Royal opera house

Tosca

“Kim’s is a slow-burn approach. Puccini flicks to the back-page and his lovers’ brutal end in those first ominous, belching chords, but Kim pulls back the curtain slowly, letting a spacious Act I gather gradual momentum as lovers’ squabbles give way to a manhunt and a murderous trap. There’s a lovely vertical clarity through her orchestra, woodwind details crisp even in densest textures.”
–iNews

"Cleaving closely to her singers, Kim makes an understated but effective house debut, finding space in the music as well as filmic pace. But she clearly knows that sometimes you just have to let the stars shine.”
–The Times

“Making her house debut, Kim conducted a lively performance, the brass presaging Scarpia’s menace with their opening chords, strings honeyed in the love duet. Cello and clarinet solos ahead of ‘E lucevan le stelle’ were well shaped and Kim’s pacing pushed the narrative along urgently to make this a more distinguished Tosca revival than many in recent years.”
–Bachtrack

“Kim gets unusual clarity from Puccini’s orchestra and keeps the drama on the boil in an auspicious Royal Opera debut.”
–Financial Times

“Kim is making her debut in this role, commanding the Royal Opera orchestra. With his passion for dramatic and exciting orchestration, Puccini can easily overwhelm the singers with his enthusiastic scores, and it takes a knowledgeable and deft baton to keep a good balance. She succeeded in maintaining that balance.”
–OperaWire

"Kim’s interpretation remained balanced without sacrificing the power of the score, her delicacy and attention to detail defined quiet touching moments. All of the score felt clearly enunciated and never failed to shock with little space for shabbiness."
–London Unattached

“Kim, making an impressive Covent Garden debut, explores the full range of Puccini's score, from the tender chimes and introspection of a few strings to the armoured assault vehicle of the full orchestra in the most violent passages.”
–Culture Whisper

“Commanding the musical forces is Kim, whose ability to balance the substantial forces in front of her while maintaining the score’s dramatic momentum mark her debut with the company as auspicious.”
–The Stage

“Responding to the shifting textures and detailed orchestral effects, with its echoes of the outside world in funeral drums and shepherds’ songs, Kim drew strong colours from the fine orchestra.”
–The Telegraph

"Kim made a fine Covent Garden debut in the pit. Her delicate handling of the accompaniment to Romaniw’s pious ‘Vissi d’arte’ was unusually skillful, and she helped the secondary characters to be clearly heard, which doesn’t always happen either. By resisting the relentless blood and thunder approach to Puccini’s score, Kim’s work confirmed that subtle conducting is integral to any successful Tosca – which this one is."
–The Guardian

Photo by Clive Barda

San Francisco Opera

Tristan und isolde

“Magnificent conducting by Kim, leading Tristan for the first time. She commands every page of this daunting and harmonically unsettled score, from the hushed opening of the prelude through to Isolde’s concluding aria nearly five hours later. Drawing a sumptuous range of colors from the orchestra — the riotous glory of the second-act love duet and the darkly despairing Act 3 prelude were among the many highlights — she paced Saturday’s performance in great arcs, and the Opera Orchestra played with grandeur and total responsiveness under her.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“In a spacious and purposeful account of the prelude, Kim and her orchestra had set the immersive musical terms of the production, SFO’s first performances of the work in 18 years. Kim captured the score’s narrative drive and voluptuous ravishments and the characters’ emotional storms. A deep, surging sea rose from the pit to both anchor and engulf the drama. From start to finish, Kim remained the masterly presiding presence, bringing forth the opera’s grand design and abundant subtleties in her first Tristan und Isolde outing.”
–Opera Magazine

“Kim conducted the monumental score with energetic control. She never lapsed into melodramatic moments, spinning out legato for its own sake. She handsomely highlighted the many instrumental contrasts, thereby strengthening the complexities of idea, mood, psychologically shifting intimacies. The marriage of the text and the music here is remarkable. Kim brought the sense of yearning that pervaded the whole performance.”
–OperaWire

"From the very first notes, what emerged from the orchestra pit for Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde was, appropriately, transcendent. Kim led with care, intelligence and incandescent clarity to bring out all the nuances of the score. It was her first go at conducting this massive work, but the results were revelatory. Phrases took shape, dynamics fell into place, and tempos quickened and subsided naturally to create the overwhelming sense of yearning that infuses the music. The music gained momentum slowly, surging and ebbing, foreshadowing the character of the whole 4-plus hours of the opera. Kim had the orchestra perfectly balanced to let the vocal lines shine. The glory of the opera, its music, was the vehicle that made the production come together in an unforgettable performance.”
–Seen and Heard International

“The orchestra sounded utterly clear and beautiful under Kim. She has the orchestra sounding transparent, every line is palpable. You can feel the music perfectly stacked up and almost see it, but it still feels very alive.”
–The Opera Tattler

"Kim’s work on SF Opera’s latest production seems like a celebration of her recent contract extension as music director. Watching her ebb and flow the orchestra along musical waves of Tristan and Isolde is truly watching someone in their element. This entire season has been primarily defined by the personal touch she’s brought to their productions, and this one is no different. This is fun for her. The real star of the show is the conductor in front of the stage, building every crescendo from smolder to eruption. Kim’s tenure has been defined by her innate ability to tap into the power of every note on the pages before her. She knows which how to layer the orchestra’s performance just right so that the score has texture rather than just noise. Putting another Wagner piece at her disposal is like inviting a child to Wonka’s factory, only she doesn’t gorge herself so much as enjoy each and every piece as if it were her last. When this is the result, one can’t really blame her, can they?"
–48 Hills

"Perhaps the most lauded element in the opera is the heroic orchestral music. Kim conducts the 72-piece orchestra through the musical marathon with great skill. The full orchestra resounds with rich tone and texture from the brass-driven fortissimos to the pianissimos like the beautiful English horn solo in Act 3. Tristan and Isolde stands as a magnum opus in the idiom, and this production reaches admirable artistic heights. "
–Berkshire Fine Arts

"Stupendous conducting and interpretation by Kim. The high point of the opera is Wagner’s achingly beautiful and intense music. Kim brought it to life with such precision that every passage spoke and the orchestra itself became a lead character, right along with the singers. Throughout the performance, Kim did not cover the singing with loud sound; the singers were always audible and she anticipated the emotional tenor of the arias, often quieting the orchestra to create space for emotions to build and then punctuating the dramatic tension with building sound."
–ArtHound

“Kim carefully stated the famed initial, questioning chord, insisted on the overture’s intricate phrasing, then steadily built to the opera’s strategically recurrent mordent that is Tristan and Isolde’s chain link of connection. Kim and the San Francisco Opera orchestra rose magnificently to the occasion with Kim’s usual vivid presence, the sound at one with the words that flowed clearly and easily from the stage. Orchestrally it was a measured, precise reading of Wagner’s meticulously nuanced score. We were totally immersed in Wagner’s complex, timeless, awesome gesamtkunstwerk soundscapes.”
–Opera Today

"Kim completed the triumvirate of pillars to bring this performance to such an exhilarating level. Tension is the name of the game for any performance of Tristan und Isolde. She was admirable in building the structure of the opera and maintaining it throughout. She meticulously paced each scene and beautifully shaped the peaks, coaxing a glorious sound from the SF Opera Orchestra. More importantly, she completely supported the singers on stage, ensuring each and every one was fully heard, even during the loudest parts, recalling her approach to getting the best of the singers on her stage in the recently released documentary Eun Sun Kim: A Journey to Lohengrin."
–Parterre Box

“Tristan und Isolde was a musical triumph, and the star of the night was Eun Sun Kim. She is rapidly becoming a major Wagner conductor. Upon hearing her conduct Parsifal in January 2024 at Houston Grand Opera, it was hard to grasp that it was Kim’s first time conducting this opera. Here, working with her own superb orchestra in another demanding Wagner juggernaut, once again for the first time, she has surpassed that performance. With mediocre conducting, Tristan can be a long sit. Here, the listener’s attention never flags, and every passage is carefully wrought, laden with meaning. Kim uses the full range of tempos and dynamics. Often, before critical moments like the Act 2 love duet, her tempo slows portentously and her orchestra whispers, becoming almost inaudible. In that act, she somehow heightens the otherworldly sense of the lovers’ relationship, then returns to earth viscerally as things crash apart at the act’s end. The prelude to Act 3, some of the saddest music ever written, becomes even more poignant here via perfectly modulated string vibrato. Throughout the opera, Kim manages to maximize dramatic tension and flair without sacrificing precision.”
–Classical Voice North America

"The finest Tristan I’ve ever encountered at the War Memorial Opera House, conducted by Kim with a fascinating blend of tenderness and urgency. It’s a production that makes time stand still, but in a good way; Kim, the cast, and the orchestra pull it off with elegance and grace. The really interesting part was Kim’s conducting, with a gift for nuance. Kim works with a gentler, more shaded expressive palette, allowing emotion to surface from within rather than imposing it from without. The results can sneak up on you and tear your heart out."
–On the Pacific Aisle

"At the heart of it all is the music of Wagner… Kudos, then, to the orchestra. And can we take a moment to appreciate the gift San Francisco has in Eun Sun Kim at the podium? All the dynamism of the score comes alive under her baton, making it welcome news that she’s just signed a five-year extension. (Fittingly, she’s also committed to doing a Wagner opera each season, including an upcoming Ring cycle.)"
–KQED

“An extraordinary thing is underway at San Francisco Opera: by taking on one of the major works of the wizard of Bayreuth each season, Kim has set about establishing herself as a formidable young Wagnerian. Tristan und Isolde is generating a wave of euphoria – just one month after the season’s auspicious start with an impressive Ballo in maschera. This return of Wagner’s inexhaustible opera will undoubtedly be recalled as a high-water mark. A good deal of the credit goes to Kim and the SFO musicians for their success in establishing the transportive sound world Wagner demands – along with his drastic transitions in atmosphere for each of the opera’s three acts – with unflagging intensity, focus and intentionality. This is Kim’s first outing with Tristan, yet her devotion to the score yielded a ravishing transparency of detail and colour, always in sync with the deepest layers of Wagner’s soul drama. She showed a preternatural grasp of Wagner’s structuring of time that made sense of the shift from nervous anticipation to a zone beyond counting in the second act and that was at its most compelling in the dark night through which Tristan ventures in the third. A deep respect for the sheer beauty or alienness of Wagner’s sonic pictures emerged. Kim shaped stretches of the love duet as quasi-Italianate cantilena, while the gradually thinning string textures in the prelude to the third act have rarely sounded so desolate. Timbral and spatial details registered with maximal impact. SFO even supplied a bona fide wooden trumpet to execute the shepherd’s joyful signalling. With musical and dramatic values so firmly in place, Wagner’s ‘deeds of music’ became strikingly visible.”
–Opera Now

Photo by Cory Weaver

San francisco Opera

un ballo in maschera

“San Francisco Opera hadn’t performed Verdi's Un ballo in maschera in a decade — and it was worth the wait. Kim conducted with her typical excellence, choosing judicious tempos, drawing out the dark orchestral colors with immense clarity, wonderfully supporting the singers. This production deserves the largest possible audience.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Kim’s conducting set the tone for the performance immediately, focusing on both the comic elements and intensity of the score. It was a detailed balancing act between stage and pit that brought the work home with dashing colors.” 
–Bay City News

“SF Opera's Verdi is taut and athletic under conductor Eun Sun Kim. Equally notable is conductor Eun Sun Kim, who spends the overture energetically reveling in the composition. Even at the quieter moments, she makes sure that her orchestra is wide awake and ever present, not unlike the danger Gustav is avoiding ahead of the masked ball.”
–48 Hills

“Kim continually strengthened the story with strong instrumental color and range, integrating the use Verdi made of bel canto elements in Act one as he moved forward into more realistic musical expression."
–OperaWire

“A success, with lively conducting by music director Kim. For her part, she continued a long-term project of conducting all of Verdi’s operas, much of it new territory for her. As in recent seasons with La traviata and La forza del destino, she kept tempos moving briskly throughout and wrangled the often-tricky connections between the orchestra and the cast with care.”
–Seen and Heard International

“Kim did her usual masterful job of conducting Verdi’s wonderful music. She is a real treasure!”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“SFO’s production marks the latest installment in the company’s initiative to present music director Eun Sun Kim leading major works by Verdi and Wagner each season. Kim showed terrific sensitivity to the detailed colors of Verdi’s score, flexibly adjusting to the singers. She allowed English hornist Benjamin Brogadir and cellist Evan Kahn to cast a spell in their respective solo turns. Kim favored flowing tempi, generating reliable excitement.”
–Bachtrack 

“Kim led a cohesive, vividly detailed performance of the handsomely staged, engagingly sung account of Verdi’s Ballo.”
–Opera Magazine

“With Kim eliciting surges of dark color from the orchestra, the propulsive first act ended with one of the opera’s compelling ensembles. For all its darkness, this Ballo came off with luminous grandeur and touches of humor. Kim conducted with urgency and grace.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

Photo by Drew Altizer

seoul philharmonic

rachmaninoff with stephen hough

“Kim has grown significantly and her confidence stood out. The expectations of Rachmaninoff’s Third were high, and Kim responded with a wonderful performance that fully lived up to such interest. At first glance, this piece seems to be a jumble of various musical fragments, which could easily sound distracting or long-winded. However, Kim overcame this difficulty with her meticulous conducting that balanced both the vertical and horizontal aspects of the performance based on her broad perspective on the piece. The most outstanding aspects of her conducting were her ‘operatic approach’ and restraint. In other words, her vocal breathing and dramatic flexibility stood out. In the lyrical scenes where Rachmaninoff’s unique sensibility is most evident, she naturally evoked romantic emotions by using the feeling of singing at a leisurely tempo. Contrastingly, in the parts where the composer’s response to modernism is revealed and where the purely musical development is emphasized, Kim’s relatively cool expression and rational approach stand out. She has outstanding qualities as a concert conductor as well as an opera conductor, as she clearly distinguishes the various elements and scenes that make up the piece, and effectively implements the dramatic flow by making use of the subtlety of contrast and balance.”
–Arte

