Acclaimed Korean Opera star Hera Hyesang Park will closes out Manchester Song Festival 2024 with a blend of Korean art songs and operatic classics.
ABOUT HERA HYESANG PARK
Hailed by The New York Times for her “bright, clear voice and impressive coloratura technique,” Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park is attracting the attention of opera houses and concert houses worldwide.
In the 2022-23 season, Hyesang returns to Opéra National de Paris for Despina Cosí fan tutte and looks forward to reprising her signature role of Rosina il barbiere di Siviglia at Seoul City Opera before returning to Korean National Opera for Violetta La Traviata. In concert, Hyesang will sing the celebrated Christmas concerts of Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, makes her debut with London Philharmonic Orchestra in Mozart’s Great Mass in C with Edward Gardner and gives solo recitals at Milton Court London, Stoller Hall Manchester, Wells Cathedral School and across Mexico.
In recent seasons, Hyesang has made a series of prestigious house and role debuts, including Adina L’elisir d’amore at the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin; Despina at the Bayerische Staatsoper; Rosina and Despina at Glyndebourne Festival; Musetta La bohème at Komische Oper Berlin; Juliette Roméo et Julliette at Korean National Opera and Pamina Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires. On the concert platform, some of Hyesang’s notable appearances include performances with New York Philharmonic; Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Carnegie Hall; Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Naples Philharmonic and San Diego Symphony; Galatea Acis and Galatea in Tanglewood and Caramoor Festivals with Philharmonia Baroque; Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Seoul Philharmonic as well as recitals at Vocal Arts DC, Alice Tully Hall, Friends of Chamber Music Miami, Montreal’s Bourgie Hall, and Madrid’s Auditorio Nacional de Musica.
As a participant of the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist program, Hyesang made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the First Sprite in a new production of Rusalka conducted by Sir Mark Elder. She went on to sing Barbarina Le nozze di Figaro conducted by Harry Bicket and the Dew Fairy Hansel & Gretel conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. Her special relationship with the Met has since continued, returning as a regular guest for Amore Orfeo ed Euridice, Pamina Die Zauberflöte, and most recently as Nanetta Falstaff in the 2022-23 season.
Hyesang holds an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies from The Juilliard School, graduating in 2017, during where she performed Amina La Sonnambula and Fiorilla Il Turco in Italia, for which Opera News magazine remarked, “Her solid, refined fioritura delivery was matched by glamour, temperament and, above all, an ability to put bel canto splendor to expressive use.” Before moving to the United States, Hyesang made her professional opera debut as Violetta with Korea National Opera and prior to that, earned her Bachelor of Music Degree in Vocal Performance from Seoul National University.
Hera Hyesang Park’s honours and awards include first prize in the April 2016 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Competition, second prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 Montreal International Musical Competition, winning second place overall in the women’s division in Placido Domingo’s 2015 International Operalia competition, as well as taking First Prize in the women’s Zarzuela. Earlier awards include Fifth Place in the 2014 Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition, First Place at both the 2010 Korea National Opera and Sejong Center for the Performing Arts competitions, and Korea’s Minister for Culture Prize.
An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon recording artist, Hyesang’s debut album I am Hera with the Wiener Symphoniker and Bertrand de Billy was released in November 2020 to enormous critical acclaim.
