A native of South Korea, So Young Park thrills audiences with her “stunning” (LA Times) and “dead-accurate” (New York Times) voice. She made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute and New York Philharmonic with performing the Queen’s iconic aria. She has performed the Queen with lots of leading opera houses in the US includes the Metropolitan Opera, Los Angeles Opera, Houston Grand Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Michigan Opera Theatre and Boston Lyric Opera.
So Young Park’s other highlighted appearances have included Zerbinetta in Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Michigan Opera Theatre and Opera Theatre of St. Louis, Setsuko in An American Dream with Chicago Lyric Opera and several roles with LA Opera including Miss Schlesen in Glass’s Satyagraha, Blondchen in Mozart’s Abduction from the Seraglio, Doll in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann.
On the concert stages, Ms. Park was featured in a concert with KBS symphony under tha baton of Maestro Myung Hoon Chung in Pusan, Korea and also Maestro Plácido Domingo invited Ms. Park to perform alongside him as a soloist for his concert at the Seoul Olympic Gymnasium, Korea. She made her Los Angeles Philharmonic debut as Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under the baton of Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and returned to perform in Esa-Pekka Salonen's Wing on Wing with Salonen as the conductor. Also Mr. Park was featured as a soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with LA Master Chorale and one of the soloists in Metropolitan Opera’s Summer Park Concert Series.
So Young trained as a LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artist and her first featured live recording of the opera ‘The Ghosts of Versailles’ won 2-time GRAMMY Award. In addition, Maestro Domingo featured Ms. Park as a soloist on his album, ‘My Christmas’, recorded under Sony Classics at the Capitol Records Studios.
Ms. Park made many successful roles and house debut in Korea such as Musetta, Violetta with Korea National Opera and Juliet, Susanna with Seoul Metropolitan Opera and Daegu Opera.
She stepped in for the role of Juliet in the New York Metropolitan Opera’s Romeo and Juliet in 2024, seizing the opportunity to take the main stage, where she received critical acclaim for her substitute performance.
So Young also was invited for a recital in Beijing, China and with these outstanding achievements, she received the 2024 Korea New Artist Award from Korea Opera Society.
Ms. Park earned her Artist Diploma and Master’s Degree from the New England Conservatory, where she performed Lisetta in the world premiere of the critical edition of Rossini’s La Gazzetta, and her Bachelor’s Degree from Seoul National University.