The Met’s Annual Summer Recital Series Returns with Six Free Concerts

in All Five Boroughs of New York City

 

Met singers Janai Brugger, Jack Swanson, and Benjamin Taylor to perform on June 14 at Brooklyn Bridge Park

and on June 16 at SummerStage in Central Park

 

Additional recitals to feature Met Lindemann Young Artists

soprano Tessa McQueen, mezzo-soprano Hannah Jones, and bass-baritone Sunghoon Han

 

The series is presented in collaboration with
Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage

 

 

New York, NY (April 30, 2025)—The Metropolitan Opera’s 2025 Summer Recital Series, now in its 16th season, begins June 9, with six free outdoor recitals in all five boroughs of New York City, presented in collaboration with Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage.

 

The concerts at SummerStage in Central Park (Manhattan) on Monday, June 16, at 8PM and in Brooklyn Bridge Park (Brooklyn) on Saturday, June 14, at 7PM will include performances by soprano Janai Brugger, tenor Jack Swanson, and baritone Benjamin Taylor. Brugger returns next season as Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni and as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, and Taylor returns as Jake in the Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess. Swanson will make his company debut this season as Count Almaviva in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Met assistant conductor Howard Watkins will accompany at the piano.

 

Rising stars of the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program—soprano Tessa McQueen, mezzo-soprano Hannah Jones, and bass-baritone Sunghoon Han—headline four additional recitals on Monday, June 9, at 7PM in Jackie Robinson Park (Manhattan); Wednesday, June 11, at 7PM at the Williamsbridge Oval (Bronx); Friday, June 13, at 7PM at the Stapleton Waterfront (Staten Island); and Sunday, June 15, at 7PM in Socrates Sculpture Park (Queens).

 

McQueen, in her first year with the program, made her Met debut as Countess Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto and is currently singing the Priestess in Verdi’s Aida. Jones, in her first year of the program, made her Met debut as one of the Voices of the Unborn in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten and was a member of the Denyce Graves Foundation’s inaugural Shared Voices program. Han, in his first year of the program, will perform in the Program’s Patron Concert of opera scenes and Met Orchestra Workshop with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Mariam Bombrun, in her first year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, will join the singers at the piano.

 

The Met’s Summer Recital Series will feature famous opera arias and duets, as well as other classical favorites.

 

The Met’s Summer Recital Series is funded by the Elizabeth B. McGraw Foundation, in honor of Mrs. McGraw and her son, John. Additional support has also been provided, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and in collaboration with the Department of Parks and Recreation.

 

No tickets are required. There are no rain dates for any of the park recitals. For more information, please visit cityparksfoundation.org/summerstage.

 

 

Sunghoon Han is a bass-baritone from Seoul, South Korea, currently in his first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the 2024–25 season, he will perform in the Program’s Patron Concert of opera scenes, Met Orchestra Workshop with Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and the annual spring recital series held at the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Recent operatic engagements include Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro and Marco in Gianni Schicchi at Aspen Opera Theater, Gremin in Eugene Onegin and Nardo in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera at Indiana University, and several roles at Yonsei University including Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte and Leporello in Don Giovanni. On the concert stage, he has appeared as the bass soloist in Verdi’s Requiem with the Carmel Symphony and in Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli with Yonsei University. He made his Carnegie Hall debut in 2024 as part of a Yonsei University alumni concert featuring standard works by Mozart, Verdi, and Brahms as well as Korean composers including Du-nam Cho, among others. In 2024, he was named winner of the Indiana District of the Met’s Laffont Competition and went on to place third in the Central Region. Later that year, he received high marks on several prestigious vocal competitions including the Gerda Lissner International Vocal Competition, the MIOpera Vocal Competition, and the National Society of the Arts and Letters Competition. He is an alumnus of the Aspen Opera Theater and VocalARTS Program, where he was a Renée Fleming Artist Fellow, and Korea National Opera Studio. He holds a degree in vocal performance from Yonsei University and pursued studies as part of the Artist Diploma program at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University.

 

 

 

 

33 Keys to Understanding the Korean Wave 

#15 SING: The Vocal Powerhouse

 

The first performance with two Asian leads in the history of the Metropolitan Opera also starred Korean singers, with Hei-kyung Hong and Wookyung Kim in "La Traviata" in 2007. Despite having a smaller population compared to China and Japan, Koreans are playing significant roles in opera companies and choruses worldwide, as well as excelling in international vocal competitions. As early as the 1960s, Korean TV broadcasted singing contest programs for children, college students, and even at military camps, preceding "American Idol" by decades. From the traditional Korean one-person opera Pansori to "Korean Idol" and "Housewife Singing Contest," as well as political protests, Koreans have always embraced singing. 

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Zoom&document_srl=4100896

 

 

한류를 이해하는 33가지 코드 

#15 음주가무-노래하고 Sing

 

2007년 메트로폴리탄 오페라 역사상 최초의 아시안 주역은 '라 트라비아타'의 홍혜경-김우경이었다. 중국, 일본에 비해 인구수가 훨씬 적지만, 세계 오페라단과 성악 콩쿠르에서는 한인들이 휩쓸고 있다. 한국의 전통적인 원맨 오페라 판소리에서 1964년 TV에서 시작된 '어린이 노래자랑', 대학가요제, '주부가요 열창' '전국 노래자랑' 까지 '아메리칸 아이돌'을 수십년 앞서간 한국의 노래 프로그램과 시위에서도 꼭 노래를 부르는 한국인들.

https://www.nyculturebeat.com/index.php?mid=Focus&document_srl=4079092