Hahn Dae-soo

Hahn Dae-soo (; born March 12, 1948) is a South Korean folk rock singer-songwriter.

Early life

Han Dae-soo was born in Busan, South Korea in 1948. His grandfather was Han Yeong-gyo, a prominent theologian in South Korea, who founded Yonsei University with Horace Grant Underwood. When Hahn was 100 days old, his father Hahn Chang-suk, who was attending Seoul National University, left for Cornell University in the United States to study nuclear physics. His father disappeared while studying nuclear physics, and his mother remarried seven years later. Hahn was raised by his grandparents, and attended elementary school in Busan until he was ten. In 1958, he and his grandparents moved to New York, where he spent the next four years at PS 125 Elementary School in Harlem. He then returned to Busan for his third year of middle school and first year of high school. During this time, his grandfather continued to search for his son in the United States, and when Hahn was 17, the FBI found Hahn's father on Long Island, New York. His father had a large local printing business with an American wife and a new family, and had completely forgotten the Korean language. While living there, Hahn studied photography during the day and worked as a cook's assistant at night.

In New York, he formed a post-punk rock band called Genghis Khan and performed at CBGB. Although the band never released an album, some of their recordings were later included on the 13th CD of The Box (2005). They gained some popularity through performances at CBGB and Trude Heller's but soon disbanded. Hahn continued his career as a photographer until 1989.

In 1989, the producer of his first album contacted him, and they began working on Hahn's third album, Infinity (1989). Although the album was critically acclaimed, it did not become a hit on the South Korean charts. In 1990, he released his fourth album, Loss of Memory, with jazz guitarist Jack Lee. in 1991, with pianist Lee Woo-chang and his brother Jack Lee, Hahn released his fifth album, Angels' Talkin'''.

In 1997, his rock festival performance in Fukuoka, Japan, was released on CD. In 1999, he released his seventh album, Age of Reason, Age of Treason, in New York, and in 2000, he formed a band in Korea with Lee Woo-chang and to release Eternal Sorrow. He later released albums such as Source of Trouble (2002) and The Hurt (2004). In July 2021, he performed at the Lincoln Center in New York under the title "You Are Here." In 2024, he released his 15th album, Blue Skies White Clouds''.

Personal life

Seventeen years later, Hahn's father was found in New York by the FBI after his disappearance. Over time, he recognized his former family but could not remember the Korean language. At the time of his discovery, Hahn's father was married to an Italian-American woman with nine children and was running a large printing business, though people around him did not understand how he had come to start the business.

In 1969, Hahn married Kim Myeong-shin, a fashion and visual director, but they divorced 20 years later. In 1992, while searching for an apartment in Brooklyn, Hahn met Oxana, a Russian-American 22 years his junior who worked in New York's financial sector. They married immediately, and in 2007, they had a daughter. The couple briefly settled in Seoul, but returned to New York after their daughter struggled to adjust to the South Korean public education system. Oxana battled alcohol dependence throughout her life and died in 2024.

Discography