PEIXIN CHEN, Bass BiographyPeixin Chen bass
Peixin Chen is recognized for his majestically resonant bass voice and a keen dramatic instinct that he brings to a wide range of roles on the international opera stage. His repertoire spans from the comic characters of Donizetti, Mozart, and Rossini to the strong and serious roles of Puccini, Verdi, and Wagner. Peixin Chen has worked with an illustrious array of conductors and directors including Harry Bicket, James Conlon, Eun Sun Kim, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, Lorin Maazel, Enrique Mazzola, Zubin Mehta, Giancarlo del Monaco, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Michel Plasson, David Pountney, James Robinson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Peter Sellars, Patrick Summers, Krzysztof Urbański, and Francesca Zambello.
Performances of the 2024-25 season include Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera and Atlanta Opera, Colline in La bohème at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dulcamara in L’elisir d’amore for a debut at Florida Grand Opera, and Sparafucile in Rigoletto at Los Angeles Opera.
The bass made his debut at the Salzburger Festspiele playing the lead role of The General in a new production by Peter Sellars of Prokofiev’s The Gambler conducted by Timur Zangiev and other highlights of the 2023-24 season included a debut at the Teatro Real as Sparafucile in Rigoletto conducted by Nicola Luisotti, a return engagement with Los Angeles Opera as Commendatore in Don Giovanni led by Music Director James Conlon, and a debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a fully-staged presentation of Das Rheingold under the baton of Music Director Gustavo Dudamel. Additional highlights included Turandot both at the Metropolitan Opera led by Oksana Lyniv and Marco Armiliato and at Washington National Opera conducted by Speranza Scappucci.
Peixin Chen has sung Sarastro in The Magic Flute at the Metropolitan Opera, Fasolt in Das Rheingold both at Seattle Opera and The Dallas Opera, and Colline in La bohème in a return engagement with Washington National Opera. He has bowed as Bartolo in Il barbiere di Siviglia at Cincinnati Opera, and has made a Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in the company’s Sir David McVicar new production premiere of the French, five act version of Verdi's Don Carlos singing the Monk and covering Philippe II.
Highlights of recent seasons include a European debut at the Festival d’Aix en Provence in Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen in a new production by Ivo van Hove, Metropolitan Opera performances of The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, and Boris Godunov, Rigoletto at Santa Fe Opera and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City, Die Zauberflöte and La bohème with Opera Philadelphia, L’elisir d’amore at Washington National Opera, and Dvořák’s Dmitrij at the Bard Music Festival.
A proud graduate of the Houston Grand Opera Studio and under the tutelage of Dr. Stephen King, Peixin Chen has bowed at Houston Grand Opera in productions of Turandot, Il barbiere di Siviglia, Le nozze di Figaro, Norma, Aida, Il trovatore, The Magic Flute, and Die Walküre, among others.
Peixin Chen’s dynamic concert career includes performances of the Verdi Requiem with the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Music Director Patrick Summers and with the Los Angeles Master Chorale led by Grant Gershon, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Music Director Krzysztof Urbański and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, and numerous performances of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony including with Music Director Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic, with Music Director Rafael Payare and the San Diego Symphony, with Music Director Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and with Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and the Houston Symphony.