From: Seoul, South Korea. LA Opera: Roberto Devereux (2020, debut).

Eun Sun Kim is the Music Director Designate of San Francisco Opera, where she will become Music Director in August 2021. Her presence in North America was first established with performances of Verdi’s Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony and La Traviata with Houston Grand Opera, with the latter earning her an appointment as the company’s first Principal Guest Conductor in 25 years.

In the 2019/20 Season, Ms. Kim leads concerts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, L’orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille and the symphony orchestras of San Diego, Cincinnati, Oregon and Seattle. She continues a series of important operatic debuts with the company premiere of Roberto Devereux at LA Opera and The Magic Flute with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center, and leads Salome in her triumphant return to Houston Grand Opera, where The New York Times pronounced her “a major star … with great sensitivity and flexibility.” Major upcoming debuts include subscription concerts with the New York Philharmonic and productions with the Wiener Staatsoper, Lyric Opera of Chicago and Metropolitan Opera.

In addition to her growing North American presence, Ms. Kim is a regular guest conductor at many important European opera houses. She maintains a particularly close connection with the Berlin Staatsoper, where she has recently conducted successful productions of La Traviata, Ariadne auf Naxos, Madama Butterfly, Un Ballo in Maschera, and Il Trovatore. She has appeared consistently at opera houses across Germany, leading productions of Hänsel und Gretel at Bayerische Staatsoper, Madama Butterfly at Staatsoper Stuttgart, Rigoletto at Semperoper Dresden, and a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor at Oper Köln. She has been frequently engaged by Oper Frankfurt, where she celebrated successes with La Sonnambula, The Count of Luxembourg, La Bohème, Die Csárdásfürstin, and Der fliegende Höllander.

Ms. Kim established herself in Scandinavia with a successful debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Madama Butterfly, returning there to conduct Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Her performances of Il Trovatore at Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, Carmen in Oslo, and Madama Butterfly and Der fliegende Höllander in Bergen have been complemented by concert appearances with Gothenburg Symphony and Norwegian Radio Orchestra, as well as orchestras in Malmö, Umeå and Aarhus.

Learn more at EunSunKim.com.

In the 2017/18 season, she conducted Carmen at the Zurich Opera, Rigoletto at Dresden’s Semperoper, and La Sonnambula at the Frankfurt opera, where she had previously celebrated successes with The Count of Luxembourg, The Flying Dutchman, La Bohème, and The Csárdás Princess. Prior to that she made her debut at the Cologne Opera with a new production of Lucia di Lammermoor, and she established herself in Scandinavia with her highly successful debut at the Royal Swedish Opera in Madama Butterfly, and her return to that house in autumn 2016 to conduct The Barber of Seville. In Oslo she has conducted Carmen, and in Bergen Madama Butterfly and The Flying Dutchman. Her concert activities in Scandinavia have led her to Oslo, Gothenburg, Malmö, Umeå, and Aarhus.

Eun Sun Kim’s international breakthrough came in 2012 with her celebrated debut in the Frankfurt Opera’s production of La Bohème. Following that she debuted at the English National Opera in 2013 on a new production of Die Fledermaus, after which she conducted several concerts in Nancy, Palermo, Turin, and Bonn. She further conducted Carmen at the Vienna Volksoper, followed by La Traviata, Hansel and Gretel and Die Fledermaus, as well as a further La Traviata in Marseille, where she has also been invited for symphonic concerts. In 2014, she conducted a new production of Tosca at the Macerata Opera Festival.

Earlier in her career, she made 2010 debuts at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, and at the Teatro Real with with Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims. In the following season she made her successful debut at the Graz Opera with La Bohème.

Eun Sun Kim studied composition and conducting in her hometown of Seoul, before continuing her studies in Stuttgart where she graduated with distinction. Directly after completing her studies, she was awarded the First Prize in the “International Jesús López Cobos Opera Conducting Competition.”

(EunSunKim.com)