Sookyoung Kim

Sookyoung Kim

Biography

Kim Sookyoung, graduated from College of Music at Hanyang University majoring vocal music, is an opera director actively presenting performances in Korea. She also earned her master's degree in Musical Theatre and Opera as the first ever Asian master’s degree student from Arizona State University. In addition, she completed Music Drama Directing course at the same graduate school and returned to Korea in 2013 to pursue a doctorate in Theatre at Hanyang University. She is recognized for having introduced and presented a new style of direction to the Korean opera stage with her in-depth and delicate interpretation of dramas and sophisticated stage composition.

In 2015, she was invited to direct the opera as the opening performance of the Victoria Grand Theatre in Singapore. The performance demonstrated why her work is loved by audience - through the communication with the audience and finding the originality of the work - since 2014. It also explains why many of the work she directed have been selected as excellent performances by the Korean Culture and Arts Association every year and touring around the nation at large theaters.

Kim Sookyoung is the most selected director for directing seven times in the Korean Opera Festival which is the largest opera series program in Korea since its establishment in 2010. She also has been active in the Seoul Opera Festival which began in 2016, as a head director for seven years. She also writes scripts; her own script writing and direction works include operas , , , , , and the musical dramas <Dad's Story>, , , and .

In 2022, she directed the opera - she was the first Korean director in 17 years of the Korean National Opera - which was well received with great reception. In 2023, she plans a Korean premiere opera . Currently, she is also teaching as an adjunct professor at Sejong University and as a honorary professor at the Seoul Cyber University.

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