Young Woo Kim

The Korean tenor Young Woo Kim began his vocal studies at the Chugye University for the Arts with a scholarship. Since then, he has been honoured with several international prizes, including the Irene Sandford Competition Award from the Royal Irish Academy of Music. From 2016 to 2018, he was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Cologne Opera, where he already appeared in roles including Toniolo in Gassmann's ‘Gli uccellatori’ (‘Die Vogelfänger’), the Young Man in Schreker's ‘Die Gezeichneten’ and Gastone in ‘La Traviata’. He also sang the role of the Second Young Officer in Bernd Alois Zimmermann's ‘Die Soldaten’.
At the beginning of the 2018.19 season, he joined the permanent ensemble at Cologne Opera. The roles he has since performed at Cologne Opera include Fenton in Verdi's ‘Falstaff’, Hoffmann in ‘Hoffmann's Tales for Children’, Daniel Buchanan in Kurt Weill's ‘Street Scene’, Mambre in Rossini's ‘Mosè in Egitto’, Sou-Chong in ‘The Land of the (in concert), A Shepherd in ‘Tristan and Isolde’, Don José in ‘Carmen’, the title role in Gounod's ‘Faust’, 1st Armoured Man in ‘The Magic Flute’, Siegmund in ‘The Valkyrie for Young and Old’, and Hoffegut in ‘The Birds’. In December 2021, he was awarded the Offenbach Prize by the Verein Freunde der Kölner Oper e.V. for his outstanding artistic achievements. In April 2022, he also appeared as Siegmund in ‘Die Walküre für Jung und Alt’ as part of the Cologne Opera's tour of South Korea.
Most recently, he sang the tenor part in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Dortmund, Erik in ‘The Flying Dutchman’ at the Cologne Opera and at the Felsenbühne Sachsen, Radames in ‘Aida’ at the Bielefeld Theatre, Bacchus in ‘Ariadne auf Naxos’ at the G arsington Opera Festival, Cavaradossi in ‘Tosca’ at the Hamburg State Opera, at the Cologne Opera, at the Sydney Opera House and in Melbourne, as well as at the Opera North in England in 2024, Don José in ‘Carmen’ at the Hanover State Opera and the title role in ‘Faust’ at the Cologne Opera. In the 2024–25 season, Radames in Aida is on the programme at Frankfurt Opera, as well as Ismaele in Nabucco and Don José in Carmen in Cologne.