo is a member of Forestella, the group formed out of Phantom Singer 2. He describes his own voice as a leggero tenor. During his audition for the show, the composer and producer Yoon Sang called it the most unique voice he had heard among tenors, the singer Bada described it as attractive, and the musical director Kim Mun-jeong used the word refreshing about his tone. His official YouTube channel had about 72,200 subscribers as of February 2025.