Jihoon Kim

Korean bass Jihoon Kim was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme 2011–13, a Jette Parker Principal in the 2013/14 Season and a Principal of The Royal Opera in the 2014/15 Season, performing 25 roles. He has returned to sing Robert (Les Vêpres siciliennes) and Sciarrone (Tosca) and in the 2019/20 Season returns as a Flemish Deputy (Don Carlo) and as Sciarrone. 

Kim studied at the National University of Seoul and the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan. His many roles for The Royal Opera have included Alessio (La sonnambula), Ortel (Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg), Hector’s Ghost (Les Troyens), Montano (Otello), Don Prudenzio (Il viaggio a Reims), Monterone (Rigoletto), Fourth Chevalier/Monk (Robert le diable), Colline (La bohème), Zaretsky (Eugene Onegin), Second Man in Armour (Die Zauberflöte), Pietro (Simon Boccanegra), Nightwatchman (Die Frau ohne Schatten), Wagner (Faust), Doctor Grenvil (La traviata), Sergeant (Manon Lescaut), Lackey (Ariadne auf Naxos), Balthazar (La Favorite), Colas (Bastien und Bastienne), Ogre (El gato con botas) and Doctor (Macbeth). Engagements elsewhere include Colline (La bohème), Samuel (Un ballo in maschera) and The Bonze (Madama Butterfly) for Welsh National Opera, Fifth Jew (Salome) for Opera North, Timour (Le Roi de Lahore), Old Hebrew (Samson et Dalila), Silva (Ernani) and Ferrando (Il trovatore) for Chelsea Opera Group, Ashby (La fanciulla del West), Mayor (Jenůfa) and Monk (Don Carlo) for Grange Park Opera, Don Basilio (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and Pietro for Israeli Opera and Old Hebrew for the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia. 

Kim’s concert performances include Beethoven’s Symphony no.9 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Kazushi Ono and with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra and Christoph Eschenbach, Shostakovich’s Symphony no.14 with the Southbank Sinfonia and Maxime Tortelier and Verdi’s Requiem on tour in France with the Royal Opera House Learning and Participation department.