Appearing in:
Songs without Borders
Helen Huang
soprano
Helen Zhibing Huang is a Chinese-born soprano with a wide range of musical interests, spanning from baroque to the present day.
In the 2019-2020 season, Miss Huang will create the role of Singa Loh in Jorge Sosa’s I Am a Dreamer Who No Longer Dreams, perform the role of Henrietta Wong in Opera Parallèle’s production of Harvey Milk, as well as making concert and operatic debuts in Europe and Australia. She will also join Nashville Opera’s Mary Ragland Emerging Artist Program, performing Countess Ceprano and the Page, as well as covering Gilda in Rigoletto, and performing Flora in The Turn of the Screw.
Miss Huang’s other operatic credits include Baby Doe in The Ballad of Baby Doe, Clorinda in Rossini’s La cenerentola, Amor in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice, Serpetta in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, La fée in Massenet’s Cendrillon, Poppea in Handel’s Agrippina, Carolina in Cimarosa’s Il matrimonio segreto, and Flora in Britten’s The Turn of the Screw. A strong advocate for new music, she has participated in workshops for operas including Paola Prestini’s Gilgamesh, Julian Wachner’s REV. 23, and Leanna Kirchoff’s Friday After Friday. Her concert credits include Handel’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation, Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhornand Symphony No. 4, and Earl Kim’s Where Grief Slumbers.
Miss Huang was a recent Jensen Foundation Competition finalist in 2019. She has also earned recognition from other competitions such as the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions (2018 Oregon District Encouragement Award, 2017 Upper Midwest Region Finalist, 2016 Nebraska District Winner), McCammon Voice Competition (2018 Finalist), and the National Opera Association Vocal Competition (2015 Second Place).
She recently finished her second year as a Resident Artist at Portland Opera, and has fulfilled young artist residencies at Central City Opera, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and Songfest. Miss Huang holds degrees from the New England Conservatory, Dawn Upshaw’s Bard Vocal Arts Program, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Rochester (B.A. Economics). She is a founder and co-host of the podcast Asian Angles, which dissects the experiences of Asian artists in the Western creative world. In her spare time, Miss Huang enjoys cooking traditional Chinese dishes, traveling, and making new friends.