Kim Hyo-young and Duke Kim, Joint Winners of the 67th 'Met Opera Competition'

Soprano Kim Hyo-young (right) and tenor Duke Kim. (Photo by Metropolitan Opera website)

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Soprano Kim Hyoyeong (24) and tenor Duke Kim (29) won first place at the 67th Metropolitan Opera Eric & Dominique Lafont Competition (hereafter Met Opera) in New York, USA.

The Kumho Cultural Foundation announced that Kim Hyoyeong and Duke Kim tied for first place in the final round of the Met Opera National Council Auditions on the 16th (local time).

Along with the championship, Kim Hyoyeong also received the American Scandinavian Foundation Birgit Nilsson Special Award. Kim Hyoyeong is a former Kumho Young Artist who graduated with a bachelor's degree from Seoul National University and a master's degree from the Juilliard School.

Duke Kim, who attended Shepherd School of Music, is currently participating in the Washington Opera Capritz Young Artist Program.

The Met Opera is a representative gateway for discovering talented vocalists in North America. It began in 1954 as the Met Opera National Auditions and has produced artists such as Ren?e Fleming, Jessye Norman, Susan Graham, and Nadine Sierra. Past Korean winners include soprano Hong Hyekyung (1982), Shin Youngok (1990), tenor Lee Seongeun (2009), baritone Joseph Lim (2011), and baritone Jin Sol (2016).

This year marks the 67th Met Opera Competition. The process included preliminary screening in September last year, regional preliminary rounds from November last year to March this year, and semifinals on the 10th, selecting 10 finalists. Among them, soprano Kim Hyoyeong, tenor Duke Kim, soprano Raven MacMillan, mezzo-soprano Emily Sierra, and mezzo-soprano Emily Treagel were selected as the five winners. Each winner will receive a prize of $20,000 (approximately 22.68 million KRW).

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.