The Korean Cultural Society of Boston Presents Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong in her first Boston Recital with Vlad Iftinca, Piano at Boston's Jordan Hall, Thursday, May 28, 8 PM

    BOSTON, MA, April 10, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- The Korean Cultural Society of Boston will present "Soprano Hei-Kyung Hong in Recital at Jordan Hall" on Thursday, May 28, at 8 PM. NEC's Jordan Hall is located at 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston. This concert program, her first Boston recital, celebrates soprano Hei-Kyung Hong's 30 years at the Metropolitan Opera and will feature a magnificent program of Schubert, Schumann and Strauss art songs as well as Korean art songs. Ms. Hong will be accompanied by pianist Vlad Iftinca.

Tickets at $80, $70, $55 and $35 (with group discounts of 10% for 10 or more people) are on sale now at http://kcsboston.org, at www.tix.com or by calling: 781-223-4411. Jordan Hall's box office, at 30 Gainsborough Street, Boston, will also have tickets available beginning Thursday, April 30. Jordan Hall is wheelchair accessible.

Korean-American soprano HEI-KYUNG HONG (Liu) is at the height of a career that has taken her to many of the world's operatic capitals in an enormous variety of roles ranging from Baroque to contemporary works. Following a remarkably successful debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1984 as Servilia in La clemenza di Tito, conducted by James Levine, she has gone on to sing nearly 350 performances at the Met, including the great Mozart roles Ilia (opposite Placido Domingo), Pamina, Despina, Zerlina, and both the Countess and Susanna; Cleopatra in Giulio Cesare; Puccini's Mimi and Lauretta; Gilda in Rigolettoand Liu in Turandot (both opposite Luciano Pavarotti); Gounod's Juliette; Micaela in Carmen; Antonia in Les contes d'Hoffmann; Adina in L'elisir d'amore; Marzellina in Fidelio; Rosina in John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles; Eva in Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg; and Freia in Das Rheingold, again under James Levine.

Hei-Kyung Hong's first solo recording of operatic arias was released in 1998 on RCA Red Seal. The following year she recorded Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi and Bellezze Vocale, a recording of operatic duets with mezzo-soprano Jennifer Larmore, both for Teldec Classics. Her discography also includes Carmina Burana with the Atlanta Symphony for Telarc Records, Hear My Prayer - a recording of sacred songs with New York City's Voices of Ascension Chorus - for Delos Records, and a recording of Korean songs with orchestra for Virgin Classics. The soprano made her recording debut as Woglinde in Das Rheingold under the baton of James Levine, and appears on many other recordings and DVDs originating from her operatic performances.

A native of Seoul, Korea, Hei-Kyung Hong is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music and its American Opera Center. While at Juilliard, she participated in master classes given by Tito Gobbi, Elizabeth Schwarzkopf, Walter Legge, and Gerard Souzay. A winner of the 1982 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, her awards and honors include a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation, a career grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation, and Washington National Opera's Artist of the Year for her acclaimed performances of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin. Hong resides with her family in New York.

Vlad Iftinca

Vlad Iftinca is currently part of the Metropolitan Opera music staff roster and is the staff coach for the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Born in Romania, he received his primary education at Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid. He pursued graduate studies at The Juilliard School in New York City.

Mr. Iftinca has collaborated in recital with distinguished artists such as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Deborah Voigt, Thomas Hampson, Luca Pisaroni, Joan Rodgers, Isabel Leonard, Erin Morley, and Shenyang. He has performed solo and chamber music recitals at the Auditorio Nacional de Musica in Madrid, Max-Joseph-Saal in Munich, Palau de les Arts in Valencia, Soiree musicales d'Arles in France, Beijing Music Festival, Alice Tully Hall, Los Angeles Opera, Seoul Arts Center, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and Ravinia Festival.

At the Metropolitan Opera, Mr. Iftinca has worked under conductors such as James Levine, Sir Andrew Davis, Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Noseda, Maurizio Benini, David Robertson, and Marco Armiliato. Mr. Iftinca has been part of the music staff at the Renata Scotto Opera Academy in Westchester, New York, and has collaborated with the Regina Resnik Presents series in San Francisco and New York. Recent engagements include performances on the Metropolitan Museum of Art concert series with baritone Thomas Hampson, and his conducting debut with The Juilliard School's production of Rossini's La cambiale di matrimonioand La scala di seta.

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