Program and Artist Biography

Soprano Haeran Hong began her studies at the Korea National University of Arts with Choi Sang-ho; in 2006 she went on to further studies at the Juilliard School under Edith Bers. A finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions in 2010 and in the Francisco Viñas International Competition in 2009, in 2010 she won the Career Bridges Competition in New York.

At the Juilliard School she has played the roles of Poppea (L’Incoronazione di Poppea), Sœur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites), Dalinda (Ariodante), Susanna (Le Nozze di Figaro), and Papagena (Die Zauberflöte). In 2010 she also played the roles of Barbarina (Le Nozze di Figaro) and Seleuce (Tolomeo) at Glimmerglass Opera in the context of the Young Artists Program. Her stage performances have given her the opportunity to work with conductors such as Marco Armiliato, Harry Bicket, Christian Curnyn, David Angus, Anne Manson, and Gary Thor Wedow.

Ken Noda, musical assistant to James Levine in the Artistic Administration of the Metropolian Opera, began working there in 1991 after retiring from a performing career as a concert pianist. Born to Japanese parents, he studied with Daniel Barenboim and performed as soloist with such orchestras as the Berlin, Vienna, New York, Israel, and Los Angeles philharmonics; the London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Montreal, and National symphonies; the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, and London's Philharmonia Orchestra. He has collaborated as chamber musician with Maestro Levine (at two pianos), Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Nigel Kennedy, Cho-Liang Lin, and the Emerson String Quartet. As accompanist, he has worked with Kathleen Battle, Hildegard Behrens, Maria Ewing, Aprile Millo, Kurt Moll, Jessye Norman, Dawn Upshaw, and Deborah Voigt. Since l999, he has spent each summer at the Marlboro Music Festival. At the Metropolitan, he trains young singers in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Mr Noda also teaches at the Renata Scotto Opera Academy and gives master classes at The Juilliard School, Yale University, and the Ravinia Festival/Steans Institute.