“Kim conducted intuitively and acted as a bridge between the soloist and the orchestra, giving concise and clear instructions. In the second part of Rachmaninoff’s Third her conducting radius widened, and she led the orchestra boldly. She delicately and clearly indicated the beat with her right hand holding the baton while continuously capturing the musical flow with her left hand.” 
–Within News

“When a good conductor appears, the atmosphere changes. Kim skillfully led difficult pieces with tremendous energy. Her leadership and communication with the orchestra also stood out. Under Kim’s meticulous conducting, the orchestra presented a rich sound. The finale of the performance was Rachmaninoff’s Third and the unique romanticism and rhythm were beautifully displayed like a dream. Rather than putting forward her own interpretation, she made eye contact with each member and listened to their sounds. When the orchestra responded with beautiful melodies, she smiled brightly and gave a thumbs up.”
–Women’s News

Photo by Koo Bonsook Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

san francisco opera

The magic flute

“Kim led with the supportive grace we’ve come to expect from her. She kept the orchestral textures and internal counterpoint clear, and the orchestra and singers were perfectly balanced."
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Kim conducted with vibrance and elegance, favoring lively tempos yet allowing space for the orchestra’s music to breathe.”
–Seen and Heard International

"Other musical and theatrical pleasures…Kim gives the trial music a solemn, watchful gravity."
–San Francisco Classical Voice

"The music remains lovely, with Kim really sinking her teeth into the material. She seems to have as much fun with ‘Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen’ as Simińska does vocally dancing through the alternating notes."
–48 Hills

"The Kim-led orchestra sounded majestic and accurate, and the chorus boomed with vitality."
–Cordell Reports

"Everything is superbly held together by Kim, who conducts with fine sweep and authority, and the roving chorus performs masterfully."
–Bay City News

“Throughout the performance, Kim and the orchestra brilliantly supported the excellent vocal performances of the principals.”
–Opera Warhorses

"Kim adroitly held together all the varied musical styles Mozart employed in this opera and found the unifying thread that makes the music all come together."
–Berkeley Daily Planet

"Astonishing coordination of the pit and voices with the flow of animation. The music in the second act choruses enveloped the auditorium, and Kim achieved real musical magic in these moments,"
–Opera Today

"Kim masterfully and joyfully guided SF Opera Orchestra’s long-awaited return of this masterpiece. From the overture’s thrilling opening cords and familiar stanzas, the orchestra’s playing was enthralling. Kim kept it bouncing at an energetic pace and everything went off quite smoothly in terms of coordination between the projections, singers, and orchestra."
–ARThound

Photo by Reneff-Olson Productions

BERLINER PHILHARMONIKER

Schönberg & Rachmaninoff

“Kim makes her Berlin Philharmonic debut with burning energy. She conducts a daring program. It is clear that the concentrated female power will be victorious on this memorable evening. Kim is cool and dignified. She has enormous potential and we can be excited for the repeat performances. ‘Freedom,’ is the credo of this conductor, who is on the verge of an international career, and remains an ‘integral component’ of all live music, changing depending on the circumstances and mood.”
–Tagesspiegel

“Kim – small, friendly, unobtrusive. ‘Inconspicuous’ is meant in the best sense: Kim does nothing to distract from the music. She withdraws and only serves the orchestra. Her program selection is spectacular: Schönberg and Rachmaninoff in one evening? You have to trust her first. There's the heady, provocative Arnold Schönberg, and there is the supple Sergei Rachmaninoff, clichés that Kim counters with clear measures on Thursday evening: She smoothes it over. Schönberg, she supports with inviting warmth. And in return she lets the Rachmaninov play rather coolly and with a reduced color palette. So no Hollywood indulgences, no iconoclasm. No Russian melancholy either. Instead: the pure musical text. Kim shows how this music works. In the quiet passages, Kim becomes soft and elegant in her gestures. Otherwise, she leads the Philharmonic with great concentration and with quick, small arm movements. Kim tells the orchestra every gesture, she communicates all the cues with textbook-like clarity. It is impressive how confidently Kim masters her technical craft. And how willingly the orchestra follows. This can also be felt in Schönberg's ‘Erwartung’ in the first half of the concert. The orchestra is well-disposed towards her. And here again, Kim's clear, precise guidelines are of great benefit to everyone involved. Because this is a labyrinthine work, teeming with details. A work that urgently needs a strong, organizing hand – because otherwise one would hardly be able to follow this overflowing music. Kim also has extensive musical theater experience for the one-act play, and the philharmonic musicians offer a rollercoaster of emotions, they oscillate between illusion and reality. And still remain quite friendly and moderate.”
–Berliner Morgenpost

“Rachmaninoff’s Third is clearly music Kim appreciates on an emotional level as well as a symphonic one, and the Berliners relished Rachmaninov’s sophisticated scoring with virtuosity.  Kim was persuasively flexible with the first movement’s second subject, finding romance while making it a part of the whole, then charting to anguished climaxes with surety, the lingering envoi setting up nicely the fond remembrances of the slow movement, offset by the fast and brilliant middle section, its particulars closely observed by Kim. She was articulate with the Finale, unifying its episodes without restricting them, the fugue included, and the coda energized without being frenzied. The players were alive to the ebb and flow that Kim found amidst the complexity of the Erwartung. The performance held its own as a dramatic piece of music – living, breathing, human – and made for thirty compelling minutes – spot-on balance between singer and orchestra with the latter’s details and nuances unfailingly lucid.”
–Colin’s Column

“Kim, who made her debut at the Philharmonic's podium, was able to conduct the work, which was composed without any motivic connections, in such a way that one seemed to perceive a form. The textual changes between the memory of a lover and the current fear of the forest at night are set by Schönberg as a difference between surface sounds and intensification and interpreted by Kim accordingly as waiting and urging. The piece also presents the impossible task of accompanying a highly complicated declaiming singer with an equally highly complex orchestral movement - in every bar it asks the question of what should be heard above all. Kim and the orchestra found a lot of exciting colors.”
–Berliner Zeitung

Photo by Bettina Stös

ORQUESTA SINFÓNICA DE BARCELONA

Schönberg & beethoven

“Powerful women…Kim and Melton gave L'Auditori an evening of high voltage. Kim, who specializes in opera, is a conductor with precise gestures and an obvious taste for intense performances and crisp sound. She guided the orchestra with a firm hand to form a fluid and comprehensible discourse: the textures were always well balanced. Kim's baton proved to be an invaluable lifeline in Schönberg’s work and, at the same time, the beacon that guided the attendees to terra firma. 

She also demonstrated a clear and personal vision in the Beethoven, from the serenity with which she opened the first movement poco sostenuto to the luminosity of the vivace. From the outset, Kim demonstrated her willingness to depart from the effectivism and brute force so common in hyper-romanticized interpretations of Beethoven's symphonies, and opted for a sumptuous, simple and elegant reading. 

Kim's talent and determination revealed that there are no difficult works, just often those unwilling to explain them, in the same way that there are no clichéd scores but a desire to overcome the commonplaces and leave the preset paths. The OBC recognized her personal, serious and committed vision and knew how to live up to it. She left the auditorium to a standing ovation.”
– Núvol

“The orchestra knew how to get the best out of itself with the excellent direction of Kim.”
–Avui

“Uniting both Schönberg and Beethoven, Kim conducted successfully and exhibited numerous strong points in the little more than an hour of interpretation. Kim’s interpretation was cerebral and also rich, shaking colors, filling the lungs of this L'espera with agility, intention and care. To do Schönberg well, you have to be a good musician, and Kim proved it by bringing the intricate score to the stage, which is on tour in several world stages. Kim also had strong points in Beethoven's Seventh, with a sound full of energy, lines with intention and powerful melodies. The OBC responded vigorously in both works. In this seventh, Kim shone especially in the second movement, the popular funeral march.”
–Llegir

Photo by Amanda Tipton

Duisburger philharmoniker

beethoven & brahms

“In Beethoven's ‘Egmont overture, which opened the evening, Kim doesn't rely on big effects, but on internal tension and fine musical work. Only in the triumphant finale does she let the orchestra play fully. Kim leads the orchestra in an idyllic setting of Brahms’ Symphony No. 2 with warm tones and colors. Despite the small scale of the composition she succeeds in keeping an eye on the musical swells and dramatic development.”
–WAZ

Photo by André Symann

New York Philharmonic

sibelius, hillborg & rachmaninoff with emanuel ax

“A case for understated majesty…Kim maintained a lush dreaminess, made even dreamier as she freely interpreted every deviation from the tempo — every ritardando, rubato and rallentando — written into the score. With winking clarity but resisting overstatement, she teased out the music’s quickly passing references to, for example, the ‘Dies Irae’ chant and jazzy idioms.” *Critic’s Pick
–The New York Times

“Kim practically ran on stage, elevated the baton, and immediately–immediately–thrilled with those growling first notes of Finlandia. She didn’t linger on the chorale, but attacked every note as though it was the last one. The Rachmaninoff Third Symphony may have its tender, schmaltzy moments, but one wouldn’t have known it with Ms. Kim’s constant driving rhythms. The complete Finlandia has a sad reputation. Is this a patriotic turgidity? Not under the baton of Ms. Kim. Finlandia was smoldering, dark and–knowing the composer’s ethos–almost mythical. The New York Phil low brass rumbled and let loose. The central tune was pushed ahead, and had a medieval soul. And the end was simply breathtaking. Kim knew that those first notes of the Rachmaninoff by oboe and bassoon were not so much mysterious as a tattoo for the entire symphony, and she never gave way to melancholy. In the first movement, that climax was spine‑chilling with a disembodied horn chant. The finale was her unassailable triumph. Her movements were as passionate as the sounds of the New York Phil. Her conducting kept the orchestra so sharp, the attacks so heroic, that one visualized Rachmaninoff as a 19th Century revolutionary. Ax’s performance was elevated above mere descriptions, and Kim’s conducting was an ultimate in electricity. Together, they made this concert a singular, joyfully rare event.”
–ConcertoNet

“Kim, who may appear at first to be a slight figure approaching the podium, belies that immediately with the firm downbeat of her baton conjuring the sonic force of what is without doubt, the most celebrated, albeit brief compositions, Finlandia. One could discern at once why Eun Sun Kim has been named by the NY Times, as ‘Breakout Star in Classical Music.’ The movements in the Rachmaninoff were rendered by our Philharmonic under Kim’s meticulous guidance with an authority that rivals the recording of Mariss Janson’s with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, which is to say, as good as I’ve ever heard.”
–Splash Magazine

“Kim proved equally adept at leading Finlandia and Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3, an underrated late masterpiece.”
–Toronto Guardian

“The Philharmonic excelled, Kim keeping the players in perfect sync – even when tempos slowed to near stillness, or dynamics diminished to their softest levels. Kim elicited some splendid playing, most notably the strings in the very Slavic secondary theme of the first movement of Rachmaninoff’s Third, and the lovely solo passages for horn and violin in the central Adagio. Her treatment of the Finale was uncommonly expansive, bringing the Symphony to an invigorating close without going over the top.”
–Classical Source

“Kim was a picture of engagement on the podium, encouraging, shaping, and building the tightest symphonic structure in this composer’s oeuvre. Her attention to detail was both visible and audible, without interrupting the music’s forward momentum, in an exciting and deeply engaged performance. Kim tenderly strung these melodic gems together, before unleashing the scherzando middle section in a flurry of beats and cues. In Kim’s hands, the athletic, festive finale–a Russian tradition honored by Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff, parodied by Shostakovich and Stravinsky—was no shapeless orgy, but a taut structure shot through with suspenseful interludes, well-managed crescendos and even a tugging tune or two. There’s no doubt the audience was on its feet at the symphony’s close.”
–New York Classical Review

Photo by Gabriel Fornier

ORCHESTRE SYMPHONIQUE DE MONTRÉAL

brahms, mozart, fauré, mussorgsky

“Under Kim’s balanced conducting, the orchestra’s tone complemented Lortie’s shimmering, pearly, and exquisite pianistic timbre. The program’s pièce de resistance was, not surprisingly, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. Led by the even-keeled Kim, the work’s opening, Promenade, resonated with a round, polished, and balanced tone from the brass section. Kim’s reliable beat, control, and coolness proved useful as the orchestra suddenly opened to its full potential under Il Vecchio castello.”
–La Scena Musicale

”We saw all the technique and dynamism of Eun Sun Kim…we remember the rhythm as well as the clearly visible coordination between the musicians of the OSM.”
–Mattv

“Kim was at the helm of the orchestra for this evening dedicated to themes and variations. Pianist Louis Lortie also took center stage for half of the program, which was accessible and very well designed. All the elements came together to offer a high-quality concert. Kim knew how to find the right balance for each movement. The piece also draws its complexity from the balance required between the different sections of the orchestra. The melody constantly shifts, and the musicians move from quick passages to long sustained notes. Here again, it is a success. The work unfolds with all the desired relief. We are witnessing a fine example of synchronicity on the part of the orchestra. We note a solid interpretation, to which the conductor contributes greatly through her precise and expressive gestures.”
–PanM

