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Hailed by The New York Times for her “bright, clear voice and impressive coloratura technique,” Korean soprano Hera Hyesang Park is attracting the attention of opera houses and concert houses worldwide.

In the 2022-23 season, Hyesang returned to the Staatsoper Berlin for Adina L’elisir d’amore and looks forward to her role debut as Nannetta Falstaff at The Metropolitan Opera and her house debut as Pamina Die Zauberflöte at the Teatro Colón Buenos Aires. In concert, she sings Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with San Diego Symphony and Naples Philharmonic as well as performances of Handel’s Messiah with St. Paul’s Chamber Orchestra and Galatea Acis and Galatea in concert with Philharmonia Baroque. Hyesang will also give her debut solo recital at Carnegie Hall, as well as further recitals on tour in Mexico and South America.

Hera Hyesang Park’s honours and awards include first prize in the April 2016 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Competition, second prize and the Audience Choice Award at the 2015 Montreal International Musical Competition, winning second place overall in the women’s division in Placido Domingo’s 2015 International Operalia competition, as well as taking First Prize in the women’s Zarzuela category.

Hyesang is a graduate of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist program, during which she made her Metropolitan Opera debut as the First Sprite in a new production of Rusalka conducted by Sir Mark Elder. She also sang Barbarina Nozze di Figaro conducted by Harry Bicket and the Dew Fairy Hansel & Gretel conducted by Sir Donald Runnicles. In May 2017, she graduated from The Juilliard School with an Artist Diploma in Opera Studies. While at Juilliard, Hyesang performed Amina La Sonnambula and Fiorilla Il Turco in Italia, for which Opera News magazine remarked, “Her solid, refined fioritura delivery was matched by glamour, temperament and, above all, an ability to put bel canto splendor to expressive use.”

Hera Hyeasang Park records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Her debut album I am Hera was released in November 2020.

Francesco Barfoed (b. 1996) is a Danish pianist, born and raised in Copenhagen. A young artist on the rise, he frequently collaborates with singers and has twice won the Young Concert Artists International Auditions; with mezzo-soprano Megan Moore (2020) and baritone Joseph Parrish (2022). Megan and Francesco also won 1^st prize in the Copenhagen Lied-Duo Competition and 2^nd prize at the Naumberg Foundation International Vocal Competition. In the 21-22 season they toured with their recital, I SEE LIGHT, and performed at the Alys Stephens Center in Birmingham, Alabama, the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., and Merkin Hall at Lincoln Center, among others.

In 2022, Francesco participated in Renée Fleming’s SongStudio at Carnegie Hall, co-arranged and performed a two-piano version of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress at Juilliard and performed alongside New York Festival of Song’s Steven Blier as a Schwab Rising Star at Caramoor. He also won the Juilliard Vocal Arts Honors Recital audition and will perform at Merkin Hall in 2023 with mezzo-soprano MaryBeth Nelson.

In his already extensive career, Francesco has been on the coaching faculty at Saluzzo Opera Academy in Italy in 2021 and was an Opera Coaching Fellow at Aspen Music Festival in 2022. He has performed Rachmaninoff’s 1st Piano Concerto, as well as on the national Danish Radio (DR P2), in Italy and in Austria, and at various chamber music festivals across Denmark, including the Hindsgavl Festival.

Francesco is currently pursuing the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at The Juilliard School, where he also completed a master’s degree as a Kovner Fellow. He holds degrees from The Royal Danish Academy of Music and Rutgers University, where he won the concerto competition in 2018.

Francesco holds Italian citizenship, and is fluent in Danish, Italian, and English.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Moore is quickly garnering attention as an artist of versatility and depth, particularly in the repertoire of Rossini, Handel, and Mozart.

In the 2022-23 season, Ms. Moore returns to the Metropolitan Opera to cover the role of Blanche de la Force in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmélites; joins Opera Philadelphia covering Desdemona and Emilia in Rossini’s Otello; debuts with the Seattle Symphony in Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, with repeat performances at Teatro Comunale (Modena, Italy) and Emirates Palace (Abu Dhabi, UAE); debuts with San Diego Opera as La Zelatrice in Suor Angelica and La Ciesca in Gianni Schicchi; performs the title role in Gluck’s Orfeo with Orchestra of the Triangle; creates the role of Sheila in a workshop of The Righteous, by Gregory Spears and Tracy K. Smith for the Santa Fe Opera; and returns to the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte for her company debut at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis. She will make several recital appearances with pianist Francesco Barfoed, including in New York as part of Carnegie Hall’s Citywide series.

Joseph Parrish, a native of Baltimore, Maryland holds a master’s degree from The Juilliard School. He has appeared as a soloist with the Kennedy Center Opera House Orchestra, American Classical Orchestra, and Bach Vespers at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church. Mr. Parrish is an artist diploma candidate in opera studies at the Juilliard School. In addition, he is a Music Advancement Program Teaching Fellow and member of the inaugural cohort of Shared Voices with the Denyce Graves Foundation. Recent credits include winning first prize in the Gerda Lissner Art Song Vocal Competition and Young Concert Artists International Competition, an encouragement award in the Duncan Williams Voice Competition, Sodbuster in Vavrek and Mazzoli’s Proving Up, and a 2023 Schwab Vocal Rising Star residency at Caramoor.

Widely recognized as one of today’s leading collaborative pianists, Brian Zeger has performed with many of the world’s greatest singers including Marilyn Horne, Deborah Voigt, Susan Graham, Anna Netrebko, Joyce DiDonato, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, René Pape, Frederica von Stade, Bryn Terfel, Piotr Beczala, Denyce Graves and Adrianne Pieczonka in an extensive concert career that has taken him to the premiere concert halls throughout the United States and abroad.

His recent recordings include Gathering: Songs by Ben Moore, featuring an exceptional array of opera and Broadway stars; All Who Wander, a recital disc with Jamie Barton; Preludios – Spanish songs with Isabel Leonard; a recording of Strauss and Wagner lieder with Adrianne Pieczonka;  Dear Theo: 3 Song Cycles by Ben Moore with Paul Appleby, Susanna Phillips and Brett Polegato; and A Lost World – Schubert Songs and Duets with Susanna Phillips and Shenyang, all for the Delos label.

Some of his critical essays and other writings have appeared in Opera News, The Yale Review and Chamber Music magazine.  He has made frequent appearances on the Metropolitan Opera radio broadcasts both on the opera quiz and as intermission host and performer and has the distinction of creating, narrating and performing in five intermission features devoted to art song, a first in the long history of the Met broadcasts.

In addition to his distinguished concert career, he serves as Artistic Director of the Marcus Institute for Vocal Arts at The Juilliard School.  Previously, he also served for eight years as the Executive Director of the Metropolitan Opera Lindemann Young Artists Development Program and for many seasons as the director of the vocal program at the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival.