Kwangchul Youn
Bass
Born and educated in Korea, Kwangchul Youn joined the ensemble of the Berlin State Opera in 1993, of which he was a member until 2004 and where he acquired many roles in his wide ranging repertoire.
In recent years the much demanded bass sang at renowned opera houses across Europe and overseas, such as the Vienna State Opera (Faust, Zauberflöte, Parsifal, Don Carlo, Tannhäuser), the Berlin State Opera (Simon Boccanegra, Lohengrin, Rheingold, Eugen Onegin, Tannhäuser), the Teatro alla Scala (Rheingold, Don Giovanni, Il Trovatore, Fidelio), the Metropolitan Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor, Les Troyens, Maria Stuarda), the Bavarian State Opera Munich (Parsifal, Der fliegende Holländer, Tristan und Isolde, Il Trovatore), the Semperoper Dresden (Simon Boccanegra, Lohengrin), the Royal Opera House Covent Garden London (Lohengrin, Lucia di Lammermoor), the Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona (Tristan und Isolde), the Opéra National de Paris (La Forza del Destino, Luisa Miller, Aida), the Oper Frankfurt (Don Carlos), the Lyric Opera Chicago (Parsifal) and the Teatro Regio Torino (Tannhäuser, Parsifal). He also guested at many festivals, such as the Bayreuth Festival (Tristan, Parsifal, Die Walküre, Der fliegende Holländer), at the Salzburg Festival, the Easter Festival Salzburg, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, the American Ravina Festival, the Klangbogen Vienna and the Beethovenfest Bonn.
Alongside his opera engagements Kwangchul Youn also performs frequently at concerts with well-known orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonica, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, the Accademia Santa Cecilia Roma, the VARA Radio Amsterdam, the Gulbenkian Foundation Lisbon, the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona, the Monte Carlo Orchestre Philharmonie, the orchestra of La Scala Milano, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Köln, the NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokio and at BBC Proms.
He can be heard on recordings such as the Bayreuth Festival’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, under the baton of Daniel Barenboim (Teldec), Croesus with Rene Jacobs (harmonia mundi), Fidelio (Teldec), Le nozze di Figaro, Cosi fan tutte, Don Giovanni and Tiefland under the baton of Bertrand de Billy (Arte Nova), as well as Daphne with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln with Semyon Bychkov (Decca; nominated for a Grammy as best Opera Production of 2006).