Korean-American mezzo-soprano Alice Chung is rapidly being recognized for her "operatic tonal glamour" (Parterre) and being “a force of nature with a sound both powerful and appealing” (San Francisco Classical Voice).
The 2023-2024 season started off strongly for Ms. Chung with a celebrated house debut at Boston Lyric Opera as Suzuki (after which Opera News hailed the artist as “one of America’s most gifted young singers”) and will also include a number of important appearances for Ms. Chung including a return to Hawaii Opera Theatre in An American Dream and a debut with Houston Grand Opera in The Big Swim. On the concert stage, Chung will enjoy a return engagement with the U.S. Naval Academy in Handel’s Messiah, accompanied by the Annapolis Symphony Orchestra. Upcoming seasons will see Ms. Chung taking on more dramatic repertory, including the title role in Bizet’s Carmen and Amneris in Verdi’s Aida.
2022-2023 engagements of note included a house and role debut at Hawaii Opera Theatre as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly, covering the role of Granny Jia in Dream of the Red Chamber in San Francisco Opera’s co-production with the Hong Kong Arts Festival and a return to cover the role of Suzuki, and house and role debuts with Arizona Opera as the Third Lady in Die Zauberflöte and Le Rossignol with West Edge Opera.
A graduate of The Academy of Vocal Arts, Ms. Chung has also performed with Tulsa Opera, Central City Opera, Chautauqua Opera, and the Lyric Opera of Kansas City. Several role credits include La zia Principessa (Suor Angelica), Zita (Gianni Schicchi), Maddalena (Rigoletto), Ježibaba (Rusalka), Die Hexe (Hänsel und Gretel), Mrs. Grose (The Turn of the Screw), Larina (Eugene Onegin), Eduige (Rodelinda), Mama McCourt (The Ballad of Baby Doe), Cecilia March (Little Women), Dritte Dame (Die Zauberflöte), and Mariana (Luisa Fernanda). On the concert stage, she has sung with the Kansas City Symphony, Bucks County Symphony and, most recently, the Naples Philharmonic at Artis-Naples. Concert credits include Duruflé’s Requiem, Op. 9, Saint-Saëns’s Oratorio de Noël, Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky Op. 78, and Beethoven’s Fantasia, Op. 8 and Mass in C Major, Op. 86.
As a 2017 and 2019 alumnus, Ms. Chung has garnered attention from the San Francisco audience through the prestigious Merola Opera Program, during which she was acclaimed for her excerpted portrayals of Santuzza (Cavalleria rusticana), Augusta Tabor (The Ballad of Baby Doe), Azucena (Il trovatore) for her “riveting dramatic intensity” by Parterre, and a “ringing, magisterial” Gertrude (Hamlet) by the San Francisco Chronicle. In 2020, she returned for her Schwabacher Debut Recital, presented by the Merola Opera Program in conjunction with the San Francisco Opera.
A lover of collaboration and chamber music, Ms. Chung has worked with several contemporary composers, premiering new works at the Primavera Festival and Composer Concerts as well as performing well-loved pieces such as Brahms’s Zwei Gesänge, Op.91 at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has also collaborated with Opera Santa Barbara in recital and curated non-profit concerts for her community. As a Music Academy of the West fellow, Ms. Chung had the opportunity to present Three songs for voice, viola, and piano by Frank Bridge through their x2 Chamber Music Concert series.
Ms. Chung has been an honored recipient of numerous grants as well as a winner of various competitions, including the 2022 Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition, the Opera Index Tito Capobiano Memorial Award, First Prize and Audience Favorite awards at the Young Patronesses of the Opera and District/Regional Winner in the Laffont Competition, During 2020 and 2021, she was awarded the Richard F. Gold Career Grant by the Shoshana Foundation, won First Place in the Cooper-Bing Competition, placed Third in the Mildred Miller International Voice Competition and was a winner of the 2021 William Matheus Sullivan Foundation Audition Awards. She has also won awards through the Orpheus Vocal Competition (2020), Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition (2018), the Metropolitan National Council Auditions (2018 Second Prize Midwest Regionals), Chautauqua Opera Guild (2015), and Pasadena Opera Guild (2014).
During her time offstage, Ms. Chung works with several nonprofit organizations in the industry. She is a founder of Wear Yellow Proudly, an arts and advocacy initiative devoted to bringing awareness to Asian culture by showcasing and celebrating Asian art and artists worldwide. Ms. Chung also collaborates with The OmniARTS Foundation Inc., an organization dedicated to the cultivation of interdisciplinary art through new work commissions, arts education, and performance events.