Photo by Gabriel Fornier

houston grand opera

parsifal

“Guiding these disparate forces as if second nature is Eun Sun Kim, last heard here when she lavishly conducted Puccini's Turandot. She certainly knows her Wagner. Not one nuance went unsung in her dramatic reading. Layered and dense, the magic, the nature, the majesty were all there.”
–Houston Press

“Kim, HGO’s principal guest conductor, led the performance with clarity and economy, and she kept the music moving. The orchestra managed the score’s extraordinary demands with suppleness and security.”
–Dallas Morning News

“The foundation came from Kim and the HGO Orchestra, who relished the grace, glow and grandeur of Wagner’s score. From the first phrase of the prelude, Kim let Wagner’s music flow and sing—bringing out its fervor, even at its most lyrical. The orchestra played with refinement in the mellifluous moments and drive in the agitated ones. Even when Kim kept the group quiet in deference to the singers, it still brought the music color and atmosphere.”
–Texas Classical Review

“Kim made a strong impression: the orchestral pacing and sheen held one's ears throughout, and choral balance was very adeptly handled.”
–Wagner Notes

“The company’s principal guest conductor Eun Sun Kim took a very lyrical view of some pages in Act 2…she was in total control of the magical score’s flow, surges, hesitations, mystery and majesty.”
–Opera Magazine

“Equally exciting was Eun Sun Kim. It was hard to believe that it marked her first time conducting this opera. Her tempos were sometimes quite brisk, as in the Act Two prelude, but flexible and free. Always supportive of her singers, she maintained the drama and tension even at reduced volume. Despite the score likely being new to a majority of the orchestra players, the ensemble played with the refinement of a full-time opera orchestra. The applause was loud and sustained for Kim.”
–Musical America

Photo by Lynn Lane

Opéra National de paris

Les contes d’hoffmann

“Eun Sun Kim makes her debut at the Paris National Opera this evening. Her reading of Offenbach's ultimate masterpiece, inevitably more opera than comic opera, proves to be a model of balance between pit and stage, between rigor and fantasy, between the attention paid to detail perceptible as there a quiver, here a sneer, and the overall dynamics. The enthusiasm of the public, [despite] the stage conditions, bodes well for the rest of the performances.”
–Forum Opéra

“Kim drew exciting sound from the orchestra. They conveyed the myriad emotions, from ribald to tragic, that course through the score with transparent tones and vitalness. Kim’s sense of balance was so exact that it seemed as if singers and orchestra breathed and performed as one. It was an amazing feat, saluted by the audience as the curtain fell.”
–Seen and Heard International

“At the head of the magnificent orchestral forces of the Paris Opera, Kim infuses the score with all the necessary impulses, from the dramatic to the comical, from the sensual to the lyrical.”
–Opera Gazet (French)

“The public celebrates the artists, including the musicians of the orchestra and the singers, placed under the direction of a precise Eun Sun Kim.”
–Première Loge

“With her small, energetic stance, Kim conducts with a very sure hand and has clearly won over the orchestra and the audience of the Paris Opera. Her sensitivity, her sense of precision and nuance shine through in particular during the famous Barcarolle which opens the third act. She lets the orchestral sparkles be heard before delicately accompanying the deployment of the voices, without ever covering them. And, still in this same third act, the mastery with which she directs the breathtaking ensemble aria which brings together the septet of singers and the chorus, dazzles.”
–WebThéâtre

“Honorable performance from the Orchestra. At the head of the house's forces, Kim achieves a clean and precise set-up. The overall quality of an evening [was] welcomed at the final curtain by an enthusiastic audience.”
–Bachtrack

“A pleasure rediscovered, increased tenfold by the high quality of the vocal performance and the direction of Eun Sun Kim. The Choirs and the Orchestra of the Paris National Opera are in ‘Olympic’ form under the baton of Kim, who constantly monitors the balance between pit and stage and breathes life into the score both in the dynamics of together as well as in the attention paid to the details which make this music so special.
–ResMusica

“Kim leads her orchestra with a sure hand, and everything is elaborate.”
–Népszava

“Another architect of the success of the evening, the musical direction of Kim is also impeccable. The young Korean conductor understood the spirit of a work of multiple contrasts. Dramatic when necessary, it always maintains a lightness which perhaps carries the emotion even more.”
–Music & Opera

“The orchestra as always makes its grain and its registers, its specific bursts and its presence like that of musical lighting supporting the voices, under the direction of Kim, an honest, solid direction.”
–Opera Online (French)

“For her debut at the Paris Opera, Kim offers extremely clear direction, in the departures that she systematically gives but also in the conclusions of the phrases that she marks no less clearly. Her constant attention to synchronizing the pit and the stage makes it possible to combat the shifts, and the Paris National Opera Orchestra gives the full measure of her phrasing and her timbres: very precise and rich at the same time.”
–Ôlyrix

“Another triumph: Eun Sun Kim. Accustomed to very large halls, the musical director of the San Francisco Opera makes the Paris Opera Orchestra sound with a fullness that we have not always heard in the tricky acoustics of the Bastille . And with that a drive, a sense of architecture, an art of leading voices, which attest to an already seasoned profession as a theater conductor.”
–Díapason

“The revelation of the evening is in the pit: Kim directs Offenbach with finesse and the orchestra of the Paris Opera with indisputable authority. She thus offers a reading where lightness and sparkle take precedence, without neglecting the darker colors which nourish a fantastic chiaroscuro. The conductor makes room for the soloists (both instrumental and vocal) to deploy their colors, and demonstrates a certain sense of theater with dynamism.”
– L’Avant Scène Opéra

“Another architect of the success of the evening, the musical direction of Eun Sun Kim is also impeccable. The young Korean conductor understood the spirit of a work of multiple contrasts. Dramatic when necessary, it always maintains a lightness which perhaps carries the emotion even more.”
–Classiqu c’est cool

“For her debut at the Opéra-Bastille, Kim offers a very attentive reading of Offenbach's score, concerned with the accuracy of the beginnings and the rendering of the atmospheres: her baton is precise and the Orchestra and the Opera Choirs respond perfectly to her wishes... leading to the cheers of the public, acclaiming this production with the magical warmth of this festive period.”
–Classykeo

“The team was fired up, under the happy wand of EunSun Kim: theatrical beating, above all, light, balanced, very attentive to the set, which she supports admirably, the Korean conductor knows to highlight the instrumental detail of the pit, as well as the full architecture of the writing.”
–Opera Magazine

“And then comes the work of conductor Eun Sun Kim who proved formidable in the pit. From the opening notes to the final chords, she displayed firm control over both the ensembles and the pacing of the drama. Singers were well-supported and tempi were solid and propulsive. The Antonia act in particular felt gloriously executed, the orchestra feeling weightless in creating an ambiance of mystery and setting up the phantasmagoric climax perfectly. The woodwind colors were relaxed in the opening of the Barcarolle, contrasting perfectly with how she let the orchestral floodgates open at the climax when that same theme returns in a new light.”
–OperaWire

Photo by Emilie Brouchon

San Francisco Opera

LOHENGRIN

“Eun Sun Kim makes her mark with S.F. Opera’s musically splendid new Lohengrin, conducting with tender specificity. Lohengrin, with its long-breathed, fluid melodies and shimmery instrumental world, is the most Italianate of the composer’s works, and Kim and the orchestra caught that character perfectly. Throughout the opera’s 4½-hour span, Kim maintained a rhythmic control that was at once propulsive and free, giving individual singers the space they needed to let their artistry register while keeping the drama proceeding at a healthy clip.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Back in the pit for an incisive and deeply felt production of Lohengrin, Kim led a pensive, intimate performance that both grounded and illuminated the events onstage.”
–Opera Magazine

“Kim delivers a riveting Lohengrin – the glory of Sunday afternoon’s first performance was her fresh attempt at this score, part of her initiative to conduct one opera by Wagner and one by Verdi every season. As good as her Il trovatore that opened the season was, this reached even more miraculous heights. Every note, it seemed, fell into place naturally, the pace and orchestral phrasing matching Wagner’s intentions at every turn, from the delicacy of the shimmering high violins in the first measures of the prelude to the mighty climaxes at the close of the first two acts. Each moment seemed to have its own attributes, not just louder or softer but with personality suitable to what was happening, yet completely within the flow of the score [with] Kim conjuring nimble music from the orchestra.”
–Seen and Heard International

“The deeply engaging and never-boring production was led ably by company music director Eun Sun Kim. She squeezes the essence of Wagner’s sound from the 71-member orchestra and does so throughout in a clear-eyed reading of the score.”
–The Vacaville Reporter

“The brisk tempos of conductor Eun Sun Kim kept her in charge of the large orchestra the whole way, much like she did in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore.” While conducting the 71-piece orchestra in the pit and the 25-piece banda on stage, she remained on their toes, including the brass on and off-stage. She never flagged, nor did they. The opening Prelude set the downbeat of a realistic, down-to-earth performance. Kim concentrated the score on this world, perhaps a Berlin or a Dresden of 1945, rather than the ethereal atmosphere of myth. One could feel, however, Kim’s determination to take this story just where she wanted and that accented the main production point.”
–OperaWire

“Kim’s deep commitment to this music is evident, and her conducting brought out much of the warmth of this music.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Kim was starting her annual exploration of Wagner for the company with this performance – from the moments the first diaphanous suspensions of the Overture floated out above us to the thundering finale four & a half hours later, the performance was a musical triumph.”
–The Reverberate Hills

“Kim established firm musical control from the first whispered sounds of the prelude…[to] the magical moments when this conductor unlocked all fetters to the lyricism of Wagner’s poetic development, notably first in Elsa’s dream, then in Ortrud’s diatribes, in Telramund’s sniveling, and finally in Lohengrin’s pompous revelations. As is her wont Kim made the big moments huge. And hugely satisfying.”
–Opera Today

“Kim gets a very clear sound out of the orchestra which sounded perfectly transparent.”
–Opera Tattler

“From the first ethereally high notes of violins and woodwinds, paced by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, there was little doubt that her first Lohengrin would be a stunning performance. As the prelude continued, various sections of the orchestra took up the lush melodies, wafting a magical flow of heavenly music. Later, for the opera’s famous third act overture, the augmented 71 piece San Francisco Opera Orchestra, under Kim’s baton, provided a wall of sound.”
–Opera Warhorses

“A magnificent score, and excellently conducted by Kim in the first-of-many trips she plans to take to Wagnerville.”
–48 Hills

“Kim led an expansive, fiery performance, finely detailed and drawing all forces together with explosive intent. With players in the orchestra positioned onstage, below stage, backstage and in the organ bay at Grand Tier level, the scene looked downright dangerous at times, but musically everything came together like a charm throughout the nearly five-hour performance.”
–Bay City News

“Kim led a magnificent performance of expansive grandeur, marked by musical coherence, sonic beauty, and a sense of inexorable forward movement. Lohengrin in the wrong hands can be a slog, but between Kim’s alertness to the musical drama and the excellence of the cast, the performance was riveting from start to finish. Given Kim’s outstanding results with Lohengrin, we can only look forward eagerly to her annual Wagner outings.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Kim, who conducted her first Lohengrin with this performance, led the Orchestra in a reading marked with clarity, power, majesty and splendor. In her hand, Wagner’s score – the last of his Romantic period – came alive with the emphasis on the many musical motifs. Kim chose a well-judged pace that maintained the arc of the whole score, an important achievement as Lohengrin could easily sound plodding and tiresome without tight control. Climaxes were thrillingly shaped, and the quiet parts were incisively rendered. Kim was also sensitive to the needs of her cast, making sure that each excelled without drowning them with the sound of the orchestra.This was truly a superb achievement for San Francisco Opera and an auspicious first chapter in the Wagner opera journey with Eun Sun Kim.”
–Parterre Box

Photo by Cory Weaver

San Francisco Opera

il trovatore

“Blue was in good company, working with a strong cast under the vigorous leadership of Eun Sun Kim to put across the emotional undercurrents of Verdi’s melodrama and minimize its dramatic absurdities. Tuesday’s performance — dedicated to the memory of the great Italian soprano Renata Scotto, who died Aug. 16 — found Kim pursuing a wealth of important rhythmic and harmonic ideas. [During] the oracular opening and the stately “Miserere” in the final act, the results were glorious. Kim and the orchestra seem to be building a close-knit interpretive relationship.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Kim drew a passionate, highly dramatic performance from the orchestra.”
–Bay City News

“Kim makes her pit very present. She finds a lyric pulse that never falters [with] enrapturing periods of lyric splendor.”
–Opera Today

“The staging matched the excitingly brisk tempi selected by Music Director Eun Sun Kim.”
–Parterre Box

“The orchestra tuned up for the trial, conducted by Eun Sun Kim – the sound was galore and brightness searing…extravagant gorgeousness.”
–OperaWire

“Kim conducts the orchestra with conviction.  Her brisk decisiveness is evident throughout but particularly notable in the ‘Anvil Chorus.’ Every phrase from beginning to end resonates melodically.”
–Berkshire Fine Arts

“The glorious orchestrations — brought to glorious life by conductor Eun Sun Kim — positively swirled around the packed theater of the War Memorial Opera House.”
–Stage and Cinema

"A scintillating Trovatore for the ages. Kim’s conducting was, as always, spot on, concise yet full of orchestral vigour."
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“This performance focused squarely on the music, beginning with Kim’s forward-thrusting leadership in the pit. Time after time, she found orchestral gestures and details that fleshed out Verdi’s musical vocabulary and intertwined with the singers.”
–Seen and Heard International

