Kim, Eun Sun

(Seoul, South Korea)

San Francisco Opera Highlights: Conductor, Rusalka; Fidelio; Tosca; John Adams’ Antony and Cleopatra; Dialogues of the Carmelites; La Traviata; Madame Butterfly; Il Trovatore; Lohengrin; The Magic Flute; Homecoming Concert; Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi; The Future Is Now: Adler Fellows Concert; Opera Ball; Opera in the Park; 100th Anniversary Concert

Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim is the Caroline H. Hume Music Director of San Francisco Opera, where she began her tenure in 2021. She is a regular guest conductor at the world’s most important opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Vienna State Opera, Munich's Bavarian State Opera, Semperoper Dresden, Berlin State Opera and Milan's Teatro alla Scala. On the heels of Ms. Kim’s Met debut, The New York Times recognized her as Classical Music’s Breakout Star.

In the 24-25 Season, Ms. Kim makes her much-anticipated Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut with performances of Tosca, before returning to Berlin State Opera for Simon Boccanegra. Further appearances this season include return engagements with Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

Ms. Kim’s major orchestral engagements include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic. She has also conducted European orchestras in Barcelona, Bonn, Madrid, Malmö, Marseille, Milan, Lille, London, Nancy, Oslo, Palermo, Stuttgart, and Santiago de Compostela. In North America, her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic was quickly followed by engagements with the Philadelphia Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Toronto Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, where the Business Courier hailed her as “impeccable…a dynamic presence, illuminating details of the score with clarity and expressive power.” Her collaboration with the National Brass Ensemble, including a new arrangement of Wagner’s Ring cycle, was released by Pentatone on the album Deified.

With a growing North American presence, she has enjoyed operatic successes at Lyric Opera of Chicago, Los Angeles Opera, Washington National Opera, and Houston Grand Opera, where her debut earned her an appointment as the company’s first Principal Guest Conductor in twenty-five years.

Ms. Kim maintains close connections in Europe, where she has recently conducted La Bohème at Teatro alla Scala and Vienna State OPera, Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Paris Opera, a staged Verdi Requiem with Dutch National Opera, Carmen at Zürich Opera, and Hänsel und Gretel at the Bavarian State Opera. She has been frequently engaged by Berlin State Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and Royal Danish Opera, and has celebrated successes in such varied repertoire as Ariadne auf Naxos, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, La Bohème, Die Csárdásfürstin, The Count of Luxembourg, Der Fliegende Holländer, Madama Butterfly, Un Ballo in Maschera, La Sonnambula, La Traviata, and Il Trovatore.

Ms. Kim studied composition and conducting in her hometown of Seoul, South Korea, before continuing her studies in Stuttgart, where she graduated with distinction. Directly after graduation, she was awarded the First Prize in the International Jesús López Cobos Opera Conducting Competition at the Teatro Real Madrid.