Singaporean tenor Jonathan Charles Tay is one of the leading opera singers to emerge from his home country in this generation. His clear lyric tone and commitment to text and drama have contributed to his increasing presence on the opera and concert stages in Singapore and the United States.
Since moving back to Singapore in 2015, Jonathan has performed in no less than 21 concerts and 16 operas in the last few years. In 2018, Jonathan along with along with his brother David Charles Tay, and producer Shridar Mani, started The Opera People with the aim of bringing engaging opera performances to local audiences and creating a platform for young professional singers to collaborate with musicians, theatre makers and creatives to bring opera to a new generation. Co-founding TOP has been an important initiative for Jonathan to emerge as a leader in the local vocal music scene, working not just as an artist but also to shape and develop the local opera scene to serve the increasingly large number of singers and opera makers in Singapore.
Jonathan and The Opera People started 2020 commemorating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary by presenting his only opera, Fidelio, in an hour-long abridged production of it at the Arts House’s Night to Light festival. Jonathan also featured in Dr Chen Zhangyi’s recording of his short operas, reprising the role of the Father in Kopi for One, a role he premiered and helped create in its 2018 premiere. This season, Jonathan looks forward to working with composer John Sharpley on the revision of his opera Fences of the Heart, as well as an exciting season ahead with The Opera People. He will also reprise his role as 阿牛in 刘三姐 with Singapore Chinese Orchestra.
In 2019, Jonathan took on Zemlimsky’s Der Zwerg, in a new sold-out production with The Opera People, Dwarf, that was performed in partnership with the Musicians Initiative Orchestra. Their debut production of Mozart’s Il Re Pastore renamed Love and Duty in 2018 was another sold-out success at the Esplanade Annexe Studio last year. Jonathan starred in the role of Algernon (Agenore).
Shortly after Zwerg, Jonathan performed one of his biggest opera roles yet, starring in Singapore Lyric Opera’s Carmen as Don José. Other 2019 highlights include appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, featuring as a soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie and in SSO’s Mother’s Day Concert.
In a busy 2018, Jonathan performed 阿牛in 刘三姐 and 曹操 in 赤壁 with Singapore Chinese Orchestra. Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with the Esplanade, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Yellow River Cantata with BHSO, Parpignol in Puccini’s La Boheme with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Il Messaggero in Verdi’s Aïda with Singapore Lyric Opera, soloist in Zao Bao’s 遇见 concert at the Singapore Writers Festival, The Father in A Singapore Trilogy: Kopi for One with L’arietta, and tenor soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with NUSSO, amongst other highlights.
Previous credits include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with SLO, Steuermann in Singapore’s first Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, garnering praise from OPERA! as “excellent and very lyrical”. Also, Orpheus in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Peppe in Donizetti’s Rita, Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Hussar in Stravinsky’s Mavra with New Opera Singapore, and Astolf in Schubert's Die Versworenen, Edoardo in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio, Muley Graves in Ricky Ian Gordon's Grapes of Wrath, Laurie in Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in performances in New York and Chicago. Jonathan also performed as Re Gonzaga and L’araldo in Franco Faccio’s Amleto. His performance with Opera Southwest was listed in Opera News best of 2016 recordings.
In recital, Jonathan has performed Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann’s Dichtelierbe and Brahm’s Liebesliederwaltzer at The Esplanade and The Arts House in Singapore, Charles Loeffler’s Five Irish Fantasies at the Manhattan School of Music, and Finzi’s Till Earth Outwears and Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA. He was also the featured soloist with the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, giving an “impressive” (Albuquerque Journal) performance of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor and Horn.
Mr. Tay attained his Bachelor of Music at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with renown tenor Neil Rosenshein and his Master of Music at Northwestern University, studying with professor W. Stephen Smith. He is also a recipient of the 2013 Eckstein Merit Scholarship Award, a New Horizon Aspen Music Festival Award in 2014 and recently was award a scholarship to the 2017 Richard Wagner Stipendienstiftung in Bayreuth, Germany, representing the Richard Wagner Association of Singapore.
