A First Prize, Zarzuela Prize, and audience favorite at the 2014 Opealia Competition, tenor Mario Chang, a native of Guatemala City, recently completed the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at The Metropolitan Operaand the Advanced Diploma in Opera Studies program at the Juilliard School. In the 2017-18 season, Mr. Chang will sing the role of Arturo, and cover that of Edgardo, in Mary Zimmerman’s production of Lucia di Lammermoor at the Metropolitan Opera. He will also sing the role of Ismaele in Nabucco at Los Angeles Opera. In addition, he will return again to Oper Frankfurt as an Ensemble member, where he will take on the title roles in Werther and Roberto Devereux, as well as sing the role of the Italian Tenor in a new production of Capriccio by Brigitte Fassbaender.

The 2016 – 2017 season saw Mario Chang return to Oper Frankfurt, where he made his role debuts as Lenski in a new production of Yevgeny Onegin and the Duke of Mantua in a new production of Rigoletto, while also reprising the role of Rodolfo in La Bohème. Mr. Chang also made his house debut at Santa Fe Opera as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor last summer, conducted by Corrado Rovaris. In addition, he appeared in recital as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Foundation at Carnegie Hall.

Mr. Chang’s operatic highlights include the role of Nemorino in L’Elisir d’Amore at the Metropolitan Opera, his Los Angeles Opera debut as Rodolfo in La Bohème conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the role of the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier, which he performed both at the Met under the baton of Edward Gardner and with the National Symphony Orchestra opposite Renée Fleming under the baton of Christoph Eschenbach, his Met Opera debut as the Forth Squire in a new production of Parsifal, his Israeli debut as the Chevalier de la Force in Dialogues des Carmélites with the International Vocal Arts Institute in Tel Aviv, his North Carolina Opera and role debut as Alfredo in La Traviata, Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni with Teatro Lirico D’Europa, and Fritz Kobusin Mascagni’s L’Amico Fritz with Miami Lyric Opera. 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.”

Concert performances include Mozart’s Requiem with Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Guatemala and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with Orquesta Sinfónica Centro americana 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 Bretagnein 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 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.