The San Francisco Opera has announced that Eun Sun Kim has been appointed to be its next music director starting on August 1, 2021.

Kim will be the fourth music director in the company’s history and will work with other members of the company’s leadership to shaping the San Francisco Opera’s artistic direction and developing its young artist programs. She will also be directing four productions per season over the course of a five-year contract with the company. Furthermore, she will be engaged in conducting concerts and working with the San Francisco Opera resident artist Adler Fellows.

In the meantime, she has been named Music Director Designate and will conduct a new production of “Fidelio” to open the 2020-21 season.

“From my very first moments at San Francisco Opera, I felt this was home,” Kim stated in a press release. “There was an unusual feeling of open collaboration across so many facets of the Company—a real sense of professional alchemy. I’m deeply honored to be joining the San Francisco Opera family and helping to carry this incredible lineage forward.

Born in South Korea, Kim made her debut with the San Francisco Opera in June 2019, conducting a production of “Rusalka.” She made her U.S. debut in 2017 at the Houston Grand Opera and has performed with such companies as English National Opera, Opéra de Marseille, Opernhaus Zürich, Royal Danish Opera, Royal Swedish Opera, and Teatro Real, among many others.

She is set to conduct the 2019 Adler Fellows in their final concert on Dec. 6, 2019.