Bio
Commanding bass Young Bok Kim has dazzled audiences in Turandot (Timur) with Opera Colorado in its 2022-23 Season and in Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo), Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore), Rigoletto (Sparafucile), The Magic Flute (Sarastro), the title role in Verdi’s Atilla, and in Verdi’s rarely-performed La Battaglia di Legnano (Barbarossa), all with Sarasota Opera. A favorite of both houses’ audiences, he will return to Colorado for Il trovatore (Ferrando) and Madama Butterfly (Bonze) and to Sarasota for The Barber of Seville (Don Basilio) and Stiffelio (Jorg)in upcoming seasons.
Young Bok is a native of Korea and appears frequently on Korean stages, most recently singing in Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) with National Opera of Korea and the Seoul Metropolitan Opera. His other Korean credits include Lucia di Lammermoor (Raimondo) and The Magic Flute (Sarastro) with National Opera of Korea, Semiramide (Nino’s Ghost) with City Opera of Seoul, Britten’s Curlew River (Abbot) with Seoul Metropolitan Opera and Barber of Seville (Don Basilio) with City Opera of Seoul and Kim Sun International Opera.
In the U.S., Young Bok made his New York City Opera debut in La bohème (Colline). He went on to sing in many other productions with the company, including Carmen (Zuniga), The Magic Flute (Sarastro), and most notably in their televised Madama Butterfly (Bonze), which received the 2008 Emmy Award for Outstanding Special Class — Classical Musical / Dance Program. Young Bok has sung with Kentucky Opera, Dallas Opera, Utah Opera, Opera North, Opera New Jersey, Opera Boston, Nashville Opera, Nevada Opera, El Paso Opera, Opera Delaware, Baltimore Concert Opera, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra and Teatro Grattacielo, among other American companies.
An incredibly versatile artist, Young Bok’s extensive repertoire also includes the Bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem, Jack Perla’s An American Dream (Papa Kobayashi), Aida (Ramfis), Don Carlos (Ferrando Phillip II), Otello (Lodovico/Montano), Simon Boccanegra (Fiesco), Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), Dialogues des Carmélites (Marquis), L’amore dei tre re (Archibaldo), La forza del destino (Padre Guardiano), I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Capellio), Faust (Mephistopheles), Norma (Oroveso), La Gioconda (Alvise), Tosca (Angelotti), Samson and Delilah (Old Hebrew), Ariadne auf Naxos (Truffaldino), Eugene Onegin (Prince Gremin), The Rake’s Progress (Trulove), I masnadieri (Massimiliano), and Lakmé (Nilakantha).
Young Bok received both Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in music from Chung-Ang University in Korea. He then completed another Master’s degree and professional studies certificate at the Mannes College of Music and continued his studies at the Juilliard Opera Center. During his years at Mannes, Young Bok received the Marion Marcus Wahl Award for Excellence in performance. As a young artist, he made his Aspen Opera Theater Center debut as Colline with Maestro Julius Rudel and sang in Wozzeck (First Apprentice) with Maestro James Conlon.