Photo by Cory Weaver

San Francisco Opera

Opera ball

“You could hear [the full range of human experience] in the sumptuously beautiful orchestral Intermezzo from the same opera, which Kim shaped with preternatural depth and grace.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

Photo by Drew Altizer

San Francisco Opera

madame butterfly

"The traditional drama of Butterfly registered more vividly on opening night through the music. Music Director Eun Sun Kim deployed her trademark combination of forceful clarity and rhythmic freedom to bring out the score’s irresistible surges and ebbs, and an excellent cast lent expressive weight to Puccini’s vocal writing."
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Kim conducted with keen attention to the dramatic moment, whether anguished or delicate.”
–Opera Magazine

"It’s the music that triumphs. Eun Sun Kim certainly has the sweep of Madama Butterfly in her blood. Melodies flowed like water, the lush beauty of Puccini’s score glowing in the light that sweeps the stage."
–San Francisco Classical Voice

"Music Director Eun Sun Kim led the orchestra in an inspired interpretation of Puccini’s magical score."
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Kim paced each scene to elicit a full range of expression while maintaining an inexorable pace. The conductor supported Son and the rest of the cast throughout this excellent performance, and the orchestra followed her lead with commitment and eloquence.”
–Opera News

“Much credit goes to Puccini’s music, of course. In its third performance at War Memorial Opera House, Eun Sun Kim consistently found the pulse, energy and distinctive sonorities of this familiar score with often revelatory attention to details, getting the most juice out of the orchestra and singers while still making everything unfold naturally.”
–Seen and Heard International

Photo by Cory Weaver

San Francisco Opera

100th anniversary concert

“To start the proceedings, Kim led the orchestra in a juicy performance of Wagner’s Prelude to Die Meistersinger as well as fluid and energetic Verdi, Puccini and John Adams. [The concert] concluded with Boito’s magnificently ornate chorale ‘Ave Signor’ from Mefistofele. Kim’s steady increase in momentum and the chorus’ rich harmonies brought the evening to a triumphant conclusion.”
–Seen and Heard International

"The Centennial Concert featured three top-notch conductors including Eun Sun Kim...who conducted many highlights of the concert."
–Berkeley Daily Planet

"Three of the company’s finest conductors — music director Eun Sun Kim, former music director Donald Runnicles and former principal guest conductor Patrick Summers — took turns in the pit...it was an aptly celebratory evening — warm, communal and full of sparkling music to help observe the landmark."
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Kim, who has emerged an inspired leader in her role as the company’s chief conductor, made thrilling contributions throughout the evening. She offered a well-paced performance of Verdi’s “Odi il voto” from Ernani, featuring tenor Russell Thomas and the chorus; a dazzling “Vicino a te” from Andrea Chénier featuring Ailyn Pérez and Michael Fabiano; soprano Adela Zaharia’s bright-toned “Je veux vivre” from Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, Brandon Jovanovich’s warm-toned “Ch’ella mi creda” from Puccini’s La Fanciulla del West, Stober and Christian Van Horn’s insinuating delivery of Don Giovanni’s “Là ci darem la mano” and, with Van Horn and the San Francisco Opera Chorus, a thrilling Act I finale from Tosca.”
– Opera News

Photo by Drew Altizer

TEATRO ALLA SCALA

LA BOHèME

"Conductor Eun Sun Kim led the spirited Scala Orchestra in a passionate and transparent musical interpretation of Giacomo Puccini's masterpiece. The cheerful, playful as well as the deeply painful moments of the deeply touching work were masterfully worked out. With the descending flute-harp motif parallel to a string tremolo at the beginning of the third act, Kim described the icy coldness of what was happening on stage musically in an impressive way."
–Opera Gazet

"The Korean director Eun Sun Kim, making her debut at the Teatro alla Scala, is precise and confident in her gestures.”
–Laterna

"Eun Sun Kim is a debutant at the Teatro alla Scala. With sure and clean gestures and an iron technique, the Korean conductor leans towards thick and rich sonorities. Hers is a flawless reading, which goes through without a hitch.”
–Connessi all'Opera 

"Eun Sun Kim's concertation is strongly marked by vigorous dynamic choices and pressing agogics, not without dramatic parentheses... The result is a varied reading that hardly gets boring during the performance, and also maintains a rather constant order between pit and stage."
–GB Opera Magazine

“Eun Sun Kim at La Scala balances the relationship between the pit and the stage [and] contributes to giving spirit and energy to the bohemians.”
–Concerto Net

"The singers always happened to be in a spot where they were perfectly audible, as if illuminated by the aural equivalent of a spotlight. This was also due to conductor Eun Sun Kim, whose dynamics were always very respectful of the stage. The La Scala orchestra sounded rich and velvety, beautifully transparent in the snow scene....she led the whole ensemble with a strong hand, for a very successful performance."
–Bachtrack

Photo by Teatro alla Scala

ROTTERDAMS PHILHARMONISCH ORKEST

verdi’s messa di requiem

“With very clear, actually quite small strokes, [Kim] was well in control of the Rotterdam orchestra, using ideal choices of tempo, while giving expressive directions with butterfly-like gestures of her left hand. The orchestra responded in an exemplary manner.”
–Opera Magazine (Amsterdam)

“ Eun Sun Kim conducted beautifully and precisely led the Rotterdam Philharmonic."
–Theaterkrant

"In the orchestra pit, the South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim leads the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra with a sure beat through all the dynamic peaks and valleys of Verdi's composition from 1874."
–Het Parool

The surprising star of the evening was Eun Sun Kim, the South Korean conductor. She masterfully steered all those hundreds of singers, dancers and musicians in the right direction with admirable leadership. She was able to showcase all the strength and beauty in Verdi's notes.”
–Trouw

“Eun Sun Kim is endowed with a divine hyper-musicality – even the smallest gesture is relevant.”
–Opera Gazet

"Many moments of real beauty. So many elements come together in this harmonious collaboration of singers, dancers and orchestra. What an achievement by conductor Eun Sun Kim to steer this in the right direction."
–Theater Paradijs

Photo by Altin Kaftira

San Francisco Opera

La Traviata

"Music Director Eun Sun Kim, in the first of a planned series of annual Verdi productions, seemed to grow increasingly tender and expressive in her treatment of this music, displaying an ever-deeper communicative bond with the musicians of the Opera Orchestra."
–San Francisco Chronicle

"Eun Sun Kim offered a particularly attentive account of the instrumental portion of Verdi’s score, managing to keep the oompah accompaniment of the opening Prelude at bay, thus preparing the audience for the theme’s tragic emergence when sung by Valéry. Taken as a whole, there was an abundance of satisfaction to be mined from the experience of listening to this performance of La Traviata..."
–The Rehearsal Studio

"The conducting and playing of the orchestra throughout was some of the most delicate and lovely Verdi I have ever heard in this house..."
–Civic Center

“SF Music Director Eun Sun Kim conducted the orchestra in an exciting manner, highlighting the many different dance aspects of the score. The orchestra, too, seemed to be responding very well under her direction; truly a great sign as this was the inaugural performance of the planned multi-year Verdi project.
–Parterre Box

"Eun Sun Kim led the SF Opera Orchestra’s plangent, translucent, sighing, and maximally expressive divided strings in a perfectly paced Prelude…”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

"Eun Sun Kim continues to elicit thrillingly dynamic sound from the orchestra. This Traviata registered as one of Kim’s finest local outings to date. For this conductor, even the most familiar works in the repertoire receive the careful investigation usually reserved for the new."
–Opera News

"The orchestra sounded absolutely gorgeous; beautiful string tone and blending of the woodwinds and brass with the strings. Eun Sun Kim was always supportive of the singers and never came anywhere near swamping them.”
–Iron Tongue of Midnight

“The music under new Music Director Eun Sun Kim was enthralling… Kim guided the SF Opera Orchestra masterfully. She kept the orchestra moving along at a good clip, slowing things later in the opera as the mood shifts and Violetta’s illness and parental interference cast a dark spell. It will be a pleasure to hear her conduct Verdi in coming seasons.”
–ARThound

"Once conductor Eun Sun Kim and the three debutants got started, the music caught fire, and everything unfolded engagingly in a colorful new production. Eun Sun Kim continues to lead the company’s musical proceedings with uncanny consistency. Conducting her third opera in two months, she reestablished a knack for getting stylistically appropriate music out of the singers and the orchestra. Passionate love scenes reached thrilling climaxes, and angry clashes sent off electric musical flares."
–Seen and Heard International

“Eun Sun Kim presided over a passionate presentation of one of the core operas of the performance repertory. The San Francisco Opera Orchestra, whose members have long experience with this work, responded magnificently.”
–Opera Warhorses

"The real star of the show is Korean-born conductor Eun Sun Kim, who is also the company’s music director. The orchestra is meant to not steal attention away from what’s happening on stage, but my orchestra-level seat gave me a fine vantage point to observe both. As such, I took note of the nuances of Kim’s conduction; the power she seemed to want to pull out of each and every Verdi note, even its rather light overture. Her gestures suggested someone who was literally trying to re-mold a 169-year-old piece to her will. If, as the curtain speech told us, Eun Sun Kim has a spot reserved for Verdi each year, then she’s off to a fine start."
–48 Hills

“Add in the acutely sensitive conducting of Music Director Eun Sun Kim and you have a La Traviata for the ages.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

"Wondrous things do still happen at San Francisco Opera. Like La traviata last night where conductor Eun Sun Kim built a perfect synergy... Conductor Eun Sun Kim established the measure — a firm beat except when it had to pause. Her beat did not often breathe, thus pushing the voices to move with or around the beat, capturing the immediacy and urgency of a moment. And there were plenty of these moments, in fact the entire evening was such a moment. Provide to her these singers who have the technique and musical importance to enter into her musical world, and her orchestra did indeed become one with the stage — in the intimate moments it was barely a whisper, and in the intense moments on stage it was all that was needed, no more.”
–Opera Today

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim, a hero in her own right, brilliantly leads this extraordinary cast and the acclaimed SF Opera Orchestra in Verdi’s rich score.”
–Theatrius

"Eun Sun Kim led the San Francisco Orchestra with her buoyant energy. She didn’t waste time. The brief and poignant overture, reappearing in the final act, set the stage for its alternating beaming lyricism and its poignant pathos. Mostly she conducted the orchestra as an unobtrusive agent for beauty and strong feeling. She led it as a superb accompaniest, rather than as the only driver of the show. As such, she brought out the best in her star soprano Pretty Yende."
–OperaWire

Photo by Drew Altizer

San Francisco Opera

Dialogues of the Carmelites

"A potent triumph... Conducted with fluid assurance by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, “Carmelites” conjures up every expressive strand in Poulenc’s suave score and weaves it into a rich dramatic tapestry."
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Under Music Director Eun Sun Kim’s baton, the music surges and flows through Poulenc’s vitalizing melodies. With Kim’s mobilizing account of the music, murmurous string playing is set off by a sudden silence or a trumpet’s snarl…”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Under Kim’s exemplary baton, Dialogues had a strong but flexible musical spine.”
–Opera Magazine

“The music is characterized by a naturalness... It’s simply appealing music — often lyrical but occasionally strident when appropriate to help define the action — that sticks to your ears as it fades and lingers, and conductor Eun Sun Kim gets well-deserved credit for it.”
–Vacaville Reporter

“The orchestra, guided decisively by Eun Sun Kim in this production, adds color, particularly with accents and percussive punctuation.”
–Berkshire Fine Arts

“Poulenc’s score is surprisingly rich in orchestral colors, including airy oboe solos and occasional blaring trumpets. Music Director Eun Sun Kim led the orchestra expertly through this score.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Superb singing and acting up and down the big cast, plus a stunning performance from the orchestra under music director Eun Sun Kim, added up to nothing short of a triumph. Kim brought out Poulenc’s distinctive musical flavors, shaped perfect balances with the singers and found ideal tempos. The many role debuts fit seamlessly into an ensemble that produced one electric scene after another..."
–Seen and Heard International

“Eun Sun Kim brought all of the musical intensity to the fore, shaping the score with precision and force…”
–Bay City News

“Francois Poulenc’s vibrant musical score was brilliantly performed by the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, under the impassioned conducting of Eun Sun Kim.”
–Opera Warhorses

“Eun Sun Kim conducted, fusing the disparate elements with energy. She moved briskly through the score, fully committed to each vignette. The music was rich and varied. Pacing, however, was key, and she executed it with aplomb. The whole production, led by the music, sustained a tight but not rigid grip throughout, sustaining the delicacy of thought and feeling, even in the face of force and violence.”
–OperaWire

“Poulenc’s music was given an intensely compelling account by Music Director Eun Sun Kim…”
–Rehearsal Studio

“The emotionally charged performance of the SF Opera Orchestra led by Eun Sun Kim helped the characters of the opera come alive.”
–Korea Times

“Kim led the SF Opera Orchestra in a reading with remarkable beauty, emphasizing the tonal effects and colorings of the many instruments, while paying close attention to Poulenc’s syncopated rhythms. In her hand, the score sounded alive, vibrant and yes, modern, while ensuring that the texts were fully heard.”
–Parterre Box

“Kim led a lucid, perfectly balanced performance, full of color and detail, drawing marvelous performances from the entire orchestra...”
–Opera News

San Francisco Opera

Antony and Cleopatra

“The score, like much of Adams’s work, is characteristically nimble and rhythmically driven; the composer is a master of building tension in orchestral sound. SFO music director Eun Sun Kim paced the orchestra brilliantly, eliciting every extreme and shading the rich colors in the score’s added touches of cimbalom and celesta. Under her direction, Adams’s sound world built to moments of thrilling intensity.“
–Opera News

