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Mario Chang

About this Artist

Guatemalan tenor Mario Chang has been praised as “a born bel canto tenor” by The New York Times. The 2022/23 season saw his house debut with the Hong Kong Opera as Alfredo in La traviata as well as his house debuts at Ópera de Oviedo in the title role in Ernani and his role debut as Cavaradossi in Tosca with Teatro de la Maestranza. Additional engagements include this evening’s Verdi Requiem with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl conducted by Gustavo Dudamel and a performance of the Requiem with the Master Chorale of South Florida.

Orchestral highlights include Chang’s Hollywood Bowl debut as Cassio in Otello with the LA Phil, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, the Italian Tenor in Der Rosenkavalier with the National Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Guatemala, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Orquesta Sinfónica Centroamericana in Nicaragua. Chang made his Carnegie Hall debut in a concert with the Musical Olympus Foundation and returned to appear in recital as part of the Marilyn Horne Song Celebration.

Honors and awards include First Prize, Zarzuela Prize, and audience favorite at the 2014 Operalia Competition, Top Prize in the 2014 Gerda Lissner Foundation competition, and a Festival Musique et Vin au Clos Vougeot career grant in 2013. He has also received awards from the Concurso Internacional de Canto Lírico in Trujillo, Peru, and the Asociación Artista del Año and Asociación Dante Alighieri in Guatemala.

Chang is founder and director of Querido Arte Opera de Guatemala, the first opera company in Guatemala, a Center for the Development of the Arts (Centro de Perfeccionamiento para las Artes), and a youth orchestra and chorus program, creating a platform for the development and promotion of the arts and supporting hundreds of young musicians and emerging artists to reach their dreams. In recognition of this work, he was appointed with the Medalla del Quetzal and Cambio de la Rosa de la Paz by the Ministry of Culture and Sports of his country, making him ambassador of peace and culture in Guatemala.

Chang was a member of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera and holds an Advanced Diploma in Opera Studies from the Juilliard School.