Born in South Korea, Yosep Kang studied in Seoul, Salzburg, and Berlin. After winning several prestigious international competitions, such as the Gian Battista Viotti International Music Competition in Vercelli, Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Competition in Salzburg, Kang soon came under the recognition of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, where he became an ensemble member in 2002. He has since been heard there in a number of leading roles, including the Duke in Rigoletto, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, Fenton in Falstaff, Tamino in The Magic Flute, Alfredo in La Traviata, Macduff in Macbeth, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Rodolfo in La Bohème, and the title role in Berlioz's Damnation de Faust. He will appear there again this season in Les Huguenots, Rigoletto and Un ballo in maschera.
In the 2014/15 season Mr Kang first appeared at the Vienna State Opera as Rodolfo in La Bohème, opposite Angela Gheorghiu, and has since returned there in the title role of Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Kang sang the Duke at the Bavarian State Opera and Oper Leipzig, the Italian Singer in Der Rosenkavalierin in Dresden, and Arnold in a new production of Guillaume Tell with Oper Graz. He also made his debut at the Opéra de Genève as Tebaldo in I Capuleti ed i Montecchi and gave his very first performance in Italy as the Duke at the Rome Opera. Kang subsequently made his debuts at the Deutsche Oper am Rhein as Alfredo and the Dutch National Opera as Macduff.
In the 2015/16 season Mr Kang starred in the Hamburg State Opera's new production of Guillaume Tell, returned to the Bavarian State Opera as the Duke and made his debut with Opera Australia as Rodolfo. The artist also appeared as the Italian singer in the Dutch National Opera's production of Der Rosenkavalier, Alfredo at the Semperoper Dresden and Edgardo at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Engagements for the 2016/17 season include the Duke at the Semperoper Dresden and Vienna State Opera as well as Arnold in Guillaume Tell at the Teatr Wielki – Polish National Opera, Bavarian State Opera and Hamburg State Opera. Other operatic roles in his developing repertoire include Arturo in I Puritani, Romeo in Romeo et Juliette, des Grieux in Manon, and Riccardo in Un ballo in maschera.
Yosep Kang has sung in concert at some of the world's most prestigious venues, such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Musikverein Wien, Konzerthaus Berlin, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Kreuzkirche Dresden, Prinzregententheater and Herkulessaal in Munich, Musikfestspielen Mecklenburg, and NHK-Hall Tokyo.
He has also performed under the baton of such conductors as Yves Abel, Rolf Reuter, Christian Thielemann, Myung-Whun Chung, Lothar Zagrosek, Eliji Oue, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Helmut Rilling, and Enoch zu Guttenberg.