Shenyang

As winner of the 2007 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition, Chinese bass-baritone Shenyang was brought swiftly to international attention and an array of important debuts followed including at the Metropolitan Opera, Glyndebourne Festival, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich and Washington National Opera. This versatile artist has since established himself as one of the finest voices of his generation, amassed an expansive repertoire for both opera and concert stage, and enjoys ongoing collaborative relationships with many of today’s pre-eminent conductors.

After studies at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music, The Julliard School, Salzburg Young Artist Project and the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Program, Shenyang launched his operatic career in roles by Rossini, Mozart and Handel. Now focused on a more dramatic repertoire, Shenyang has in the last seasons made several key role debuts: Don Pizarro in Beethoven’s Leonore with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck; Jochanaan in Salome with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra under Alexander Liebreich; Gunther in Götterdämmerung with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra under Jaap van Zweden; and Kurwenal in Tristan und Isolde at the 2021 Glyndebourne Festival under Robin Ticciati.

The concert stage has always featured strongly in Shenyang’s seasons taking him to all corners of the globe: recent highlights include Stravinsky’s Oedipus Rex (Tiresias) with Concertgebouworkest/Santtu-Matias Rouvali, Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette with Berliner Philharmoniker/Daniel Harding, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with both Sydney Symphony Orchestra/David Robertson and San Francisco Symphony/Michael Tilson-Thomas; Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Philadelphia Orchestra/Yannick Nézet-Séguin and New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert; Mussorgsky’s Songs of Dances and Death with Helsinki Philharmonic/Klaus Mäkelä, and Mahler’s Symphony No.8 with Nederlands Philharmonisch Orkest/Marc Albrecht and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding.

In the current season, Shenyang joins the Los Angeles Philharmonic as Don Pizarro in concert performances of Fidelio conducted by Music Director Gustavo Dudamel, and debuts with both Münchner Philharmoniker and London Philharmonic Orchestra in Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion, a work he premiered at the 2018 Dresdner Musikfestspiele before further performances with Melbourne Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestras.

Committed to promoting the vocal treasures of his native heritage, Shenyang recently premiered Xiaogang Ye’s orchestral song cycle, The Song of the Earth, for CD release on Deutsche Grammophon under the baton of Long Yu, and he presents ‘East Meets West: Bridging Cultures Through Music, an Evening with Tianjin Juilliard and Friends’ at the 2021 Macau International Music Festival. A passionate Lieder singer and programme curator, Shenyang presented Schubert’s Die Winterreise in a specially commissioned arrangement with the Stradivari Quartet at Shanghai’s Symphony Hall and with the Borusan Quartet at Istanbul’s Is Sanat, and received great acclaim at Shanghai’s 2020 MISA Festival for ‘The Distant Beethoven’, created around the composer’s Scottish and Irish folksongs. A recipient of the Alice Tully Vocal Arts Award, Shenyang has been heard at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and features on the recent Delos release ‘A Lost World’, showcasing Schubert songs and duets together with soprano Susanna Phillips and pianist Brian Zeger.