Vivian Yau

Soprano

Hailed as “a light, silvery, bright soprano with impressive coloratura” (The Aspen Times), Hong Kong soprano Vivian Yau most recently starred in the title role of Silent Opera UK’s immersive production Vixen at the 2023 Hong Kong Arts Festival, as well as the 2023 Beijing Music Festival’s production of Il Mondo della Luna as Flaminia. In 2024, Yau makes her German debut as Mi in Lisas Land des Lächelns with Neuköllner Oper, Berlin. Previously, Yau performed the title role in world première of Pierangelo Valtinoni’s Alice in Wonderland at the 2021 Hong Kong Arts Festival, a production co-commissioned by the Zürich Opera House and Yip’s Children Choir Hong Kong. Yau has also appeared as guest soloist with the China National Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, and Macao Orchestra. Some other highlights of her career include Rosina in The Barber of Seville with Aspen Opera Center (US) and Mediterranean Opera Festival (Italy), her Carnegie Hall début as a soloist in Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, and soprano solo in Handel’s Messiah in Radio Television Hong Kong’s annual Christmas Concert. Other operatic roles include Adele (Die Fledermaus), Adina (L’Elisir d’Amore), Giulietta (I Capuleti e i Montecchi), Tirésias (Les Mamelles de Tirésias), Asteria (Tamerlano), and Valentina Scarcella (Later the Same Evening).

An active advocate for opera as a powerful art form in the modern times, Yau frequently collaborates with contemporary composers, having premiered operas, song cycles and other works of dozens of contemporary composers from all over the world. At the XVIII International Chopin & Friends Festival in New York, she was featured as soloist in Jakub Polaczyk’s mass Missa Apuncta. In 2020, she performed the lead role of Cai Wenji in Joan Huang’s solo chamber opera Eighteen Melodies for Hujia with West Edge Opera in California, and produced a music video for her performance of George Crumb’s Apparition. Some digital performances during the Covid times include Michael Ching’s Zoom Speed Dating Tonight! with the Janiec Opera Company of Brevard Music Center, as well as Ken Steen and Mary Birnbaum’s APART/MENTAL with #OperaHarmony and OperaVision.

Yau has been voted “My Favourite Young Music Maker” on Radio Television Hong Kong by public audience. She holds a Bachelor of Music degree from The Juilliard School, and a Master of Music degree from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.