Hak Soo Kim
Tenor

Korean-American tenor Hak Soo Kim recently made his role debut as Belmonte in Die Entfrührung aus dem Serail at West Bay Opera this fall.  After an impressive career as a head sommelier of two three-Michelin-star restaurants in New York City, Per Se of Chef Thomas Keller as well as Jung Sik, he returned to the stage last year to reprise the role of Count Almaviva at Sarasota Opera, which he sang at the company in 2014 as well as at Los Angeles Opera, Opera Southwest, Opera New Jersey.  In October of 2024, he made his role debut, singing Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly at Opera Southwest.  

Garnering high remarks both in Europe and America for his interpretation of the Bel Canto repertoire, Mr. Kim made his European debut as Conte Libenskof (Il Viaggio a Reims) at the Festival Giovane of Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, where he collaborated with late Maestro Alberto Zedda.  Between 2016 and 2017 season, Mr. Kim performed three more Bel Canto roles, Lindoro (L’italiana in Algeri) and Ernesto (Don Pasquale) at Sarasota Opera as well as Narciso (Il Turco in Italia) at Opera Southwest.  Since 2012, he began expanding his repertoire to lyric genre with notable debuts in Verdi roles, singing the role of Duca di Mantova (Rigoletto) and Edoardo di Sanval (Un Giorno di Regno), of which he world-premiered the critical edition, in collaboration with Dr. Francesco Izzo at American Institute for Verdi Studies.  As a concert artist, he appeared in numerous concert venues such as Hollywood Bowl and Ravinia Festival under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, James Conlon and Plácido Domingo. 

Mr. Kim is a graduate of the Domingo-Thornton Young Artist Program at Los Angeles Opera and graduated from Northwestern University with a B.A. in German and wrote his thesis on German post-unification literature at Eberhard Karls Universität in Tübingen, Germany.