A “transfixing” (The New Yorker), “absolutely riveting” (Chicago Tribune) soprano of “fearlessness and consummate artistry” (Opera News), Ah Young Hong has interpreted a vast array of repertoire, ranging from the music of Machaut, Monteverdi, Bach, Mozart, and Poulenc, to works of Shostakovich, Babbitt, Kurtág, Haas, and many other works of the 20th and 21st centuries. A long time exponent of the music of Michael Hersch, Hong gave the world premieres of his monodrama, On the Threshold of Winter, The New York Times praising her as “the opera’s blazing, lone star,” in a “soul-baring, courageous performance,” and his the script of storms, Opera News writing that she sings with “an urgency that sets your neck hairs on end. And her musical skills—pulling pitches out of the air, nailing the contours of an impossibly angular vocal line, confidently rendering microtones and clashing dissonances—are awe-inspiring.”
In high demand as a concert and chamber soloist, Hong has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Ensemble Phoenix Basel, Talea Ensemble, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble dal Niente, Ensemble Klang, Ensemble unitedberlin, FLUX Quartet, Daedalus Quartet, Wiener KammerOrchester, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra, Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, Tempesta di Mare, amongst others, and with soloists including Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Antje Thierbach. She has also appeared as a featured soloist at the Aldeburgh Music Festival, Ojai Festival, CalPerformances, Wien Modern Festival, Network for New Music, and the Seattle Symphony Recital Series.
In opera, Hong has premiered Hersch’s Poppaea in the title role at the 2021 ZeitRäume Basel Festival, and his and we, each in 2024. Other roles include the title role in Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Morgana in Handel’s Alcina, Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Fortuna and Minerva in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria, and Asteria in Handel’s Tamerlano. She has also appeared with Opera Lafayette in Rebel and Francoeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes at the Rose Theater in Lincoln Center and as La Musique in Charpentier’s Les Arts Florissants at the Kennedy Center.
A prolific recording artist, Hong recorded the U.S. premiere of J.S. Bach’s Alles mit Gott und nichts ohn’ ihn, for NPR’s Performance Today. Other recordings include Rebel and Francoeur’s Zélindor, roi des Sylphes, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, and Sentirete una Canzonetta with Harmonious Blacksmith. Hong is a featured soloist in Ensemble Klang’s recording of Hersch’s cortex and ankle, and on Innova Recordings portrait recording of Babbitt’s Philomel and Hersch’s a breath upwards. The Whole Note called Hong “an important new soprano undaunted by difficult contemporary challenges,” who gives “landmark performances of two landmark works” (Gapplegate Classical-Modern Music Review).
Hong currently serves as associate professor in the Vocal Studies Department at the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University.