WhenEun Sun Kimconducts an opera performance, all the attention is on her. In the pit, 100 orchestral musicians look to her for guidance, and the singers on the stage do the same. Thousands of audience members hang on the results of the process.
Yet Kim, who has finally assumed her place as music director of the San Francisco Opera, insists she became a conductor as a way of avoiding the stage fright she felt as a young pianist.
“我曾经是一个非常害羞的女孩，非常内向。”Beethoven’s “Fidelio,”10月14日星期四开放。“现在……我不是！当您是指挥家或公司的负责人，并且必须领导300人，您必须指挥。你不能害羞。”
Kim’s brand of command, though, is a far cry from the imperious top-down style some conductors favor. According to all available testimony, she brings all her fellow artists into the process on an even footing.
What to look forward to in the S.F. Opera’s 2021 fall season
Mezzo-Soprano说：“她是一个非常合作的合作伙伴 - 老实说，这并不总是众所周知的。”Jamie Barton，出现在2019年Dvorák的制作中“Rusalka”that marked Kim’s company debut.
“And she’s so knowledgeable about what she’s doing, in every aspect. Right from the first day of ‘Rusalka’ rehearsals, she was lip-syncing the Czech!”
If collaboration and detailed preparation are the twin guidelines of Kim’s strategy, that’s at least partially an outcome of a decade spent as a guest conductor of both opera companies and symphony orchestras.
“当您的客人指导时，您会去一个新的地方，您会看到更多或多或少不认识的人，并且必须在第一天领导他们。因此，通过这种经验，我想我知道自己在做什么 - 不是以傲慢的方式，而是因为这是我一直在做的工作，”她说。
音乐添加一层管理者的承诺administrative duties on top of Kim’s conducting plans. But that doesn’t seem to faze her in the slightest.
她说：“我是那种喜欢挑战的人。”“如果要做功课，我会深入研究。
“When I talked with (General Director) Matthew Shilvock about the music directorship for the first time, I told him, ‘When I say I’m in, I’m all in — 100% in.’ I’m not going to be there just to conduct my performances and then go.”
“菲德利奥”的作品本来应该开放2020-21赛季，并标志着金正日在公司任职期间的开始，但是Covid-19的大流行使这些计划颠覆了。现在，她正在准备贝多芬，期待明年的百年纪念赛季，并长期思考她为公司音乐生活的目标。
她说，问题的一部分是每个季节只有八个作品 - 她渴望进行一切。不过，暂时，金已经遵守了一个计划，每个季节都会制作一个维尔第和一部瓦格纳歌剧，并培养当代曲目。
“我在意大利曲目中选择了Verdi的原因 - 不是Puccini，而是Verdi；我喜欢每位作曲家 - 是因为Verdi是我可以与乐团建立关系的东西。”她解释说。
“瓦格纳也是如此。我想通过“ Tristan”，通过早期歌剧和“ Parsifal”进行“ Tristan”，以便我们到达‘The Ring’五到六年的循环我可以做到我的orchestra, where even if I don’t say anything, they understand what I want.”
In addition to her San Francisco post, Kim is the principal guest conductor at Houston Grand Opera — a position that, like this one, came her way in part because of her ability to make a swift and strong impression.
“I heard her conducting ‘The Elixir of Love’ in Vienna,” said Patrick Summers, the company’s artistic and music director, “and within 30 seconds I knew the performance was in the hands of someone unique. Her control, her mastery, her lack of ego — the wrong kind of ego — all added up.”
休斯顿在2017年签下了她的美国处女秀，在2017年进行了维尔第的“ La Traviata”。
“I knew she wasn’t going to be happy about making her debut in a convention center, but bless her, she said, ‘The company is rallying to do this despite a terrible tragedy. I admire that and I’ll stay with it,’ ” Summers recalled. “I already knew about her musicianship, but that told me everything about her as a person.”
Kim was born and raised in Seoul and took to the piano early. Her parents — her father was at one point the nation’s secretary of culture and tourism — were supportive of her musical interests, with her mother hoping Kim would have a career as a singer.
甚至在她上大学之前，金正日就知道，她作为钢琴家的舞台恐惧会干扰那个方向的任何职业目标。然后，一位音乐老师建议作曲作为另一种追求。但是，另一位教授看到了她陪同普契尼的“ LaBohème”的大学作品的轻松和精通，建议进行。
金说：“你永远不知道生活的道路会如何。”“您只能知道何时回头。我刚开始出于好奇心，因为他发现了我的才华。这并不是说‘好吧，我要成为指挥。’”
不过，几年后，那一刻确实到了，当时她赢得了一场比赛，成为西班牙剧院的助理指挥。她迅速放弃了刚刚开始担任德国小型歌剧公司的伴奏，从未回头的工作。
Kim’s work ethic extends beyond music to include language — in addition to Korean and English, she speaks Spanish, German, Italian and French — and she credits that background for her ability to overcome initial skepticism among European musicians.
“There will always be skeptics,” she said, with a shrug. “I don’t think it’s personal. Look, if you came to Korea and said you were going to conduct Korean music, I would be skeptical. I would think, ‘Can he speak Korean? Does he know Korean culture? Does he really know what he’s talking about?’ I think it’s just a natural reaction.
“So if a German musician in a German orchestra when I conduct Wagner looks at me and thinks the same things, I understand. But I just have to show that he can trust his leader on the podium. That’s my job.”
金只不过是她的41岁生日，现在将自己的时间分配给旧金山和首尔。她有一个丈夫，在艺术领域拥有独立的职业，否则她就被劫持了。即使被问到有关她个人生活的基本问题，当她第一次被命名为music director in 2019.
“I don’t feel the obligation that I have to talk about my private life,” she said.
In part, this is a cultural difference between America, on the one hand, and Korea and Europe on the other.
“我长大的地方，您从不问任何人的私人生活。我不知道我20次表演的同事的生活 - 他们不问我，我不问他们。”她说。“我真的希望观众与音乐建立个人联系。为此，无论指挥是否已婚并不重要。”
“菲德利奥”：旧金山歌剧。晚上7:3010月14日，星期四，至10月30日。$ 26- $ 398。War Memorial Opera House，S.F。301 Van Ness Ave.415-864-3330。www.sfopera.com