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The American mezzo-soprano and actress, Hai-Ting Chinn, obtained her Bachlor of Music degree in Vocal Performance/English Literature from Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York (1991-1995); and her Master of Music degree in Voice and Opera from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut (Class of 1997).
Hai-Ting Chinn performs in a wide range of styles and venues, from Purcell to Arnold Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire, Cherubino in W.A. Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro to The King & J.S. Bach to P.D.Q. Bach. In the title role of the Wooster Group’s production of Francesco Cavalli’s La Didone, premiered at the Edinburgh Festival, the Scotsman newspaper called her "glorious, poised, and poignant," and during the New York City production at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Timeout New York said of her: "Chinn has it all: breathtaking beauty, poise, comic timing and a voice of pure gold." She has performed as a soloist with New York City Opera, The Wooster Group, OperaOmnia, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke's, and the Waverly Consort; and on the stages of the Carnegie Hall, Mann Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia, Edinburgh Festival, Verbier Festival, and London’s West End. She has premiered new works by Conrad Cummings, Renée Favand-See Yoav Gal, Amy Beth Kirsten, Tarik O’Regan, Matthew Schickele, Stefan Weisman, Du Yun.
Hai-Ting was featured in Philip Glass and Robert Wilson’s Einstein On The Beach, which was premiered on January 20, 2012, and was performed at venues around the world through March 2013, and she sang the role of Belle in Glass’s La Belle et la Bête in the 2013-2014 season, also on tour. Other operatic roles include Hansel in Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel and Gretel with Lyric Opera of San Diego, Aloès in Chabrier’s L’Étoile with New York City Opera, Dorabella in W.A. Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with Dell’Arte Opera, Poppea in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea with OperaOmnia, and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly with the New York Opera Society, and in Peter Maxwell Davies’ monodrama The Medium.. She has been heard as soloist in J.S. Bach's St. John Passion (BWV 245) with the Orchestra of St. Ignatius Loyola, as Dido in Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Rebel Baroque Orchestra, in the Waverly Consort’s Christmas Story, in P.D.Q. Bach’s Liebeslieder Polkas with Peter Schickele, with the New York City Opera’s educational touring company as Hansel in Hansel and Gretel and in the title role of The Little Prince (Rachel Portman, 2003), and as Lady Thiang in The King & I on London’s West End. She was also heard as soloist with the New York Collegium and in W.A. Mozart’s Requiem with the Colonial Symphony, and she appeared in Jonathan Miller’s production of J.S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) at BAM. She sings with new- and early-music ensembles including the Proteus Ensemble, New York Collegium, L’antica Musica New York, the Tiffany Consort, Bachworks, Sequitur, the Locrian Chamber ensemble, the New York Virtuoso Singers, and the VOX vocal ensemble. She has roles in new operas and other works including Du Yun’s Zolle at the New York City Opera VOX festival and Angel Bones at the Mann Center in Philadelphia, Jonathan Dawe’s Cracked Orlando, Matthew Schickele’s Marymere, Conrad Cummings’s The Golden Gate, Yoav Gal’s Moshe, Gregory Spears’ Paul’s Case, and Stefan Weisman’s Darkling, which was released by Albany Records in 2011.
Hai-Ting is known in New York City as an advocate of classical music in unusual and accessible settings. She starred in the Wooster Group’s first opera, La Didone (music of Francesco Cavalli), an experimental retelling of the Dido and Aeneas story set in and against a Sci-Fi movie from the 1960s. She performed the roles of Medea in Cavalli’s Giasone and Poppea in Monteverdi’s Coronation of Poppea in a nightclub (Le Poisson Rouge in Manhattan’s West Village, productions by OperaOmnia) and Nicklausse/The Muse in Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann at an active shipping dock on the Brooklyn waterfront (a production by Vertical Players Repertory in collaboration with the Brooklyn stevedores). She has also performed at more than 25 New York public schools with the New York City Opera’s educational outreach program, and she has given classical recitals in New York rock and cabaret venues such as Tonic and Barbès.
Hai-Ting Chinn was featured in the 2017 Resonant Bodies Festival, a singer-centered celebration of new music. In April 2016, as an Artist-in-Residence at HERE HERE Arts Center, she developed and premiered Science Fair: An Opera With Experiments, a staged show of science set to music. She currently lives in New York City. |
