Bass-baritone Chung-Wai Soong has performed with companies in Australia and across the US, in extensive and varied repertoire. This includes world premieres: David Chesworth (Sabat Jesus); Lisa Bielawa’s groundbreaking streaming opera, Vireo; and the title role in Meira Warshauer’s Elijah’s Violin. He has been featured soloist in works by Bach (including Magnificat, Mass in B minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. John Passion, various cantatas), Mozart (including Requiem, Coronation Mass, Vesperae solennes de confessore), Beethoven (Symphony No. 9, Mass in C Major, Choral Fantasy), Dvořák (Requiem, Stabat Mater), Berlioz (L’enfance du Christ), Schubert, Stravinsky (Mass, Les Noces), Duruflé (Requiem), and Handel (Jephtha, Belshazzar). He sang Schumann’s Dichterliebe at the Melbourne International Festival, which was broadcast live nationally on ABC.
Chung-Wai has sung with the San Francisco Symphony as Mityukha (Boris Godunov), Stravinsky’s Les Noces, and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy under Kurt Masur, which he also performed at Ojai Festival under Artistic Director Jeremy Denk. His versatility encompasses many genres in opera and concert: Sadistic Sailor (Missy Mazolli’s Breaking the Waves), High Priest (Nabucco), Melchior (Amahl and the Night Visitors), Kuligin (Katya Kabanova), Un vieux paysan in Dukas’ Ariane et Barbe-Bleue, Marco in Gianni Schicchi (Hawaii Opera Theatre), and Senator in The Shining (Opera Parallèle), Chamberlain (Stravinsky’s Le Rossignol – West Edge Opera), the title role in Il Ducato – The New Mikado (Lamplighters Music Theatre), Fauré Requiem (Grace Cathedral, Chora Nova), Mass in B Minor (California Bach Society), Alidoro in La Cenerentola (Pocket Opera). Recent and upcoming: Prince Gabriel III of Belgium’s Trainer in Vinkensport by David T. Little (Opera Parallèle), Benoit and Alcindoro in La Bohéme (Hawaii), Christus in Bach’s St. John Passion (San Francisco Bach Choir), Bass soloist in Beethoven’s Mass in C Major along with the world premiere of Sanford Dole’s All in Beauty (Bay Choral Guild), Judas in St. Matthew Passion (Cantata Collective), Raphael and Adam in Haydn’s The Creation (UC Berkeley), Dottore Grenvil (La Traviata – Festival Opera), Imperial Commissioner (Madama Butterfly – Opera San José), Bass Soloist in Mozart Requiem (Grace Cathedral), Il Bonzo( Madama Butterfly – Pocket Opera).
