Hailing from Wenzhou, baritone Xiaomeng Zhang’s passion for singing has taken him from China’s top-ranking Shanghai Conservatory of Music to the Manhattan School of Music, where he received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees respectively. He continued his training at the prestigious Merola Opera Programme at San Francisco Opera before graduating from the Artist Diploma Course of New York’s Julliard School, where he debuted as Don Giovanni under Joseph Colaneri to critical acclaim.
Invited by Opernhaus Zürich to join their elite Opernstudio for the 2019/20 season, Zhang moved to Europe where his upcoming roles with the company include Silvio (I pagliacci) under Paolo Carignani and Marullo (Rigoletto) under Karel Mark Chichon among others.
Further principal roles in his repertoire include Belcore (L’elisir d’amore) for ARE Opera, Schaunard (La bohème) for the Chautauqua Music Festival and the eponymous hero of Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Columbus. During his time at the Julliard School, he sang Le Fauteuil/Arbre (L’enfant et les sortilèges), Kuligin (Katya Kabanova), Minksman (Flight), Giove (La Calisto) and Presto (Les mamelles de Tirésias). Of his performance as Conte Almaviva in The Aspen Music Festival’s 2019 production of Le nozze di Figaro, the Aspen Times wrote “His frustration-venting aria in Act 3 was a miracle of vocal focus and controlled fury.”
In concert, Zhang has performed as soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 with Queens College Choral Society, Yellow River Cantata with New Jersey Festival Orchestra, both Mozart’s Requiem and Dvořák’s Te Deum with New York City Master Chorale and, most recently, as the title role in Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion with the Lanzhou Symphony, conducted by the composer himself.
