Biography — Soprano Hera Hyesang Park

“…her singing as Rossini’s determinedly provocative heroine Rosina is indeed phenomenal, especially as she started out to some eyes — well, my eyes — only acting like an alluring spitfire rather than actually being one.” Geoff Brown, The Times

With “brilliant tone” and “a sense of pure joy and excitement” (OperaWire), soprano Hera Hyesang Park is celebrated not only for her exquisite voice and stagecraft, but for the deeper ideas embodied in her work. Originally from South Korea and trained at The Juilliard School, she brings a cosmopolitan outlook to her music, combining her Korean roots and Western life experience in a style she describes as “traditional but uncommon”: open to learn from both classical and modern attitudes to life and art. Her lyric coloratura voice carries both immaculate technique and a seemingly infinite variety of tonal colors, combining in a fearless and captivating stage presence. Essential to her music is a powerful drive for empathy and understanding, rejecting discrimination and stereotypes of every kind. Live performance and recordings represent, for Park, an act of self-discovery and a means of heartfelt, emotionally honest connection with others.

In the early part of 2024, Park’s season highlights include the release of her second album, Breathe, released on Deutsche Grammophon on February 2. As a follow-up to her debut album I am Hera, the new recording celebrates courage in the face of life’s struggles, exploring how we survive and emerge victorious from our most difficult times. The album brings together operatic classics by Rossini, Verdi and Massenet with contemporary works by Luke Howard, Cecilia Livingston, Hyowon Woo and Bernat Vivancos. Park signed an exclusive agreement with Deutsche Grammophon in May 2020.

In conjunction with her Breathe release, Park performs repertoire from the album at 2024 Seoul Fashion Week and in recital at Seoul’s Lotte Concert Hall, both in February 2024. Her early 2024 highlights also include a gala concert with the New York Philharmonic, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, at David Geffen Hall. In June 2024, she sings the role of Despina in the Opera de Paris production of Così fan tutte. She performs recitals with pianist Andrés Sarre at the Palacio Municipal de Álamos, Mexico, and with pianist Bretton Brown for two dates in the UK: at London’s Barbican Centre and Manchester’s Stoller Hall. While in the UK, she also makes her debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Mo. Edward Gardner in Mozart’s Mass in C minor, and looks forward to a mini-residency at Cedars Hall, Somerset.

In the course of her fast-rising career, Park has taken the stage at venues from the Metropolitan Opera to Glyndebourne Festival. Her opera roles have included Rosina in the Glyndebourne Festival’s 2019 production of Il barbiere di Siviglia (a performance described by The Times of London as “phenomenal”) and Musetta in Barrie Kosky’s production of La bohème at the Komische Oper Berlin. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in 2017 as the First Wood Sprite in Rusalka and made successful returns as Amore in Mark Morris’s staging of Orfeo ed Euridice, Pamina in The Magic Flute and Nannetta in Falstaff. She sang the role of Violetta Valéry in the 2020 world premiere of 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, Marina Abramović’s pioneering opera project for the Bayerische Staatsoper, reprising the role at the Opera de Paris in 2021. Other key roles have included Adina in Donizetti’s L’Elisir D’Amore at Berlin Staatsoper, Despina in Così fan tutte at Bayerische Staatsoper, Aldimira in Rossini’s Sigismondo with the Münchner Rundfunkorchester, and two additional roles at the Glyndebourne Festival: Despina in Così fan tutte and Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. She has also performed as a soloist in concerts with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Los Angeles Opera, and in a performance of Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem at Leipzig’s Thomaskirche.

Park’s first album, I am Hera, was released digitally in November 2020, with a physical release in January 2021, both on Deutsche Grammophon. Curating a selection of works near and dear to her heart, Park recorded pieces by Bellini, Gluck, Handel, Mozart, Pergolesi, Puccini and Rossini alongside works by Korean composers Joowon Kim and Un-Yung La, including the latter’s uplifting setting of Psalm 23. “Instead of making myself perform a list of songs that might impress others, I decided to take a chance on myself and perform songs that resonate with my core values,” Park told OperaWire in May 2020. “I feel my purpose is to make the world a little better by living a healthy life and knowing that the talent I have been given is in essence meant to bring more light to the world.”

Recognized as a standout talent from an early age, Park studied at Seoul National University before earning her two-year Artist Diploma in Opera Studies at the Juilliard School in 2015. Soon afterward, she was selected for the Metropolitan Opera’s prestigious Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. She made her international breakthrough in 2015, when she was named among the winners at the Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition. She went on to win first prize at the Gerda Lissner Foundation International Competition in 2016 and the coveted Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award in 2018. Her flair for fashion subsequently caught the eye of Vogue Editor in Chief Dame Anna Wintour, who chose the Giambattista Valli gown that Park wore to New York’s Met Gala in 2018.