Forestella is a South Korean crossover group made up of four male vocalists with very different musical backgrounds, including classical singing, musical theater, pop, and rock. The group officially debuted in 2018 and consists of Bae Doo Hoon, Kang Hyung Ho, Cho Min Kyu, and Ko Woo Rim.
Crossover music moves between classical vocal technique and popular genres such as pop, rock, and musical theater. One of Forestella’s greatest strengths is the way four very different timbres and vocal ranges are combined into a single harmony. Their 2020 performance of “Nella Fantasia” on KBS’s Open Concert is one of the clearest introductions to that identity.
Media & Copyright Note: This article features an official YouTube video embedded through the YouTube player. K-POP CHRONICLES does not host or re-upload the video or audio. Full lyrics are not reproduced; the song’s meaning and emotions are explained through original editorial commentary and summary.
“Nella Fantasia,” a Melody Born from Film
The melody of “Nella Fantasia” began with “Gabriel’s Oboe,” composed by Ennio Morricone for the 1986 film The Mission.
It was originally an instrumental piece. Sarah Brightman later wanted to turn the melody into a song, and with Morricone’s permission, Chiara Ferraù wrote Italian lyrics for it. Brightman released “Nella Fantasia” on her 1998 album Eden.
The song expresses an idealized vision of peace, freedom, justice, and a better world.
Because “Nella Fantasia” is already widely known within the international crossover repertoire, the more interesting question in Forestella’s performance is how four different voices reconstruct such a familiar melody.
Four Vocalists with Very Different Identities
One of the best ways to understand Forestella is to listen to each member individually first.
They are not four singers built around the same vocal style.
Each member has a different background, timbre, and range, and the group preserves those differences when they sing together.
Cho Min Kyu — Classical Tenor
Cho Min Kyu is a tenor with a background in classical singing.
His voice is characterized by clear high notes, precise diction, and stable classical technique. When he carries the main melody, his tone comes through with strong definition and provides one of Forestella’s clearest connections to traditional classical vocal music.
In a song like “Nella Fantasia,” built around long, flowing melodic lines, his tenor helps maintain the classical center of the performance.
Ko Woo Rim — Deep Bass
Ko Woo Rim is a classical bass.
His most recognizable feature is an especially deep and solid lower register. His voice creates the foundation on which the other parts can rest.
As the other members move into the middle and upper ranges, Ko Woo Rim keeps weight in the lower part of the harmony, helping Forestella’s overall sound retain depth and breadth.
In “Nella Fantasia,” his low notes function as the sonic foundation of the performance.
Bae Doo Hoon — Between Musical Theater and Pop
Bae Doo Hoon has experience as a musical actor and pop vocalist.
His singing is more flexible and natural than that of a strictly classical voice, and his approach to lyrics and emotional delivery has a stronger connection to popular music.
Within Forestella, that quality allows him to connect the group’s classical sound with pop.
While Cho Min Kyu and Ko Woo Rim provide much of the group’s classically rooted foundation, Bae Doo Hoon helps balance the ensemble and keeps the sound from leaning entirely toward an operatic style.
Kang Hyung Ho — An Exceptionally Wide Vocal Spectrum
Kang Hyung Ho has one of the most distinctive vocal colors in Forestella.
He can move from the tenor register into extremely high soprano territory, while also using the powerful texture of a rock voice.
His high notes do not sound fragile or lightweight. Even in extreme registers, they retain a strong presence, creating a particularly striking contrast with Ko Woo Rim’s low bass.
That distance between the two extremes is one reason Forestella can create a much wider vocal spectrum than a conventional male quartet.
Forestella’s Sound Emerges When the Four Voices Meet
Individually, Cho Min Kyu brings the classical tenor, Ko Woo Rim the bass, Bae Doo Hoon a musical-theater and pop sensibility, and Kang Hyung Ho an unusual combination of very high registers and rock energy.
Forestella keeps those differences intact.
Cho Min Kyu’s clear tenor can carry the melody while Ko Woo Rim occupies the lower range. Bae Doo Hoon connects the middle with a more pop-oriented sensibility, and Kang Hyung Ho expands the upper end of the vocal spectrum.
When those four areas overlap, they create a much broader sonic space than a conventional male vocal group.
“Nella Fantasia” makes that structure especially easy to hear.
Instead of keeping one singer at the center throughout the piece, the four members divide the lines between them, and at certain moments their different registers overlap, greatly expanding the scale of the song.
For listeners hearing Forestella for the first time, it can be useful to identify each voice separately at first, then listen for the way all four eventually merge into a single harmony.
From a Solo Soprano to a Four-Voice Ensemble
Sarah Brightman’s version is built around a single soprano carrying the song.
Forestella transforms that structure into a four-voice ensemble.
Low, middle, and high registers are distributed among the members, while melody and harmony continue to shift throughout the performance.
Ko Woo Rim’s deep bass and Kang Hyung Ho’s extremely high register define the two ends of the spectrum, while Cho Min Kyu and Bae Doo Hoon occupy and connect the space between them.
The result gives a familiar melody a very different sense of space from the solo version.
The key to this interpretation is hearing how four voices occupy different areas and eventually form one unified sound.
Between Classical Music and Pop
Forestella does not fit completely into either a traditional classical vocal group or a conventional K-pop vocal group.
Their music uses classical techniques and harmonies, but their repertoire moves freely between pop, rock, film music, and musical theater.
“Nella Fantasia” fits especially well within that crossover approach.
Its origin lies in a film score, Sarah Brightman transformed it into a classical crossover vocal piece, and Forestella reshaped it again as an arrangement for four male voices.
The same melody has moved from an instrumental work to a soprano song and then to a crossover ensemble performance.
Live on Open Concert
This video comes from a performance broadcast on May 24, 2020, on KBS 1TV’s Open Concert.
Open Concert is a long-running Korean music program that presents live performances by artists from a wide range of genres, including classical music, pop, and crossover.
Because the program is not centered on competition or elaborate choreography, the focus in this performance falls naturally on the voices and harmonies.
Forestella continued performing “Nella Fantasia” after this broadcast. The group later held a concert series under the same name and officially released the song in 2021.
That shows that the piece became an important part of Forestella’s crossover repertoire rather than remaining a one-time broadcast cover.
Another Side of Korean Vocal Music
When Korean music reaches international audiences, the first image is often idol groups and K-pop.
Forestella represents a different direction within Korean vocal music.
Here, the performance is built around vocal range, harmony, arrangement, and the interaction of four distinct voices.
“Nella Fantasia” makes it especially clear how those individual differences become a single group identity.
This performance of an already familiar crossover piece also serves as a direct introduction to Forestella’s vocal structure and musical appeal.
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