Upon his return to Singapore, Tay has also responded to his passion for teaching and sharing music with the next generation. His endeavours in teaching has paid dividends with his students achieving distinctions and awards in the ABRSM singing examinations. Jonathan’s instruction has seen students gaining entry into schools such as Mannes School of Music, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and School of the Arts. His teaching career has brought him to teaching Instrumental Studies at School of the Arts this year. Jonathan has also been a guest adjudicator for auditions and recitals at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, as well as being invited as a panel speaker at YST’s voice conference in 2019.
Jonathan finds it of paramount importance to help his students find their authentic voice in singing. His approach to teaching focuses on a singer’s ability to communicate text, which he believes is the most important job of any singer. Singers learning with Jonathan are taught the basic building blocks of vocal training, in a systematic approach to singing in any language.
Singaporean soprano Teng Xiang Ting formally began her studies in vocal performance in 2014 at the Royal Northern College of Music (“RNCM”) in the U.K. after she qualified as a lawyer in Singapore. After graduating with a Masters of Music Performance (Distinction) and Postgraduate Diploma (Distinction), she moved to Switzerland and continued her training at the Swiss Opera Studio in Biel, where was offered a scholarship for the 2017-2019 season.
Xiang Ting made her operatic debut singing the main role of Adina in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore, at the age of 23, with New Opera Singapore. Her performance received special mention by The Straits’ Times as the ‘Best Debut’ of 2012. Since then, the operatic roles she has performed include the title roles of Alcina (Alcina), Dido (Dido and Aeneas), Mimi (La Bohème), Norina (Don Pasquale), the Governess (Turn of the Screw), Ilia (Idomeneo), Papagena and Pamina (Die Zauberflöte), Penelope (Penelope, Andre Previn), Parasha (Mavra), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus), and Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld). Her upcoming roles include Woglinde (Das Rheingold) with the Orchestra of the Music Makers.
In 2019, Xiang Ting made her professional debut in Switzerland at the Theatres of Biel and Solothurn singing the roles of Belinda and the First Witch in Dido and Aeneas, to critical acclaim by the press and critics. In the same year, her performance of Norina (Don Pasquale) with The Arts Place in Singapore was also highly reviewed by The Straits’ Times, for which she was received the special commendation of “Singapore’s first true opera star”.
Equally comfortable on the concert platform, Xiang Ting also performs regularly in Singapore, the U.K. and in Europe. Her most recent performance was as soloist in Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Orchestra of the Music Makers. Other oratorio performances as soprano soloist include Mozart’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass, Gounod’s Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. Her upcoming performances include R. Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder, Berlioz’s Les nuits d’ete, and a recital performance of Schubert’s Winterreise.
As an avid lover of song, Xiang Ting has performed in many song recitals and continues to seek collaborations on a wide range of repertoire from baroque works through to contemporary. She has performed in the Wigmore Hall in London, with the Huddersfield Music Society, and was a member of the RNCM’s specialist song circle. Whilst in the UK, she sang regularly with the BBC Daily Service Singers on Radio 4, and was selected to participate in the Oxford Lieder Festival Mastercourse (2017) with her duo partner, Victor Lim, where they coached with song specialists including Helmut Deutsch, Ann Murray and Julius Drake.
Since the middle of 2020, Xiang Ting has been based in Singapore where she actively performs and collaborates with many local arts organisations to share the beauty and diversity within classical vocal music. She loves sharing the joy of learning to speak and sing in foreign languages, because it sometimes feels like exploring whole new worlds.
Regardless of where one is in his/her vocal journey, she strongly believes that the study of singing is one of the most rewarding experiences one can experience, especially in today’s world where communication is often limited to muted tones and text on screens. She aims to create a safe environment for all her students to play, listen, and make mistakes in. She truly believes that studying singing is akin to studying life – it invites us to have the courage to be vulnerable, the humility to respect our unique gifts (and the gifts of others), and the understanding that our instrument is our whole selves - not just two flaps of muscle.