Following “a company debut of astonishing vibrancy and assurance” (San Francisco Chronicle) in Rusalka, Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim was named the Caroline H. Hume Music Director of San Francisco Opera, where she began her tenure in 2021. She is a regular guest conductor at the world’s most important opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staatsoper, Bayerische Staatsoper, Semperoper Dresden, Staatsoper Berlin, Opéra national de Paris, and Teatro alla Scala in Milan. On the heels of Eun Sun Kim’s Met debut, noted for an “assured technical command, subtlety and imagination,” The New York Times recognized her as Classical Music’s Breakout Star.

 In the 2024-25 season, Eun Sun Kim makes her much-anticipated Royal Opera House Covent Garden debut with performances of Tosca, before returning to Staatsoper Berlin for Simon Boccanegra. At San Francisco Opera, she furthers her multi-season exploration of the operas of Verdi and Wagner with performances of Un ballo in maschera and Tristan und Isolde, and also leads performances of Idomeneo and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Further appearances this season include return engagements with Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano.

Eun Sun Kim’s major orchestral engagements include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Gothenburg Symphony, and Seoul Philharmonic. Her collaboration with the National Brass Ensemble, including a new arrangement of Wagner’s Ring cycle, was released by Pentatone on the album Deified.

Eun Sun Kim studied composition and conducting in her hometown of Seoul, South Korea, before continuing her studies in Stuttgart, where she graduated with distinction. Directly after graduation, she was awarded the First Prize in the International Jesús López Cobos Opera Conducting Competition at the Teatro Real Madrid.