Tenor Mario Chang, a native of Guatemala City, Guatemala, recently completed the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Opera and the Advanced Diploma in Opera Studies program at the Juilliard School. In the 2014 – 2015 season, Mr. Chang will join Frankfurt Oper as an ensemble member where he will sing Rodolfo in La Bohème, the Italian Singer in a new production of Der Rosenkavalier, Cassio in Otello, and Edwin Ronald von und zu Lippert-Weylersheim in concert performances of Die Csárdásfürstin. Mr. Chang will also make his North Carolina Opera and role debut as Alfredo in La Traviata.
Mr. Chang’s 2013 - 2014 season was highlighted by the role of the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier which he performed both at the Met under Edward Gardner and with the National Symphony Orchestra opposite Renée Fleming under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach. Mr. Chang also sang Nemorino in selections from L’Elisir d’Amore with the Met and Juilliard scenes program conducted by James Levine for which Anthony Tommasini of the New York Times lauded him as a “born bel canto tenor.”
Mr. Chang’s operatic performances include his Met Opera debut as the Forth Squire in a new production of Parsifal, Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore with Festival de Arte Paiz, his Israeli debut as the Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites with the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, Gaston in La Traviata with Centro Cultural Miguel Ángel Asturias, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Teatro Lirico D’Europa, and Fritz Kobus in Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz with Miami Lyric Opera.
Concert performances include Mozart’s Requiem with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Guatemala and Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Orquesta Sinfónica Centroamericana in Nicaragua. Other highlights include a concert in Puerto Rico honoring Giuseppe Verdi with Teatro de la Opera, his participation in the Opera Studio at L’Accademia di Santa Cecilia di Roma in Italy with soprano Renata Scotto, his Carnegie Hall debut singing in a concert with the Musical Olympus Foundation, and his debut with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne in Rennes, France. He was also a guest soloist with the Saint Petersburg State Capella Symphony Orchestra at Festival Musical Olympus in Russia.
Honors and awards include the Top Prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner Foundation competition, a Festival Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot career grant in 2013, a 2012 Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award grant for promising Young Classical Artists, the 2011 recipient of the overall First Prize, the Plácido Domingo Prize and the ‘Amigos de Sabadell’ Prize in the Francisco Viñas Competition at Teatro del Liceu, Barcelona. He also received awards from the Concurso de Canto Lírico de Trujillo, Perú, and the Asociación Artista del Año and Asociación Dante Alighieri in Guatemala.
In 2014, he won the Male Prize, the Zarzuela prize and the Audience's prize for his performance of Giuseppe Verdi's Rigoletto (Ella mi fu rapita) and of Pablo Sorozábal's La tabernera del puerto (No puede ser) at Operalia, Plácido Domingo's opera singer competition.
