SUN YOUNG JUNG

Director Sun-young Jung is known for staging operas that connect deeply with the audience. Born in Korea in 1972, she began her training by studying voice at Seoul Arts High school and Ewha Women’s University. She earned her Master’s degree in Stage Direction for Opera at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana USA. Ms. Jung’s recent projects include staging a sensational Don Giovanni for the National Opera of Korea at Seoul Arts Center in 2014 and Seoul Metropolitan Opera’s newly commissioned opera of Korean Sixteen times of Hello and Goodbye in 2016. She has been invited four years in a row (2012 to 2015) to direct at the Daegu International Opera Festival. Her productions often bookend the season as the first and last productions each year. Productions for Daegu International Opera Festival include Turandot by G. Puccini, Aida and La forza del Destino by G. Verdi, and Carmen by G. Bizet. Other major productions include an innovative setting of Le Nozze di Figaro by W. A. Mozart in the Joseon Dynasty for the Seoul Arts Center in 2010. She also directed Tristan und Isolde and Otello for the Great Series with Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Myung-whun Chung. The Prince and Christmas by Geun-yong Lee presented with the Seoul Metropolitan Junior Chorus was celebrated for its 10th year of annual  performance at Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in 2019. This production also received a special invitation to perform by Showa University in Japan in 2015.  Her more experimental work includes Spring Spring by Geun-yong Lee  and an adapted version of L'elisir d'Amore in Our Town by G. Donizetti, which was officially invited to the 15th Uijeongbu Music Theatre Festival in 2016. Recently, she directed Seoul Art’s Center’s 30th Anniversary preveiw special program SAC Opera Gala in 2022.

Ms. Jung has been recognized for her many artistic achievements, and in 2017 she received  the Official Commendation of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in Korea.

In addition to her work as a stage director, Ms. Jung also trains the next generation of young singers and directors at highly respected arts training programs OPERA ACTING LAB, including Korea National University of Arts. Currently she is the General and Artistic Director of the Performing Arts Company <Art is Potato> since 2010.