2017 80th Birthday Awardee: Kang Wang

“He has what it takes to be a superstar tenor.” - theaterjones.com

Australian-Chinese tenor, KANG WANG, is in his second year of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program.

Last season he sang the role of Elvino in the MET+Juilliard coproduction of Bellini’s La Sonnambula, conducted by Speranza Scappucci. This past summer he made his Met debut with the Summer Recital Series in New York City’s parks, and he makes his house debut this season as Narraboth in Salome and the First Prisoner in Fidelio.

Kang Wang was previously a member of the opera studio “OperAvenir” at Theater Basel in Switzerland in the 2014/15 season, during which time he performed Nathanael in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, Notar in Don Pasquale and Male Chorus in The Rape of Lucretia. He performed Don José in La Tragedie de Carmen at IVAI Virginia in June 2014, and sang Nemorino in L’elisir d’amore at the Royal Northern College of Music. At the Queensland Conservatorium he sang Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Tom Rakewell in The Rake’s Progress.

Mr. Wang placed second in the Dallas Opera Guild 2016 Vocal Competition and also won the People’s Choice Award. He also won the People’s Choice Award in the Dame Joan Sutherland National Vocal Award, and as one of five finalists, performed in the final concert of the Australian Singing Competition at the Sydney Opera House. He won the Clonter Opera Prize in the UK in 2014 and was a semi-finalist of the 2011 Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition in Vienna.

The son of professional opera singers originally from Harbin (China), Kang Wang gained his International Artist Diploma in Opera at Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, UK, and completed his Master of Music Studies in opera at Queensland Conservatorium Griffith University in Australia under Joseph Ward, OBE.

Kang Wang with Lindemann Program Executive Director Michael Heaston and Hildegard Behrens Foundation Chairman Dr. Gaston Ormazabal at the award ceremony held recently at the Grand Tier of the Metropolitan Opera. [Click on thumbnail to view enlarged image.]

Listen to the voice of a superstar tenor in the making (with pianist and Hildegard Behrens Foundation Advisory Board Member Ken Noda):