Ge Qun Wang
Professor Ge Qun Wang, a native of China, performed the leading role in Los Angeles Opera’s production of On Gold Mountain, performed Rodolfo in Philadelphia Opera’s production of La Boheme, and has performed the roles of Ottavio (Don Giovanni), Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Idomeneo (Idomeneo), Vaudemont (Iolantha), and Nemorino (L’Elisir d’Amore), Hoffmann ( Tales of Hoffmann), and Don Carlo (Don Carlo). In addition to his operatic roles, he also has sung many tenor soli in Oratorio concerts, including Handel’s Messiah and Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Beethoven’s Ninth symphony, and Verdi’s Messa di Requiem.
In 1994, e received his B.A. in vocal performance at the ShanDong University of the Arts and continued his studies at Madam Zhou’s Opera Center at the Shanghai Conservatory. After two summers as a Merola Fellow with San Francisco Opera Center in 1995 and1996, Ge Qun was invited to continue his studies at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where he received his Master’s Degree in Music in 1999. Ge Qun completed the post-graduate program at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2001.
His honors and prizes include First Prize at the National Vocal Competition in Shanghai, the Mario Lanza International Competition, and the Connecticut Opera Guild Competition 1998. He was also the recipient of Merola’s prestigious career grant and the Li Foundation Grant in 2000 and 2001.
Ge Qun has given recitals in China, South Asia, and the US, and has appeared in interviews on Fox 11 in Los Angeles, on NPR’s Voices of America, and has received outstanding reviews by The New York Times, the L.A. Times and the World Journal.
In 1995 he participated in the 50th anniversary memorial concert, performing Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the United Nations in the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. In 2002 and 2003, Ge Qun sang for the presidents of the People’s Republic of China, and in 2008, he sang for Mayor Gavin Newsom’s inauguration ceremony at the invitation of the Mayor’s Office of the City of San Francisco.
Ge Qun made his Carnegie Hall debut at the invitation of Chinese pianist Lang Lang in 2009. His concert with Lang Lang at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in that same year received rave reviews.
In 2013, in celebration of the 200th year of Verdi’s birth, Ge Qun sang the tenor role in the Verdi Messa de Requiem with the Rome International Orchestra under the baton of Maestro Antonio Panteneschi. He has completed his visiting scholarship at the Perugia Conservatory of Music in Perugia, Italy in 2014, under the direction of the world renown soprano Professor Michela Sburati.
He has given master class series, and has taught at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music Opera Center International Opera Program in 2011, at the invitation of Madam Zhou Xiao Yan.
In 2015 Shan Dong university of the Arts offered a professorship to Ge Qun.