During the 2011/12 season at Oper Frankfurt the baritone Sungkon Kim will take part in performances of Die tote Stadt, Hoffmanns Erzählungen/The Tales of Hoffmann, Tosca and Die Zauberflöte. He was born in Seoul where he studied singing at Kyung-Hee University before continuing his studies at the Hochschule für Musik „Hanns Eisler“ in Berlin between 2004 and 2007. In 2005 he took part in a festival for young artists in Bayreuth, which resulted in him appearing as a soloist in concert with the Brandenburg Symphonic Orchestra in 2006, the year in which he was awarded a scholarship by the Richard-Wagner-Verbands. In 2007 he took part in the first performances in Germany of Zdenek Fibich’s opera Der Sturm/The Storm at Theater Bielefeld and, as a prize winner of the Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg competition, sang Mr. Ford in Falstaff. He also won prizes at the 2007 Competizione dell’opera in Dresden and the Bertelsmann Competition Neue Stimmen/New Voices in Gütersloh. He made his debut at Oper Frankfurt in 2007/08, singing Masetto in Don Giovanni, before joining the Ensemble in 2008/09. Since then roles for the company have included Renato in Verdi’s Ein Maskenball/Un ballo in maschera (role debut, which resulted in his stepping at short notice for performances in Mannheim), several Puccini roles (Schaunard in La Bohème, Marco in Il trittico and Périchaud in concert performances of La Rondine), Count Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro, Sebastian in the first performances in Germany of Adès’ The Tempest and Papageno.