Ding Gao

During the 2001/02 season, Gao was invited by the Nashville Opera and Opera Memphis to sing the rôle of Timur in Turandot. In addition, he performed Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with National Chorale, Handel’s Messiah with Charlotte Symphony, Mozart Requiem with Springfield Symphony and “A Night at Paris Opera” with Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of maestro Julius Rudel. Upcoming engagements include Verdi Requiem, with National Chorale, Virginia Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic and St Cecilia Chorus.

Highlights of Gao’s orchestral and oratorio engagements in recent years included Rossini’s Stabat Mater with the Berkshire Choral Festival, Verdi Requiem with the Washington Oratorio Society, the Pensacola Symphony, the Canterbury Choral Society of New York and the Jacksonville Symphony. Other important performances to be mentioned were Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Winter Park Bach Festival, and Handel’s Messiah with the El Paso Choral and the Oratorio Society of Utah. Gao also made his début with the Seattle Opera as Nilakantha in Delibes’ Lakme, and with the Boston Pops and conductor Keith Lockhart in a concert of operatic excerpts, to be filmed for television.

In past seasons Ding Gao sang Bonze in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly with the Houston Grand Opera, the Verdi’s Requiem with the Washington Oratorio Society, Don Basilio in Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia with the Washington International Opera, as well as Escamillo in Bizet’s Carmen, and Monterone in Verdi’s Rigoletto with the New York City Opera. Other outstanding appearances are Colline in Puccini’s La Boheme with the New York City Opera, the Speaker in Mozart’s Zauberflöte with the Austin Lyric Opera, Timur in Puccini’s Turandot with the Edmonton and Manitoba operas. The same rôle, Timur in Turandot, was performed on a European tour in 1997, together with Rossini’s Stabat Mater and the Teatro Lirico D’Europa.

In 1995 Gao won both 1st prizes in the Sullivan Foundation Competition and in the Fourth Altamura/Enrico Caruso International Voice Competition.