Eun Sun Kim, a finalist at the 2013 "German Conductor Prize" in Berlin, is making her debut at Oper Frankfurt. She was born in Seoul, graduated from the Music Highschool in Stuttgart with distinction and won 1st prize at the 2008 International Jesús López-Cobos Opera Conducting Competition in Madrid. She has received a scholarship from the Deutsche Musikrat's Dirigentenforum since 2007, which has also enabled her to take part in conducting courses held by Peter Gülke, Bernhard Kontarsky and Kurt Masur, amongst others. Eun Sun Kim assisted Chief Conductor Jesús López-Cobos at the Teatro Real in Madrid for two years, other conductors with whom she has worked include Kirill Petrenko (Tristan at Operá Lyon), Bertrand de Billy (Parsifal at the Teatro Regio in Turin), Zubin Mehta, Ivor Bolton and Simone Young. She has also worked as assistant and soloists' coach at the Stuttgart State Opera. Her debut at the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid and Il viaggio a Reims at the Teatro Real were followed soon after, in 2010/11, by La Bohème at Graz Opera. Last season places where she conducted for the first time included Meiningen ( Das Liebesverbot/The Ban on Love) and at the Volksoper in Vienna (where she enjoyed a huge success with Carmen). Recent concerts have included appearances with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and the Sendai Philharmonic Orchester in Japan.