Three NEC Alumni Named LA Opera Young Artists for the 2024-2025 Season

LA Opera Young Artists
From left: Tenor Yuntong Han ’21, baritone Hyungjin Son ’24 MM, and pianist Sujin Choi ’23 GD, ’24 GC

Three New England Conservatory alumni have been announced as part of LA Opera’s Domingo-Colburn-Stein Young Artists Program for the 2024-2025 season. Tenor Yuntong Han ’21, baritone Hyungjin Son ’24 MM, and pianist Sujin Choi ’23 GD, ’24 GC will join LA Opera’s roster of eight total Young Artists — six singers and two pianists/coaches — who will spend the season with the company. Vocalists will take numerous smaller roles in mainstage productions.  

Yuntong Han ’21 was a national grand finalist in the 2023 Laffont Competition. With the LA Opera, he will perform Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet and cover the role of Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly. Han studied with MaryAnn McCormick while earning his Bachelor of Music at NEC. 

Hyungjin Son ’24 MM, also a finalist in the 2023 Laffont Competition, will sing the title role in Don Giovanni with San Francisco Opera’s Merola Opera Program on August 1 and 3. He will make his debut with the LA Opera as Prince Yamadori in Madame Butterfly and later appear in Romeo and Juliet, Ainadamar, and Rigoletto. Son graduated with his Master of Music from NEC this May, where he studied with Bradley Williams. 

Sujin Choi ’23 GD, ’24 GC joins the LA Opera’s roster of Young Artists as a pianist/coach. This season, she will be on the music staff for Romeo and Juliet and Rigoletto. Choi studied with Kayo Iwama and Cameron Stowe while at NEC. 

Choi and Son, a married couple, starred in a Valentine’s Day episode of NEC’s digital performance series “NEC Studio Sessions” this February while still at the Conservatory. Watch that episode here.