Some of you may be wondering who I am and why I developed (with my mom) this web page.  Here it is:

My name's Kira. I was born in Seoul, South Korea, on December 22, 1988. I'm 18 years old now (2007) and I was adopted when I was six months old by one of the best mom's ever.  I have an older sister, Stephanie.

I live in the United States.  I have three cats and two dogs.  I just graduated from high school and am taking some time off to enjoy life before I start at a university.  I am not sure yet what I am going to study, but will try to continue with my dancing.          

I used to play piano and was pretty good at it. I want to continue but seem to have no time.      

When I'm not dancing or helping my mother plan our next trip, I'm pretty normal. 

Now for my mom.  Like I said, she helps A LOT with this web site; sometimes she does a lot more on it than I do, because of my school obligations.  When she found out I wanted to do a fan page for Mr. Cura, she was really supportive.  She knew this was something that I could really commit to besides school, dance and music--and it was something we could do together.  And, of course, she's the one who makes it easy for me to travel around the world to see Mr. Cura perform.  I guess you can say my mom pretty much spoils me rotten, but I love her for it.   

I first heard Mr. Cura's voice when Mom brought home a CD by Sarah Brightman (Time To Say Goodbye). Mr. Cura had two duets with Ms. Brightman.  When we heard his voice, we all fell in love with the sound of it but we had no idea who the tenor was.  At first we thought he was a Spanish pop star!  Then we found Puccini Arias and figured out that the voice belonged to one of the greatest musical talents in opera.  When we found out Mr. Cura was coming to The Washington Opera to star in Otello in March 2000, we set out to see him:  it was the first of our many great adventures.     

I still can't believe how nervous I was! On the night of my first live performance ever of an opera, one of my mom's friends had to shove me right into Mr. Cura!  I had to say something because he was standing right there starring down at me.  Once I finally started talking I realized I really didn't need to be nervous.  Mr. Cura turned out to be a very nice man.  I could tell he was a performer who really cared about the people who support him.

Months later, when I waited at the artist's entrance at Royal Albert Hall for him to wish him luck in his concert, he remembered me.  He made time to talk for a few minutes even though he had arrived late for rehearsal and people were pulling on his arm to get him backstage.  

When we went to a luncheon organized by his official fan club he was still a kind as he was when I first met him in Washington.  By then I had figured out that José Cura really wanted nothing more that to be true to his art and make people feel the emotions in the music he performs. 

I'm not nervous when I meet him now.  It's fun.  Even when he is tired and hungry and doesn't have much time, he still has makes time to say a few words and give me a hug.  

In December 2000, my mom and I went to Madrid to see Mr. Cura star as Manrico in the opera 'Il Trovatore.'  It was magnificent! In April 2001 we went to London to see the ROH production of Otello (unbelievable!).

We traveled to Europe in July 2001.  When we were there, we saw Mr. Cura in concert (AWESOME!) and watched him in the title role of Don Carlo in Zurich (Unforgettable!)  Since then, we have returned to England to see him in the ROH production of Il Trov and and back to Zurich for yet another Otello, to Austria for Tosca and Hérodiade, and on to Hamburg to see him conduct Cavalleria rusticana and perform in Pag.  We also went to Verona to see him in Turandot, Carmen, and La Trav, and took in two great concerts in Germany. 

Because of Mr. Cura, I've spent time in my country's capital, visited  England, Spain, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Italy.  My mom always takes time to drag me to museums and other historical sites in the place where we are.  She tries very hard to make each trip educational, but we are really most interested in watching Mr. Cura perform.

I've also learned how to become very patient.  We've had our luggage lost for days, sat in hot planes on airport tarmacs for hours, missed connections, raced through airports, gotten lost more times than I can remember, and tried to communicate with people in lots of different languages.  

Best of all, we've met lots of nice people.  

That's all I guess.   Hugz.