“But it is in the orchestra where the magnificence of the opera lies. Ever churning, ever changing, ever exploring nuance, the orchestra reveals much about the characters in the opera — their inner essence and, to great extent, their outer aspects. Instrument after instrument gets its theatrical moment. This essentially leaves the drama to San Francisco Opera’s music director Eun Sun Kim, who conducts with impressively relentless enthusiasm and becomes a central figure. If you can’t get the complicated rhythm right, Adams’ music falls apart. She gets it right…”
–Los Angeles Times

“The orchestral writing is kaleidoscopically grand, particularly during the scene changes, and Mr. Adams drops in the occasional sly reference, like a quote from Wagner’s Ring as the set shifts from Rome to Egypt before Actium. Conductor Eun Sun Kim ably balanced grandeur with intimacy.”
–Wall Street Journal

“It is intensely theatrical, gestural music, a monologue without words. The dialogue unfolds with Adams’s practiced naturalism, yet the orchestra seethes underneath, delivering brief, explosive outbursts that variously suggest Cleopatra’s tantrums, Antony’s bouts of self-pity, and the nervous reactions of their underlings. Eun Sun Kim, San Francisco Opera’s vibrant young music director, led with crisp command and a sure grasp of the Adams style.”
–The New Yorker

“The music is rich, evocative and full of intricately crafted detail (Shakespeare’s famous invocation of Cleopatra’s “infinite variety” is too apt to resist applying here as well). Music Director Eun Sun Kim, in her first contemporary assignment for the company, conducted with precision and bravado.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“The music-making on the Opening Night was of the highest level. Music Director Eun Sun Kim, leading her first contemporary opera, brought power and vigor in her reading of Adams’ score, especially during the many march-like passages, and invoked sad moody nights leading to the tragedies. Kim was additionally sensitive to the needs of her singers, resulting in perfect balance between orchestra and the cast, without one overpowering the other.”
–Parterre Box

“There are effective touches, particularly in more shadowy passages that the conductor, Eun Sun Kim, revels in without losing the pulse.”
–New York Times

“The orchestra, under the creative baton of Maestro Eun Sun Kim, was fast-moving, sophisticated, energetic, witty, precise, and embracing. From Dvořák to Gluck and from Adams to Verdi, what can this artist not do? Her directing is daring and contained, creative and accurate, regal and soulful. All these qualities were evident as she guided the orchestra to embrace the story and the artists, adding the masterful touch necessary to elevate the texture of the performance to extraordinary.”
–Opera Magazine (France)

“It drives with glorious colors and dramatic intensity to the final curtain without a lapse. Music director Eun Sun Kim’s conducting is all but flawless, joyful and authoritative at every turn, particularly in the complex interludes.”
–SF Gate

“The orchestra plays with a rich fullness. Conductor Eun Sun Kim creates a sensitive soundscape that makes the beauty of Shakespeare’s text illustrious and unmissable.”
–Daily Californian

“Eun Sun Kim navigated Adams’s metrical and timbral subtleties admirably… She was especially effective in the sorrowfully drifting music of Cleopatra’s extended love-death in the final scene, which leads not to transfiguration but a wistful guttering of the candle.”
–Musical America

“As equal partners, the San Francisco Opera Orchestra and Chorus propel the drama with admirable intensity and detailed focus under Music Director Eun Sun Kim.”
–Adventures in Music

“Antony and Cleopatra is richly orchestrated, and the sonic splendor of that orchestration shone brilliantly in the 72-member San Francisco Opera Orchestra, under the authoritative leadership of Maestra Eun Sun Kim.”
–Opera Warhorses

“SFO’s music director Eun Sun Kim conducted with clarity and vitality.”
–Opera Magazine

“The music from its first sounds captured the richness of verse, the atmospheres of poetry and the urgencies of drama. Far from the minimalist sobriquet associated with Adams the score exploded in infinite details... The conducting of San Francisco Opera music director Eun Sun Kim supercharged the Adams score to art song on steroids.”
–Opera Today

“In truth, though, the musical glories lie in the orchestra, where Adams’ confidence as a composer creates colors and complexity, all deftly conducted by the company’s music director, Eun Sun Kim. The music underlying the battle is a great example – propulsive, expansive and colorful.”
–Seen and Heard International

“SF Opera music director Eun Sun Kim had the orchestra sounding in prime form on opening night. Indeed, the orchestra sounds better than ever these days in War Memorial, with a firmer bass and greater projection to the orchestral level…”
–Classical Voice North America

“In the pit, SFO Music Director Eun Sun Kim draws an impressively detailed performance from her orchestra of 72, ensuring that Adams’ score comes over crisply and clearly, and with all of its delicate effects intact.”
–Limelight Magazine

“Eun Sun Kim’s conducting and constant cueing of the singers is splendid, especially in the big orchestral interludes where Adams’s music takes flight.”
–The Telegraph

“Eun Sun Kim adroitly led the orchestra through the mostly dissonant and relentlessly galvanic contour of Adams’ score. No easy task, for sure.”
–The Reporter

“There’s no need to be subtle all the time. For proof of that, look no further than the work of SF Opera music director Eun Sun Kim, who pushes the orchestra to that appropriate balance of surreal pomp and tragic circumstance.”
–48 Hills

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim leads the fine orchestra in this work, playing the complex and demandingly interesting Adams score with skill.”
–The Ark

“Music Director Eun Sun Kim clearly put a good deal of thought into how all of those instrumental resources should be configured. From the listener’s point of view, Kim’s configuration afforded greater clarity for the winds and brass, which tended to develop the thematic lines with textured accompaniment from the string passages. Needless to say, Kim knew exactly how to balance these resources against the many different vocal dispositions on stage.”
–Rehearsal Studio

“Eun Sun Kim was here conducting her first John Adams opera, and she did a fine job of infusing this music with verve... The orchestra was huge, 72 pieces in all.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Eun Sun Kim directed with expertise and skill, showing confidence and taking advantage of each individual and group performance of the orchestra's instrumentalists.”
–Pro Ópera

"High praise goes to one of my favorite artists at SF Opera – Music Director and Conductor Eun Sun Kim. She grabs control of this most complicated score and celebrates the intensity and subtleties of every note. Sun Kim conducts the orchestra, chorus, and cast to the height of their celebrated talents."
–Theatrius

“This was my first time hearing the orchestra led by new Music Director Eun Sun Kim, who did, to my ears, a masterful job of leading the large forces through a completely new & obviously complex score.”
–Reverberate Hills Blog

“The score contains many recognisable Adams’ traits: there’s the rhythmic energy and ostinatos of his earliest works; swirling woodwinds; militaristic brass… San Francisco Opera’s music director, Eun Sun Kim, conducted with great precision and energy.”
–Bachtrack

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim had a good time getting this score up and running, her bravado seeping through the screen for viewers at home and in person.”
–Buzz Magazine UK

“Often, multitudinous rhythms and phrases come from different instrument groups in quick succession, resulting in complex and driving patterns of sound in the background.  Eun Sun Kim conducts with conviction, maintaining orchestral precision through frequent tempo changes and demanding sequences.”
–Berkshire Fine Arts

“Music Director Eun Sun Kim did a masterful job of leading the large forces through a completely new & obviously complex score.”
–Reverberate Hills

“The orchestra sounded splendid, Maestra Eun Sun Kim has precision with dynamism.”
–Opera Tattler

“The score is full of brooding orchestral colour, with the basses, trombones, tuba, and timpani figuring prominently… And writing for the voices ranged from oracular to intimate. In the second act, the tonal palette grew more delicate, yearning and alluring. SFO’s music director Eun Sun Kim conducted with clarity and vitality.”
–Opera Magazine

“Eun Sun Kim, the company’s music director, shapes the score persuasively.”
–Financial Times

“Eun Sun Kim conducted the score with acumen and an abundance of sound as she guided all 72 instrumentalists of the San Francisco Opera Orchestra with unity and intensity.”
–OperaWire

“This was executed on opening night with the greatest flair by the cast and by Music Director Eun Sun Kim, who hadn’t conducted any Adams before this. The orchestra was in magnificent form, sounding glorious and facing down the myriad technical challenges of the score with aplomb. The ensemble’s unanimity is especially notable given the surprising number of acting principals and season substitutes listed in the program.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

Photo by Drew Altizer

Seoul Philharmonic orchestra

DvoraK, Lutosławski, Texu Kim

“From the 1st movement, Eun Sun Kim’s baton actively ordered and encouraged her players, bending her body low to induce soft notes. She was a conductor who drew a distinctive curve… The majesty of the gold crown pushed in in the 4th movement and the luxurious blending of strings and brass were excellent. The sight of timpani and gold crowns emitting fire like lightning was exciting to see in Seoul after a long time…good-flowing music with outstanding storytelling.”
—JoongAng

“Kim, who leisurely cared for the melody with a light smile and guided her with clear hand gestures, performed vigorously with rhythmic movements.”
—Newsis

“‘Nice toughness' led the stage. Eun Sun Kim was clear and unshakable, and a clean melody continued without frills. The orchestra's timbre, swayed by resolute hand gestures, was not disturbed. A clean sound that is light and not exaggerated, with the wonder and excitement of 'discovery of the new world'. The music flowed precisely according to the Maestra's hand. When Eun-sun Kim moved her hands back and forth as if sweeping waves from the violin part, a beautiful string performance continued. The most famous 4th movement in 'From the New World' was powerful and magnificent. The clean, clear finish was quite cathartic. After all the performances, the audience gave a huge shout and applause. It was a sound that brought back the emotion of 'From the New World', where the victory was outstanding.”
—Korea Herald

San Francisco Opera

Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi

“They say opera is all about the singing. In that case, how should we understand an operatic program in which the conductor is the star and the vocalists are more or less the accompanists? The San Francisco Opera put on such a show [in a] once-only performance billed as “Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi,” thus putting the spotlight where it belonged. Yet perhaps the most oddly memorable segment of the evening was purely orchestral. “Don Carlo” boasts a long, rather pointless ballet sequence, almost always omitted, for which Verdi composed a string of magnificent music. We never get to hear this music, and here were Kim and the Opera Orchestra giving it a wonderful degree of tonal muscle and stylistic variety. It was a reminder of just how deep Verdi’s genius ran, and how much more there is here to discover."
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Eun Sun Kim was in her element conducting the music of Giuseppe Verdi. With Kim front and center, one could appreciate many of the subtle devices by which the music teased out the semantics… While it may be preferable to experience an opera narrative in its entirety, last night’s program provided abundant insights to account for what makes the music work."
–The Rehearsal Studio

“A wonderful concert that will long be remembered, and one that…portends great things to come in the future under the leadership of music director Eun Sun Kim."
–Berkeley Daily Planet

"Everything on stage on Thursday was immaculate, from the orchestra playing with its perfectly shaped phrases, the chorus’s pristine singing to the quartet of lovely soloists.”
–Parterre Box

"While the soloists were wonderful, the focus of the evening was reflected in the official title of the concert, “Eun Sun Kim Conducts Verdi.” Kim communicated through her baton, saying nothing but leading flawless and dramatic readings of the Overture from Luisa Miller and the ballet music from Don Carlo. As she did all night, Kim was the perfect partner, and the orchestra, liberated from the pit, listened to the singers and gave perfect support."
–San Francisco Classical Voice

Photo by Drew Altizer

Houston Grand OPERA

Turandot

“Maestro Eun Sun Kim spurred the HGO orchestra into a spirited journey of massed choral work, volcanic outbursts, and rare contemplative passages. This is Italian opera at its zenith, and she found nuance and brilliance within Puccini's massive sonic canvas.”
–Houston Press

“Led by conductor Eun Sun Kim, the HGO Orchestra complemented the three courtiers’ airiness, bringing Turandot a dash of grace that often is neglected. Kim and the orchestra also lent transparency to the moments of mystery and delicacy, propelled the vitality and ruggedness of the crowd scenes, and lent glow to the score’s relatively few—for Puccini—bursts of lyricism.”
–Texas Classical Review

“Against the backdrop of Puccini’s luxurious score, with Eun Sun Kim leading the orchestra… awash in moments of overwhelming beauty, sadness and foreboding.”
–Houston Chronicle

“HGO’s principal guest conductor Eun Sun Kim gave the opera’s bold, multi-hued score the full Technicolor treatment.”
–Opera Magazine

LYRIC OPERA OF CHICAGO

Tosca

"A vivid realization of Puccini’s ceaselessly compelling score... Enlivening and enriching this production all along the way is conductor Eun Sun Kim. She is generating considerable buzz in the opera world, and it’s not hard to understand why. Kim displays a keen understanding of the dramatic arc of this well-constructed opera and an instinctive sense of tempo, knowing when to pull back and when to key the action with a crackling downbeat. Let’s hope to see her back in Lyric’s pit soon."
–Chicago Sun-Times

“Kim’s young career has been garnering a reputation and happily, this was one of the most significant conductor debuts in Lyric’s history. It wasn’t just that Kim conducted the Lyric Opera Orchestra with precision and nuance with remarkable attention to detail and color, but she is a master dramatist who knows how to skillfully build up and release tension. A Lyric Opera spokesman told me Kim did the vocal coaching for this production and it showed. It is difficult to remember the last time that all of the musical elements of a Lyric production came together so seamlessly and powerfully.”
–Newcity Stage

“In many ways the most thrilling aspect of the production was the lushly beautiful, impeccably modulated sound of the Lyric Opera Orchestra as led by Eun Sun Kim, the acclaimed Korean conductor making a mightily impressive Lyric Opera debut. I hope a return visit is already in the works.”
–WTTW

