Kwangchul Youn
Hamburg State Opera - Parsifal
Youn's attractive, powerful bass voice was used for a sympathetic portrayal of the king, conveying Marke's feelings of shame resulting from the love affair between his bride-to-be and his most trusted knight .
seenandheard.com (April 28, 2025)Season 25/26 and Highlights
SAN FRANCISCO OPERA
Wagner - Parsifal - Gurnemanz
PREMIERE Oct 25
Oct 28, Nov 2/7/13
SANTA CECILIA IN HONG KONG
Wagner - Walküre - Act 1 Walküre concert version - Hunding
Nov 21
FESTSPIELHAUS BADEN-BADEN
Wagner - Lohengrin - König Heinrich
PREMIERE March 28
March 31, April 5
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VIENNA STATE OPERA
Verdi - Simone Boccanegra - Fiesco
Apr 16/19/21/24
LOS ANGELES OPERA
Mozart - Magic Flute - Sarastro
PREMIERE May 30
June 6/11/14/17/21
ORCHESTRA PHILHARMONIQUE DE RADIO FRANCE
Wagner - Tristan and Isolde - Marke
July 11 (Montpellier)
Biography
The Korean bass Kwangchul Youn is among the world’s leading singers of his voice type.
In the 2025/26 season, he will appear as Gurnemanz in Parsifal at the San Francisco Opera, as King Heinrich in Lohengrin at the Baden-Baden Festival, as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra at the Vienna State Opera, and as Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Los Angeles Opera.
Wagner and Verdi form the artistic core of this exceptional bass. Kwangchul Youn has appeared at all of the world’s major opera houses — including Vienna, Berlin, London, Milan, New York, and Paris — as well as at the Salzburg and Bayreuth Festivals. Since 2018, he has held the honorary title of Berliner Kammersänger.
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In the 2024/25 season, Kwangchul Youn performed as King Marke (Tristan und Isolde) at the San Francisco Opera. At the Opéra de Paris, he sang Fasolt in a new production of Das Rheingold. He returned to the Vienna State Opera as Fafner and Hunding in Der Ring des Nibelungen, and appeared as Gurnemanz (Parsifal) at the Hamburg State Opera — one of his signature roles.
In recent years, this distinguished bass has performed at nearly all major opera houses across Europe and the United States, including Vienna, London, Berlin, Milan, Munich, Dresden, Paris, Barcelona, Turin, New York, Chicago, and Houston. He has also appeared at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, the Salzburg Easter Festival, and the Tongyeong Festival. Highlights of past seasons include Gurnemanz and King Heinrich in new productions at the Opéra de Paris, Gurnemanz at the Vienna State Opera, Comte des Grieux (Manon) at the Metropolitan Opera, Abimélech in a new Samson et Dalila at the Berlin State Opera under Daniel Barenboim, Ramfis (Aida) at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Daland in a new Flying Dutchman, and the Landgrave (Tannhäuser) at the Hamburg State Opera. He is also an internationally sought-after interpreter of Sarastro, most recently at the San Francisco Opera.
From 1993 to 2004, Kwangchul Youn was a member of the ensemble at the Berlin State Opera, where he developed many of the roles in his broad repertoire. In 2018, he was awarded the honorary title of Kammersänger. Wagner and Verdi remain at the center of his repertoire, which includes Gurnemanz, King Heinrich, Marke, Daland, and Pogner, as well as Rocco, Filippo, Fiesco, Ferrando, Banco, and Ramfis.
In addition to his extensive operatic career, Kwangchul Youn is a highly sought-after concert artist. He has appeared with major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, the RAI National Symphony Orchestra in Turin, and at the BBC Proms. He opened the 2019/20 season with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, marking Kirill Petrenko’s inaugural concert as Chief Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic.
Numerous CD recordings document his distinguished career, including Hasse’s Croesus under René Jacobs (harmonia mundi); Le Nozze di Figaro, Così fan tutte, and Don Giovanni under Bertrand de Billy (Arte Nova); Fidelio and Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg from the Bayreuth Festival under Daniel Barenboim (Warner Classics); Tiefland under Bertrand de Billy (Arte Nova); and Daphne under Semyon Bychkov (Decca).
2025/26
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