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
Korean bassist Kwangchul Youn is one of the leading international singers in his field. He will be performing with the orchestra in the 2026/27 season. Opéra national de Paris He can be seen as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni and as Fasolt in Wagner's Das Rheingold . He will also perform the same role at the San Francisco Opera. Further engagements will take him to the stage as the King. Marke in Tristan and Isolde at the Vienna State Opera and in Paris, where he sang the role concert version He will perform Beethoven's 9th Symphony under the direction of Jaap van Zweden. He will sing it with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in several concerts in Japan.
Wagner and Verdi form the artistic core of this exceptional bass. Kwangchul Youn has performed at all the major international opera houses – including Vienna, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, London, Barcelona, Milan, Turin, New York, Chicago, Houston, and Paris. He has also appeared at the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, the Salzburg and Baden-Baden Easter Festivals, and the Tongyeong Festival.
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Among the most important engagements of past seasons is King Marke in Tristan und Isolde and Gurnemanz in Parsifal at the San Francisco Opera, Fasolt in the new production of Wagner's Das Rheinhold at the Opéra national de Paris Heinrich der Vogler in Lohengrin at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, as well as Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, Fafner and Hunding in Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung at the Vienna State Opera, and Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Los Angeles Opera. Other highlights of his international career include Gurnemanz and König Heinrich in new productions at the Opéra national de Paris , Comte des Grieux in Manon at the Metropolitan Opera New York, Abimélech in the new production of Samson et Dalila at the BERLIN STATE OPERA Under the direction of Daniel Barenboim, he sang Ramfis in Aida at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona, Daland in the new production of The Flying Dutchman , and the Landgrave in Tannhäuser at the Hamburg State Opera. Sarastro has also been one of his most internationally successful roles for many years.
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 productions document his long career. These include 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 again under Bertrand de Billy (Arte Nova) and Daphne under Semyon Bychkov (Decca).
2026/27
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