“One of the most musically satisfying Lyric Toscas in memory… Eun Sun Kim’s marvelous reading of the score emphasized elegance over pyrotechnics. All manner of detail emerged from under Kim’s baton, with some particularly beautiful layering from the woodwinds.”
–Opera News

“There was plenty to love about the Lyric Opera Orchestra, under the masterful baton of the Lyric-debuting conductor Eun Sun Kim.  Kim drew every bit of humor, melodrama, and pathos in Puccini’s glorious score. She led with musical intelligence and perfect pacing, and you could almost feel the high spirits of the orchestra in response to her work. I heard numerous nuances that I’d never heard before as she led great contrast between the love duet’s romance and jealousy to the harsh and frightening chords of Scarpia’s entrance.”
–Parterre Box

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim never lets the story drag, but neither does it rush through grand spectacles such as the religious procession at the end of Act I or the climactic confrontation between Tosca and Scarpia. If you love Tosca (and I do), this production will probably give you exactly what you want.”
–Around the Town Chicago

“The music could not be more grandly persuasive under guest conductor Eun Sun Kim. She made a debut of rare eloquence, meticulously supportive of the singers, who must have loved working with her. The Lyric Opera Orchestra ranged from sounding serene and sumptuous to molten and terrifyingly charged.”
–Chicago on the Aisle

“This Tosca is the highlight of the Lyric Opera season... Puccini’s glorious musical score soars under the Lyric’s exceptional orchestra led by conductor Eun Sun Kim, in her Lyric debut.”
–The Epoch Times

“From the opening notes of Puccini’s score, Eun Sun Kim and the Lyric Orchestra deliver a crisp yet complex and textured evening of music. The pace is brisk, which helps move the action, while also allowing time and space for the singers to deliver the most memorable moments of the opera. This is a sharp, technically flawless rendition of the intensely dramatic score.”
–Chicago on Stage

“Kim’s mastery of Puccini’s demanding score was evident throughout.”
–The Times Weekly

“The new production at the Lyric Opera brings everything you could want to this well-known and beloved opera… It all begins with the firm foundation provided by the Lyric Opera Orchestra conducted by Eun Sun Kim, who brings intensity and drama to the familiar score. In her able hands, the music isn’t just supporting the voices, but it is also a star in itself.  It reminded me of Solti more than anything else. Her conducting has real personality and would be enough to recommend this production…”
–Splash Magazines

"Under the baton of Eun Sun Kim, you can hear that guiding optimism coming from the pit."
–Chicago Tribune

“The main merits of the evening fell on…the intense reading of Eun Sun Kim. More than conducting, the Korean maestro articulates her arms like a bird of prey. And she creates all the musical textures that suit the theatricality of Puccini's music, sensitive to the gloom of the staging without falling back on overacting.”
–El Confidencial

“A musically strong and dramatically potent Tosca… Bradley’s performance (and those of everyone else) were paced with exceptional fluidity and idiomatic understanding by the conductor Eun Sun Kim, also gracing the company roster for the first time. Presiding in the pit, Kim acquitted herself as a Puccinian to the manner born, making the orchestra and chorus fully invested forces in the drama. It was her considerable achievement to make Puccini’s ‘shabby little shocker’ feel neither shabby nor little but newly minted musically.”
–Opera Magazine

“Tosca famously features some of opera’s most thrilling music. This production, with Eun Sun Kim conducting the excellent Lyric Opera Orchestra, doesn’t disappoint on that score.”
–Chicago Reader

"One of the finest productions of Puccini’s “shabby little shocker” Chicago has seen in many, many years. The evening benefited enormously from a significant debut: conductor Eun Sun Kim leading the orchestra in the pit. Kim has been on a virtual conquering tour of the country’s leading opera houses. The Korean conductor made an acclaimed debut at the Metropolitan Opera in November and Saturday night it was the turn of Chicagoans to judge for themselves.

It ain’t hype. Kim demonstrated that she is the real thing opening night. Time and again, she brought out the beauty of the music and Puccini’s luxuriant scoring to a startling degree that effectively made the Lyric Opera Orchestra a fourth principal on stage with the singers. 

To make a score as familiar as this seem fresh and newly minted is no small feat, yet Kim and a responsive, clearly invigorated Lyric Opera Orchestra did so. Such subtle details as the triplets against warmly yielding string phrases or the birdlike wind twittering when Tosca speaks longingly of the house and garden she will share with her lover came across as clearly as the malign, aggressive force of Scarpia’s theme, with cinematic impact and immediacy. Wow."
–Chicago Classical Review

Photo by Todd Rosenberg

the Philadelphia orchestra

Dvorak, barber, m. bates

“Eun Sun Kim proved to be an incisive conductor. She had a particularly strong point of view in Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9, which is maybe not surprising since she’s had a chance to dig deep conducting the piece with other orchestras internationally. But she also made her presence known in the Barber Violin Concerto, successfully leaving a personal imprint while accommodating the wishes and views of Juliette Kang, the orchestra’s first associate concertmaster, who was soloist. Kim took time to tend the serene, sun-dappled aspects of the movement, while magnifying climactic moments. Kim constructed the [Dvorak] opening as a brisk, no-nonsense sequence with an effective snarl. She took up some of the slack that has settled into the performance tradition of this music. To a good degree, especially in the outer two movements, she made this music her own. In a work as familiar as this one, that’s innovation.”
—Philadelphia Inquirer

“A promising local introduction to conductor Eun Sun Kim, who led a program that celebrated the sweep of American music and showed that large-scale Romanticism very much still has a place in the concert hall. Her interpretation highlighted Dvorák’s lush writing for individual instruments and his brilliant use of contrasting textures. The performance also had a clear narrative focus throughout. Kang and Kim handled the shifts in Barber’s writing with practiced ease, making the shift from the refined Allegro to the histrionic Andante seem a natural progression. (Kim also drew out Alpine undertones in the second movement – a Straussian influence perhaps?) The perpetual-motion finale was played with appropriate abandon, with Kang’s solo line always maintaining the dominant hand.”
–Bachtrack

Photo by Margo Reed

OREGON SYMPHONY

Rimsky-Korsakov, Dukas, R. HOLLOWAY

“Incisive conducting… Kim led the orchestra in a stellar performance of Scheherazade. The entire orchestra seemed inspired to create images of ocean voyages, romance, exotic landscapes, swashbuckling fights, storms, and death-defying escapes. The principals of the orchestra flawlessly executed their exposed passages, many of them feather-light and devilishly tricky. Under Kim’s crisp baton-work, the entire ensemble swept Sinbad’s ship into the rocks, and from the subsiding calm the silky, sinuous theme rose one last time from Kwak’s violin. Someone in the hall loudly exclaimed “Wow!” That really summed it up.”
—Oregon ArtsWatch

WIENER STAATSOPER

La bohÈme

“Kim asserts her ideas confidently in the orchestra. She keeps musicians and singers at snappy tempos, gives the scenes drive, intensity, and, from time to time, tangible humor. She lets timbres flourish nobly, but tries never to gush in order to reflect the harsh reality of bohemian life. An evening full of energy and youthful freshness. The audience's applause left no doubt that everyone would like to see the South Korean conductor on the podium again with other works.”
—Kronen Zeitung

“Kim moves things along tautly and energetically. She has everything under control… The orchestra simply brings people to their knees.”
–Der Standard

“Kim’s conducting is dynamic and quite bold, without wallowing in the Puccini sound. The Café Momus act suits her pace very well, with the hustle and bustle on stage well-matched in the orchestra pit.”
–Online Merker

Helena Ludwig

THE METROPOLITAN Opera

La bohÈme

“Giacomo Puccini’s beloved “La Bohème,” with its lyrically rich and deftly written score, has the makings of a surefire opera. Yet the music is full of traps for a conductor, especially when it comes to pacing and rhythmic freedom; give singers too much expressive leeway, and things can easily turn flaccid.

Even in a good performance of this well-known staple, it’s hard for a conductor’s work to stand out against the singers’ voices, which usually claim our attention. But on Tuesday, when “Bohème” returned to the Metropolitan Opera, the star of the evening was the conductor, Eun Sun Kim, in her Met debut. She did the job with musicianly care, assured technical command, subtlety and imagination. It’s been a long time since I’ve heard Puccini’s score so freshly played.

On one level, Kim’s achievement was all in the details. From the opening measures of Act I, set in a cramped garret shared by the story’s struggling artists, Kim took a vibrant tempo held just enough in check to allow for the crisp execution of dotted-note rhythmic figures, sputtering riffs and emphatic syncopations. In the playing she drew from the orchestra, which sounded alert and at its best, she teased out distinct thematic threads while letting skittish, colorful flourishes work their magic and then waft away.

Kim gave [Castronovo] breathing room. Yet she showed that even while following a singer sensitively, a conductor can subtly nudge him along so a line does not go slack. She was equally alert to the characteristics of Hartig, [who] brought a conversational flow to the aria “Mi chiamano Mimì,” stretching one phrase to express a bashful, intimate feeling and slightly rushing another to convey nervousness. Kim kept the orchestra with her every moment, and the entire scene around that aria — the awkward, nervous exchanges between Rodolfo and Mimì as they first meet — had shape and drive.

Kim’s way of conveying the structural elements of the score — which is not just a series of dramatic scenes but, in Puccini’s hand, a composition with an overall form — was just as important as her attention to details. Her work in Act III, the emotional core of the opera, was exceptionally fine. The singers were intense in their back and forth, but the long, arching melodic lines that hold this scene together are in the orchestra, and Kim brought them out with tautness and full-bodied sound. There are 14 more performances of “Bohème” this season. The great news is that for all but four of them, Kim will be in the pit.”

–The New York Times

“A lot of the cheering was…accorded the conductor Eun Sun Kim. She is really special; she has already conducted a broad repertory of operas and concerts almost everywhere. This Bohème was her Met debut, and she maintained complete control of the still-superb Met orchestra. Her phrasing sounded idiomatic yet still personal, and she breathed supportively with the singers. It will be fascinating to watch how her career evolves.”
–Opera Magazine

“Kim conducted with understanding, alertness, and command—a command that was not smothering. Act ii, she handled deftly, and this is not an easy act to handle.”

–New Criterion

“It was nice to hear Kim take the Met orchestra and run with it. She led a nuanced, smartly worked show.”
–Broadway World

“A notable conductor debut… All went unerringly in the pit, as conductor Kim traced the opera’s whipsawing moods with a winning combination of precision and flexibility. Wherever there was a particular felicity or plot twist in Puccini’s scoring, she made sure it was heard. The pacing of the musical action, whether adagio or scherzando, never flagged.”

–New York Classical Review

“Puccini’s Bohème returned to the Metropolitan Opera in an energetic and passionate performance, conducted by South Korean maestro Eun Sun Kim in her exciting company debut. From the opera’s iconic opening chords, it was clear that Kim’s reading of Puccini’s evergreen score was going to be a game-changer. In the past decade, La Bohème at the Met has been steady, reliable, consistent and—with the exception of a few outlying star performances, largely routine. Not so with Kim at the podium. Kim brought the necessary youthful spontaneity to Puccini’s score while drawing out nuances and details as only a seasoned artist can do. “O soave fanciulla” throbbed and transported, Musetta’s waltz once again sparkled and glittered, the winter chill and emotional complexity of Act III were palpable, and Colline’s farewell to an overcoat was supported by an orchestral cushion of nostalgia. Kim also knows how to effortlessly bridge the pit and the stage, a rare skill that is essential to verismo opera. We can only hope that she’s given many more opportunities to bring spark, heart, and thoughtful artistry to the Met.”
–Opera News

Photo by Marty Sohl

San Francisco Opera

Fidelio

“With the company’s exciting new music director, Eun Sun Kim, in the pit, Beethoven’s sole opera unfurled with propulsion and dramatic precision. In its bold direction and musical momentum, this Fidelio made a sombre and finally liberating new claim on a modern audience’s attention.”
–Opera Magazine

“Glorious conducting from Eun Sun Kim in her first full season as the company’s music director. From moment to moment, Kim found just the right dynamics, shadings and pace in the pit. The orchestra…sounded rich and glowed with resonance. The prisoner’s chorus in Act I began with a threadlike hush in the orchestra and gradually built to an exultant joy, only to recede into a poignant silence. The introduction to Florestan’s Act II aria pulsed with a mix of anger and despair. Sensational sound from the orchestra, principals and chorus made the finale blaze... The well-cast voices, a thoughtful staging that fit the piece’s intent and Kim’s command of the musical values lifted this whole endeavor into a winner.”
–Seen and Heard International

“The moment needed nothing more than the orchestra’s sensitive and responsive support, which it received here and throughout the evening under music director Eun Sun Kim’s baton.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Music director Eun Sun Kim led a propulsive, judiciously paced performance, properly closer to the stylistic realm of Mozart than to Beethoven’s Romantic successors. The orchestra played splendidly, and perhaps their finest moment was the sepulchral, and deeply unsettling, introduction to Act II.”
–Opera News

“Fine musical direction by Eun Sun Kim... San Francisco Opera’s rendering of “Fidelio” pulls out all of the stops and offers a superb experience.  Kim conducts with verve – capturing the dynamics and tempo of the orchestral-like score.  Ensembles excel, often with beautiful close harmonies, and the prisoners’ choruses stand out."
–Berkshire Fine Arts

"Kim conducted the opera's sorrowful music with a majestic yet nuanced performance."
–Korea Times

