Brian Ming Chu

Baritone Brian Chu has won critical acclaim for his interpretative versatility in music from the Baroque to the present, having sung under the baton of eminent conductors, including William Christie, Peter Schreier, and Will Crutchfield. Mr. Chu has been a featured soloist with Boston’s The King’s Noyse, The Philadelphia Singers, the Handel Choir and Concert Artists of Baltimore, Washington’s Orchestra of the 17th Century, and the Dryden Ensemble of Princeton. Engagements of the past season included Carmina Burana and Brahms Requiem in Washington, Messiah and St. John Passion in New York, and concerts of sacred music in Lisbon, Portugal. His operatic credits span a broad range, from French and Italian Baroque to more standard repertory. With Peabody Opera Theatre he appeared as Lescaut in Manon and Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This season he performs small roles with Baltimore Opera Company in Lakmé, Rigoletto, and Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk. He has also been heard as a young artist in Rossini’s Otello at the Caramoor Music Festival, with Opera Vivente and Washington Summer Opera Theatre, and as an Adams Vocal Fellow of the Carmel Bach Festival in California this past summer.

An avid recitalist, Mr. Chu has given concerts at Weill and Merkin Recital Halls in New York, Washington’s Phillips Collection, and recently in a program of Czech songs at the World Bank for President Bush. His collaborations with contemporary composers have promoted the commiss ions of emerging talents, including Aaron Jay Kernis, William Bolcom, and Alan Mandel. Mr. Chu trained as an architect at Cornell University before pursuing graduate study in voice and opera at the Peabody Conservatory with Stanley Cornett. Forthcoming engagements include Schumann’s Dichterliebe at Middlebury College in Vermont, a recital to benefit war relief in Sarajevo, Bosnia, and performances of the orchestral songs of Jean Sibelius at the Panula-Sibelius Symposium in Romania.