About
Featured on the cover of the October 2015 issue of Opera News as one of “opera’s exciting new voices,” highly acclaimed Chinese baritone Yunpeng Wang is quickly gaining international recognition on both opera and concert stages of the world. In the 2015-2016 season Mr. Wang returns to the Metropolitan Opera for his third year as a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program with appearances including Fiorello in Bartlett Sher’s production of Il Barbiere di Siviglia, conducted by Antony Walker, and Prince Yamadori in Madama Butterfly, which will be broadcast on the Live in HD series to movie theaters around the world. He also returns to the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Italy to make his role debut as Figaro in a concert version of Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia under the baton of Alberto Zedda, as well as singing Guglielmo in Cosi fan tutte with the Macao Symphony conducted by Lü Jia. Next season will see Mr. Wang return to the Met as Mercutio in a new Bartlett Sher production of Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.
Concert and recital engagements this season include his debut with Opera Orchestra of New York in Donizetti’s Parisina D’este singing Duke Azzo opposite Angela Meade, conducted by Eve Queller, and appearances with the Met’s Summer Recital Series in the parks. Additional engagements include his UK recital debut at St George’s Hall in Liverpool as well as debuts with both the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and Philadelphia Chamber Music Society singing Brahms’s Liebeslieder Walzer and Schumann’s Spanische Liebeslieder, with Cecile Licad and Ken Noda.
Highlights of Mr. Wang’s previous seasons include his house debut with the Metropolitan Opera as Fiorello in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia, a Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and his company debut in the Met’s Summer Recital Series. Additional roles include Count Almaviva in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Don Profondo in Rossini’s Il Viaggio a Reims with the Rossini Opera Festival at the Teatro Rossini, as well as Agamemnon in Gluck’s Iphigénie en Aulide conducted by Jane Glover, and Fieramosca in Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini conducted by James Levine, both with MET+Juilliard.
On the recital and concert stage, Mr. Wang’s performances include his Carnegie Hall debut in collaboration with The Musical Olympus Festival, Alice Tully Hall debut with the I Sing Beijing Program and The New York City Opera Orchestra, Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the Santa Cruz Symphony, and the Voices of 2012 concert with the Budapest Symphony Orchestra MÁV in Pécs, Hungary. Additional appearances include Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 and Xian Xinghai’s The Yellow River Cantata with the Hartford Symphony, and singing in the “Zürich Stiftung Opera Bel Canto Night” under the tutelage of Francisco Araiza in Zürich, Switzerland.
Mr. Wang was the recipient of the 2nd Place Prize, the Zarzuela Prize, and the Audience Favorite Award at Plácido Domingo’s Operalia Competition in 2012, First Prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner Foundation International Vocal Competition, and First Prize in the Alan M. and Joan Taub Ades Vocal Competition.
Mr. Wang received his Bachelor of Music from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and a Master of Music in Vocal Performance from The Manhattan School of Music and currently resides in New York.