“Kudos are due to new Music Director Eun Sun Kim for conducting a crisp, musically engaging Fidelio…”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Well-matched heroic voices exhibit great beauty of tone when buoyed up by conductor Eun Sun Kim's large, musically colorful orchestra. Kim chose tempi that never let the tension sag and her excellent instrumentalists showed us the plethora of orchestral color in which Beethoven bathed his one glorious opera. Don't miss it!”
–Broadway World

“Yesterday afternoon in the War Memorial Opera House, it often seemed as if there was more action in the San Francisco Opera orchestra pit than there was up on the stage. Kim undertook a major overhaul in the seating of the musicians. The entire layout provided Kim with a more accessible palette to balance her instrumental sonorities. This was evident as she unfolded the overture with an attention to coloration that is too frequently overlooked in an orchestra pit. The rich musical resources of Kim’s orchestra were best complemented by the SFO Chorus.”
–Rehearsal Studio

“Two-plus hours of unadulterated joy... Conductor Eun Sun Kim’s control and strength gave wings to the orchestra, translating Beethoven’s masterpiece into raw human emotion."
–Theatrius

“Beethoven’s Fidelio is a hybrid opera of many components, a wonderful mix of Singspiel, rom-com, high drama, breathtaking tension, tearful lamentation, and in the finale, an overwhelming symphonic-choral celebration of life and liberty — Beethoven’s first “Ode to Joy.” Balancing these disparate elements and presenting the work as a coherent musical experience is a daunting challenge, met superbly by SF Opera Music Director Eun Sun Kim at the premiere. ESK’s balances are especially notable for having the orchestra accompany the singers and never step on them. On opening night, a prima facie case occurred with the Act I quartet, always a problem of balancing four different voices across the footlights with the orchestra — and on Thursday night, all was exactly right.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Intently alert to every nuance onstage, Eun Sun Kim made this transformation thrillingly persuasive. Her thorough knowledge of the score was evident in telling tempo choices and finely punctuated details. Kim showed special sensitivity to Beethoven’s pivot-points—the moments of epiphany on which the entire opera is built. In the opening scene’s quartet, for example, where the tone has to suddenly shift from the sitcom of mistaken identity to a different level, she elicited a warm, lyrical glow. The joyous reunion of Leonore with Florestan after danger has passed pulsated with Tristan-like ecstatic delirium."
–Musical America

San Francisco Opera

The homecoming

“Kim’s sensitive conducting found impeccable balance with the singers in their arias, scenes and duets, without losing an ounce of energy and flair from the band.”
–Seen and Heard International

“The really big news about this production of Tosca is Eun Sun Kim — it's clear her that her scintillating talent qualifies her for any podium in the world. Kim's job is to inspire the orchestra to create a clear, dynamic, and compelling account of a complex score, and to direct the singers onstage who are both supported by the musicians in the pit and partners in the larger sound creation that is the opera itself. In the hands of Eun Sun Kim, those opening notes — going from a loud bleat to a threatening pianissimo in a flash — sent a chill down the audience's collective spine.”
–Seattle Gay News

“Kim conducted an orchestra that was seated onstage in front of a large acoustic wall – all musicians are seated on one level... Thanks to Kim’s well-proven and constant command of the orchestra, balances were still acceptable, and as usual with her, tempi, accents, cutoffs were impeccable. Not only is she an exceptional leader, but also an extraordinary accompanist. With the soloist downstage, behind her back, the conductor inspired a blended sound of voices and instruments, as if all were in front of her and following her baton. A difficult task, admirably accomplished.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“The Homecoming began with a rousing rendition of Franz von Suppé’s popular Light Cavalry Overture, a perfect display to showcase the various sections of the SF Opera Orchestra. Kim took the galloping music in a breakneck pace—it certainly worked to set the mood of the audience into celebration mode, and they cheered gleefully. Kim’s accompaniment was particularly memorable [in “Depuis le jour”], transporting the audience to a magical night in Paris. The hushed qualities that permeated “Depuis le jour” were in full display [in Song to the Moon], once again fully supported by Kim’s otherworldly backing.”
–Parterre Box

“From the start, Kim conducted with vigor and vitality, leaving nothing behind. From the moment she sprinted onto the stage and the podium, she was in business, her petite frame showing nothing petite in her conducting control and liveliness… Maestra Kim’s leadership of the orchestra provided an additional dimension. Their music was exquisite. With the orchestra under Maestra Kim playing with fluidity and grace, we left the War Memorial Opera House clearly ready to breathe in the possibilities of the life of music in the city once again.”
–Operawire

“Seeing Eun Sun Kim conduct on a raised podium on stage rather than being submerged in the orchestra pit where she conducted the recent performances of Tosca, offered the audience a great opportunity to study Ms. Kim’s intriguing style of conducting. Unlike so many conductors these days who conduct more for the audience than for the orchestra, Eun Sun Kim does not indulge in histrionics aimed at leading the audience by the nose thru every twist and turn in the music. Instead she conducts specifically for the orchestra, and this is clear by the way she does not, like so many conductors, use her baton to punctuate each note and phrase precisely on the beat. Instead, Eun Sun Kim truly leads the orchestra by anticipating the notes and phrases slightly ahead of the beat. The results are superb…Kim brought out all the rich colors and textures of the music.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Eun Sun Kim, the company’s promising new music director, presided…the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, arrayed onstage instead of in the pit, sounded luxuriantly fine.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

San Francisco Opera

Tosca

“Kim led a performance of grandeur and propulsive intensity. Quiet moments seethed with drama as much as the work’s many passionate outbursts... Kim was always alert and flexible in supporting the singers. The orchestra was glorious, playing with superb ensemble and exceptionally beautiful sound, a great achievement given the twenty-month gap since the company’s last performances at full strength.”
–Opera News

“Delivery on a great promise came from Eun Sun Kim, who led a Tosca of unusual colors and accents, brought the orchestra to the front, but never — not for a moment — handicapping the singers…The strings sang, the woodwinds thrilled, the brass throbbed, and Kim already, at the beginning, evoked memories of the best early days of her predecessors, Nicola Luisotti and Donald Runnicles.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Tosca made some potent impressions. New music director Eun Sun Kim seized control of the score and led a performance of heaving intensity, subtle mood shifts and piquant details.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Puccini’s score is a roller-coaster of wildly varying dispositions. Kim knew just how to lead the orchestra through that wild ride. Indeed, the relationship between what was happening in the orchestra pit and everything conceived to take place on stage could not have been better. If the narrative is the spirit brought to life in Tosca, then one might say that the flesh the direction was consistently nourished by the blood of Kim’s musical leadership.”
–The Rehearsal Studio

"Kim led the opera orchestra in a reading with so much strength and vigor…”
–Parterre Box

“Eun Sun Kim led the orchestra, principals and chorus in a performance full of vivid musical imagery. Kim’s fluid, well-paced rendition of Puccini’s Tosca augurs well for her reign as San Francisco Opera’s Music Director.”
–Berkeley Daily Planet

“Kim conducted the orchestra with well-paced delivery of Puccini’s score and a balance of appropriate sonorities that ranged from softly caressing to dramatically thunderous, while always the proper complement to the singers.”
–San Francisco Examiner

“The main artistic interest of the night centred on…Eun Sun Kim in her first outing as San Francisco Opera’s new music director. Kim had already delivered a stunning first impression in a keenly wrought and vividly dramatic Rusalka in January 2019. Now, with Tosca, she was claiming the pit and all its attendant responsibilities as her own. It was fitting that Kim, in Puccini’s concussive opening chords and scuttling strings, got the first musical word. Right away it was clear that conductor and orchestra were in mutually responsive sync. With freshly realized phrasing, hyper-command of dynamic shifts and an uncanny transparency, Kim led a performance at once seductively beautiful and charged with the opera’s intrinsic vitality and volatility. Orchestral colours gleamed and smouldered. In the score’s lyrical surges, Kim and her players never resorted to the kind of lushness that can swaddle rather than express and amplify the action. There were telling touches everywhere—the brass stamped with Scarpia’s vileness, strings tremulous with the agony of Cavaradossi’s stargazing final moments, a clarinet note dying away as the heroine began her aria of living for art.”
–Opera Magazine

Photo by Kristen Loken

GRANT PARK MUSIC FESTIVAL

Dvořák, Shostakovich, Texu Kim

“Kim may be slight of figure, but she exerts the kind of no-nonsense command and confident musical authority on the podium that render physical stature irrelevant. Her stick technique and body language prize clear communication, which is to say that her exertions are directed towards illuminating the music rather than playing to the crowd. Her ear for detail is exemplary yet she never mistakes musical trees for forest: the long line is ever in her sights. Without going to extremes of interpretation, she managed to make the lyrical abundance and sweeping symphonic drama of the Dvořák masterpiece feel fresh. She set and maintained judicious tempos and she was always natural in her treatment of tempo relations; such flexibility made for smooth transitions and allowed Dvořák’s phrases to expand and contract. Climaxes built firmly without feeling forced. She had the orchestra relaxing into the lyricism but also had them whipping up firmly dramatic climaxes. Kim gave the Largo its due in terms of shapely phrasing and romantic feeling; the “Goin’ Home” English horn solo was beautifully taken. The Scherzo was properly gutsy, and the flutter-tonguing clarinets brought a touch of Bohemian color. Razor-sharp articulation helped focus the musical argument of the finale. The Grant Parkers gave the guest maestra everything she asked for...”
–Chicago Classical Review

“Guest conductor Eun Sun Kim dove into a frantically paced and generally exciting performance of Shosakovich’s brilliant combination of mayhem and romantic sentiment. She drew out stellar work from the brass throughout the performance. The Molto vivace was taut and tense and Kim found all the excitement in the opening and the dance-like qualities that followed were equally charming. Kim opened the final movement with authority. I admire the fact that she didn’t attempt to contrive interest from splashy, rapid tempos…”
–Hyde Park Herald

San Diego Symphony

Sibelius, Rachmaninoff, Texu Kim

“Kim’s assured, even commanding appearance this weekend with the San Diego Symphony easily demonstrated why the San Francisco Opera recently hired her as their Music Director. Leading the orchestra through two expansive late Romantic works—the Sibelius Violin Concerto and Rachmaninoff’s Third Symphony—as well as a crisp new work of equally lavish orchestration by Texu Kim, Ms. Kim coaxed impassioned yet highly disciplined performances from the orchestra. Ms. Kim encouraged a big, heroic sound from the orchestra, indeed welcome in the concerto’s most powerful statements. Yet more winning, subtle moments remain in memory, such as the shimmer of the hushed woodwinds at the opening of the slow middle movement. Ms. Kim dared a breathless tempo for the closing movement, which allowed Zhou to display her technical prowess, immaculately defined phrasing and articulation that gracefully communicated the composer’s high spirits.”
–San Diego Story

“Spin-Flip is like an interval-training workout for orchestra. Conductor Kim managed the chaotic variations with considerable skill… Kim’s experience backing opera's emotional excesses probably helped make her an effective interpreter of Rachmaninoff’s gushing romanticism, and the orchestra responded with enthusiasm to her direction.”
–Broadway World

“Kim’s ability to coordinate the balance between the orchestra and a soloist was on full display.”
–San Diego Reader

LOS ANGELES Opera

Roberto Devereux

“Conditions seemed ripe for disaster, but instead the company snatched a substantial victory out of the jaws of defeat. Credit for this victory must go partly to Eun Sun Kim... Donizetti’s score is notable for the way in which it transitions stylistically from bel canto to grand opera, sowing the seeds for Verdi in the process. Kim’s painstaking attention to Donizetti’s tempos and her insistence on utmost clarity in the orchestral playing of melodies enabled us to hear this historic transition with ease and distinct pleasure. But she also provided a bed of sound that enabled the singers to extract the maximum of drama from the tightly constructed plot.”
–Opera News

“The surprise element – call it “freshness” – was very real in this production, noticeable even in the very first bars of the music conducted by Eun Sun Kim, making her LA Opera debut. A tutti exclamation, pause, string chorale, pause…this is how the work begins. A mere assemblage of ideas? No, under Kim’s baton, there was palpable tension underneath. These were juxtaposed propositions that promised the unfurling of an intriguing drama. Musically, the evening’s every detail was well-judged – the tempo shifts of Elisabetta’s “Ah! ritorna qual ti spero;” the pressing bass iterations under Elisabetta’s refusal to consider Nottingham’s plea for pity on Roberto’s behalf. Kim’s handling of the orchestra pointed the text as acutely as a Shakespearean actor might shape Elizabethan verse.”
–OperaWire

“Also making her LA Opera debut at this performance was conductor Eun Sun Kim, [who] gave an energetic reading of the score which brought out the dramatic intensity of the work. She kept the action moving with brisk tempi but always allowed the singers enough room to create sonorous characters. The musical standards for this performance were enormously high…”
–Broadway World Opera

“The other news of the night was conductor Eun Sun Kim, who recently was appointed music director of San Francisco Opera. She made the orchestra stand out as though there were a resonator of some sort in the pit. I’m not sure how she did it, but it was effective.”
–Los Angeles Times

“Making her LAO debut under such trying circumstances, conductor Eun Sun Kim did a commendable job of holding Donizetti’s Tudor drama together.  The orchestral passages pulsed through the duets and arias like vital heartbeats, and beautiful winds colored their emotions.  Apart from the precision of playing, the sweeping ensembles and cabalettas were also a joy to behold. The Act II opening chorus was especially fine with silken strings, mellifluous woodwinds and the stirring, beguiling voices of the LA Opera Chorus.”
–Classical Voice

“Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux (here in its company premiere) is a demanding work – an exemplar of the genre that, in the right hands, can be quite persuasive. Half of the original principals had been replaced by opening night… Holding the entire ordeal together was the task of conductor Eun Sun Kim, recently appointed Music Director Designate of San Francisco Opera (quite a coup for them). It was no small thrill watching Kim encourage and tend to every need of Meade, who couldn’t have had too many rehearsals with the orchestra. Given the tempo changes and transitions, it was impressively seamless. Kim drew some exceptionally refined playing out of the LA Opera Orchestra, which continues to improve as an ensemble. It was a well-balanced and sensitive reading of Donizetti’s score.”
–Bachtrack

“Making her LAO debut, Eun Sun Kim conducted with authority and ebullience, coaxing a regal sound from the pit…”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

“Eun Sun Kim led the excellent Los Angeles Opera Orchestra in a confident and sensitive reading of Donizetti’s score.”
–Opera Warhorses

“In her company debut, Eun Sun Kim led a lively, polished account of the score.”
–Opera Magazine

“The secret to Donizetti is balancing the brassy martial fervor with the bel canto introspective moments and our evening’s conductor Eun Sun Kim made all of it appear seamless. For all the sturm and drang surrounding the staging there wasn’t a moment of hesitancy on anyone’s part and that only speaks to her strong and supple leadership. Balance between stage and pit was ideal all evening and the orchestra textures were crisp and rhythmically alert. Ms. Kim was just named Music Director designate for San Francisco Opera starting in 2021 and it is easy to understand why after a performance this assured and accomplished.”
–Parterre Box

San Francisco Opera

The Future Is Now Adler Fellows Concert • 2019

“Such a skilled and virtuosic performer… Kim provided musical guidance that was firm but pliant, delicate yet strong-limbed. At every point, you could feel her giving the singers just what they needed to excel, without ever drawing focus onto her. It’s just what you want from an opera conductor, and it inspired optimism for the performances in the company’s coming seasons. ‘The Future Is Now’ is, of course, meant to apply to the Adler Fellows, but I think no harm is done if we decide to apply the moniker a little more broadly.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“On the instrumental side Kim had the opportunity to work with instrumentation at its richest during the “first encounter” duet between Cinderella  and Prince Charming in Jules Massenet’s Cendrillon. Kim’s sensitivity to those rich details provided just the right context to capture the dramatic intensity of first the encounter itself and then its interruption at the stroke of midnight.”
–The Rehearsal Studio

“Kim took the podium to conduct the SFO Orchestra in the keenly anticipated annual display vehicle for the crème de la crème of singers from the Merola Opera Program. The audience welcomed Kim with a warm ovation. With grace and sensitivity, Kim quickly turned to business. Bernstein's Overture to "Candide" set the mood for a brilliant night of singing by gifted young artists.”
–Bay Area Reporter

“When Kim came onstage to conduct a small opera orchestra she got a warm and enthusiastic welcome from all in the house.  Then she got down to business and kept the focus on the music for the rest of the evening. The orchestra shifted effortlessly from one composer to another and Kim kept them playing flawlessly throughout the evening.  Since the orchestra was onstage behind the singers, she, too, was behind the singers with her back to them.  She managed very deftly to turn sideways to make eye contact with each one and cue them in at appropriate times.  Her style was masterful and made for excellent music-making.”
–Classical Voice

“Right out of the gate, with a Candide opener that capered and galloped and sighed, sending off bright flashes of color throughout, Kim confirmed what those who had heard her work in the vibrant and coruscating Rusalka at the War Memorial Opera House last summer already knew: San Francisco Opera’s musical future is in excellent hands. Kim and the orchestra partnered splendidly with the singers. It was no mean feat for the conductor, who was positioned behind the singers and had to connect with them by musical intuition and sidelong glances… The evening glowed with vocal and orchestral variety. It all raised the implicit promise of much more to come.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

Photo by Kristen Loken

CINCINNATI SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Brahms, Beethoven, Gabriella Smith

“Kim provided impeccable balance and support, and warmly shaped the tutti passages. Although Saturday was Kim’s first Cincinnati Symphony subscription appearance, the 38-year-old conductor made a memorable U.S. debut leading the Cincinnati May Festival in Verdi’s Requiem in 2018. With her star rapidly ascending in this country as well as in Europe, she was recently named principal guest conductor for Houston Grand Opera.

After intermission, the conductor conveyed the autumnal quality of Brahms’ Symphony No. 4 in E Minor. From the work’s arresting opening notes, which seem to start mid-sentence, she cultivated a rich, relaxed sound in the strings. Each phrase breathed, yet she also led with momentum, knowing just the right moment to push ahead. There was much to admire, from the sonorous beauty of the second movement, with its quietly lyrical clarinet solo (Christopher Pell), to the robust intensity of the third, the closest Brahms came to an orchestral scherzo.

The conductor was a dynamic presence as she led, illuminating details of the score with clarity and expressive power. The finale, a towering passacaglia, unfolded with depth and the musicians responded with polished, refined playing.”
–Cincinnati Business Courier

Photo by Daniel Delang

L'ORCHESTRE PHILHARMONIQUE DE MARSEILLE

Prokofiev, Grieg, Tchaikovsky

For its first concert of the 2019-2020 season, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille welcomed two musicians whose artistries spoke for themselves. The baton was entrusted to Eun Sun Kim, guest conductor at the Cincinnati Orchestra and who is frequently engaged by many world-class opera houses.

The Norwegian concerto [Grieg’s Piano Concerto] was framed by two works from the Russian repertoire, starting with Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. This seemingly simple piece in fact requires flawless placement coupled with an underlying sense of humor... The conductor’s rhythmic determination freed the virtuosity of the ensemble in a well-defined and building finale.

The second part of the evening was devoted to Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony, a pillar of the orchestral repertoire marked by the composer's relationship to his inevitable destiny. Here, Eun Sun Kim’s radical interpretation commanded a feeling of an inescapable destiny, to outpour too much would be impossible. This ruthless march to the abyss was emphasized by her gestures, projecting vertically with her balanced arms each pulsation bore an identical sweeping amplitude. We imagine that the musicians must feel at ease with such metrical constancy, especially in the face of their rapid preparation.
–Destimed

SAN FRANCISCO OPERA

Rusalka

“None of this, though, would matter so much or feel so theatrically heightened if not for the magnificent musical values on display from top to bottom. Presiding over everything, in a company debut of astonishing vibrancy and assurance, was conductor Eun Sun Kim, who drew glorious playing from the Opera Orchestra and paced every scene freely but precisely.”
–San Francisco Chronicle

“Holding it all together was the outstanding musical direction of Eun Sun Kim, who was at home not only with the score’s Wagnerian resonances but with Dvorak’s folk-inflected rhythmic energy, too. The orchestra’s vibrant responsiveness made Kim’s debut here a spectacular one for a company currently in search of a music director.”
–Musical America

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim made a significant company debut. The Korean maestra led an energized account of Dvorak’s masterful score, one that effectively integrated the composer’s indelible harmonies, folk effusions, poignant yearning and haunting resonance.”
–Opera News

“In her San Francisco Opera debut, conductor Eun Sun Kim assuredly drew splendid playing from an ensemble that proved its versatility (the instrumentalists spent the prior night playing Baroque). She brought forward the music’s visceral quality laying deep under the folkloric connotations. More, she succeeded to balance Wagnerian-like statements with subtle invocations of Mendelssohnian delicacy.”

–Bachtrack

“South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim made her SFO debut with a detailed and beautifully paced interpretation of the lovely score. Dvorak must have been thinking of Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" for his passionate final duet between the Prince and Rusalka, and he was probably aiming for some Verdian flavor with scenes between the water nymph and her Water Goblin dad (think "Rigoletto") and appearances by the hideous witch Jezibaba ("Il Trovatore"). Regardless of theatrical influences, Eun Sun Kim underscored [Dvorak’s] unmistakable musical sound with sympathetic support from the orchestra.”
–Bay Area Reporter

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim made a gripping company debut, bringing out the Czech pulse and phrasing under a shiny surface of supple orchestral playing. The Korean-born artist maintained impeccable balances with all the singers and kept the score unfolding with a sense of inevitability. She wrangled the big cast into a cohesive, propulsive engine.”
–Seen and Heard International

“Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim draws warm incisive playing from the orchestra, adding to the dramatic impact and underpinning the moving final scene…”

–Classical Voice

“With its echoes of Czech folksongs, Dvořák’s romantic score is lush, accessible, frequently moving. The dependable San Francisco Opera orchestra, conducted by Eun Sun Kim in her company debut, outdoes itself, especially as the opera soars to its demonic climax.”

–Theatrius

“South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim made a strong impression with her company debut, leading a performance that was powerful and passionate. She coaxed glorious playing from the Orchestra…an auspicious debut for her, and the audience responded enthusiastically.”

–Parterre Box

“The Korean-born Eun Sun Kim, the standout among a parade of guest conductors…made a huge impact with her work on Rusalka, a highlight of an already excellent 2018-2019 season. Kim’s sense of timing, impeccable balance, and flair for the dramatic touch made the whole thing fly. Reports from friends within the opera gave Kim the highest marks for pulling together all the details with deftness and heart.”
–Seen and Heard International

“South Korean conductor Maestra Eun Sun Kim presided over the musical performance. Her shimmering, beautifully contoured performance of the Dvorak’s melody-immersed operatic masterpiece, elicited a brilliant response from the San Francisco Opera Orchestra.”

–Opera Warhorses

“Conductor Eun Sun Kim drove the emotional flow, pulling the vibrant Dvorak colors from the triple winds of the opera orchestra, urging full-throated force from its strings.”

–Opera Today

“The Korean Eun Sun Kim, known to the Madrid public for being assistant to López Cobos and the first woman to conduct an opera at the Teatro Real, was also successful in her debut. She highlighted, in particular, a good dramatic pulse and led with confidence, using tempos that were personal but well chosen and precise. In short, a triumph for the SF Opera and for the music of Dvorák.”
–Codalario

“Making her SFO debut, Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim offered a sample of her talent with a lovely account of the Act 1 prelude, and then luminously proceeded through the rest of Dvorak’s score.”
–San Francisco Examiner

“Making her San Francisco Opera debut was South Korean conductor Eun Sun Kim, who presided over a wholly successful Rusalka.”

–JBerkeley Daily Planet

“The orchestra, under the direction of conductor Eun Sun Kim, was appropriately light and warmly lyrical at every turn.”
–Out West Arts

“The pleasures kept coming. The driving force of it all was the music, with the excellent Eun Sun Kim, in her company debut, at the helm in the pit. From its dreamy orchestrations and piercing details to its lyrical effusions and soaring ensembles, Rusalka got all it deserved and then some in this darkly exhilarating conclusion of the SFO’s season.”
–Opera Magazine

“Musically and vocally, too, it is carried off with highly impressive results. Within Dvořák’s lush orchestration there’s a whiff of Wagner, a sense of Strauss and a touch of Tchaikovsky among his influences and conductor Eun Sun Kim, in her company debut, captures the darkness, the gossamer-like, the bombastic and mystery of the score with elan.”

–OperaChaser

“In this capacious and captivating production at the War Memorial Opera House, everything from the highly characterized singing to…the lush yet keenly honed reading of the score, under conductor Eun Sun Kim’s baton in her fine company debut, registers in a vividly visceral, emotionally penetrating way. Nothing feels or sounds gratuitous; just about everything, across three-and-a-half musically and dramatically absorbing hours, seems essential. The music has a cumulative force, culminating in a duet for Rusalka and the Prince of such excruciating tenderness and bone-deep truth that the Liebestod of Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde can’t help but come to mind. Everything has amplitude and authority… Rusalka, the last and clearly best of the company’s three summer productions, is a triumph in all ways. This wonderfully wrought work, last seen her 24 years ago, has returned to the San Francisco Opera stage in a stirring, disturbing, exhilarating way, sure to etch itself in the audience’s memory.”
–San Francisco Classical Voice

Photo by Cory Weaver

Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra

brahms Ein Deutsches Requiem

“The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, led by guest conductor Eun Sun Kim and joined by baritone Stephen Powell and soprano Tara Erraught, gave a deeply stirring performance of Johannes Brahms’ “Ein deutsches Requiem” (“A German Requiem”) Friday evening in Uihlein Hall. Brahms’s Requiem is not based on the traditional Catholic Requiem Mass text, but is instead a personal, German-language statement of grief over the loss of his mother and his mentor and friend, Robert Schumann. Kim and the ensemble, which also included a pipe organ, brought gravitas and emotional power to the piece’s biggest moments, making them absolutely soar. But this was not a performance in which all energy was focused on the piece’s fullest sounds. Kim, along with the instrumentalists and singers, gave clear focus and meaning to the exquisitely warm, sighing viola, cello and bass blend and hushed choral sounds that open the piece, and to the rest of its many achingly introspective sections.Kim and the orchestra brought a seamlessly blended sound and lovely interpretive details to a musically sensitive rendering of Reinecke’s score.”
–Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

“The Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Chorus performed this great work with enormous gravitas and precision under the skillful baton of guest conductor Eun Sun Kim. Kim is making a mark worldwide as an opera conductor (she was recently named Houston Grand Opera’s principal guest conductor—the first person to occupy such a position in 25 years). Her opera-conducting credentials certainly worked for the powerful German Requiem. The Chorus sang with great meticulousness, thrillingly so in work’s louder, more charged moments and tenderly so in its many serene ones. Vocal soloists Tara Erraught (soprano) and Stephen Powell (baritone) were in excellent voice, providing tender, personal moments to their parts.”
–Shepherd Express

Photo by Ugo Ponte