CHI LIMING, “Wine” 遲黎明
Tenor
Chi Liming graduated from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in 1991 where he studied with professors Gao Zhilan and Chen Minzhuang, as well as Jeanne Deroubaix, Elly Ameling, Gerard Souzay and Dalton Baldwin. Recipient of numerous national awards in China, Chi was the third prizewinner in the inaugural Ministry of Culture National Voice Competition in 1996.
As a principal soloist of the Shanghai Opera House, Chi Liming has sung over 20 major roles in the standard operatic repertoire, including Calaf (Turandot), Cavaradossi (Tosca), Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly), Rodolfo (La Boheme), Alfredo (La traviata), Tonio (Pagliacci), Lenski (Eugene Onegin), Don Jose (Carmen), Faust (Damnation of Faust), Ferrando (Cosí fan tutte), Conte Almaviva (Il Barbiere di Siviglia) and the title roles of Werther, Gounod’s Faust and Roméo et Juliette. He made his international debut in 2005 as Roméo in Roméo et Juliette with the Virginia Opera. In 2006 his debut at La Fenice in Venice as Calaf in Turandot won him praise from the European media as “a true singer of the Italian School.”
Chi Liming received critical acclaim for his performance of the role of Wine in Guo Wenjing’s opera Poet Li Bai in the world premiere in Central City Opera, Colorado (2007), the China premiere in Beijing and Shanghai (2007) and the European premiere in Rome (2008). He sang the title role in The Nose by Shostakovich at the Beijing Music Festival in 2007. With the Shanghai Opera House his performances in Mo Fan’s Thunderstorm, Jin Xiang’s Savage Land, and Wen Deqing’s The Wager earned his special recognition as a champion of modern opera. He reprised the performance in The Wager at the Savonnlina Festival in Finland in 2008.
Equally at home on the concert stage, Chi Liming has sung Handel’s Messiah, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Missa Solemnis, Orff’s Carmina Burana with major orchestras in Shanghai, Macau and Hong Kong. At the invitation of China’s Ministry of Culture, he has participated in several large-scale diplomatic and cultural exchanges missions, including a tour of five East African nations, The France-China Year Inaugural Celebrations in France, joint gala concerts by Korean-Chinese musicians in Korea, 1999 New Year’s Eve Gala Concert and a special gala celebrating the occasion of Macau’s return to China for the Embassy in Washington D.C.