Our Artists
Over the past 25 years, Asian Performing Arts Council (APAC), also known as Asian Performing Arts of Colorado has and supported hundreds of musicians from all disciplines in music, be it instrumental, composition or vocal, in their training and career development.
Being a very important component in APAC’s activities, the organization has nurtured extraordinary talents and enabled them to study at the finest institutions such as the Juilliard School, Mannes College, Boston University, Indiana University at Bloomington, University of Denver Lamont School, and the University of Colorado at Boulder.
APAC's extensive sponsorship has launched numerous singers into careers spanning across national and regional stages such as the Metropolitan Opera, Lyric Opera of Chicago, San Francisco Opera, Washington National Opera, New York City Opera, Miami Grand Opera, Central City Opera, Opera Colorado; in major opera capitals such as Paris, Berlin and Vienna; as well as with top-tier orchestras of the world including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Opera Orchestra of New York, and Colorado Symphony Orchestra.
Further testimony to this tradition of nurture is the return of internationally acclaimed singers to China to perform in prominent venues such as the National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Shanghai Grand Theatre, the Beijing International Music Festival and Shanghai International Arts Festival, and to teach in distinguished institutions such as the Central Conservatory, the Shanghai Conservatory and the Tibet Conservatory.
Some of our most recent artists include:
Baritone, Yunpeng Wang participated in the 2011 inaugural year of APAC's iSING! Beijing. Since then, APAC has nurtured and supported his career as he moved to the U.S on a full scholarship at the Manhattan School of Music. Wang was recently
featured on the cover of Opera News as one of “opera’s exciting new voices,” and is quickly gaining international recognition on both the opera and concert stages of the world. In 2014 Wang made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Sivglia. In the 2016/17 season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Mercutio in Bartlett Sher’s new production of Roméo et Juliette, conducted by Emmanuel Villaume, and appeared as a soloist in the Met’s 50th Anniversary Gala. He also made his house and role debut as Zurga in Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de Perles with the Tulsa Opera and sang in a concert of Verdi arias and duets with the Dallas Opera. Wang will conclude the season with his Japanese debut as Almaviva in a new production of Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center, conducted by Yutaka Sado.
Soprano Guanqun Yu also began her association with APAC in 2011 as a member of the iSING program. Since that time, she has sung in opera houses and concert halls internationally. In 2008 she won the Belvedere International Singing Competition and in 2012 she placed 2nd in the Operalia, The World Opera Competition. She is particularly known for portraying heroines in the operas of composers Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giacomo Puccini, and Giuseppe Verdi.
In 2012 Yu made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera as Leonora in Il trovatore. Yu remains the only Chinese soprano repeatedly re-employed by such prestigious opera houses worldwide, as the Metropolitan Opera, Wiener Staaatsoper, Deutche Opera Berlin and Bayerische Staatsoper. Her signature roles include Nedda in I pagliacci, Mimi in La bohème, Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Micaela in Carmen, Liu in Turandot, Mathilde in William Tell, among others. She made her debut at the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofia, Valencia as Lucrezia in I due Foscari with Plácido Domingo as Francesco Foscari, and later appeared at that theater as Desdomona in Otello and Amelia in Simon Boccanegra, again with Plácido Domingo. Her recent engagements included in the Desdemona again at the Staatsoper Hamburg and Opernhaus Zürich, where she also sang in Verdi's Messa da Requiem. At Los Angeles Opera she performed Countess Almaviva in a new production of Le nozze di Figaro. At the traditional NDR Klassik Open Air in Hannover, she portrayed Micaëla in a concert version of Carmen.
Chinese Bass Wei Wu, came to Colorado to serve as the understudy in the APAC world premiere of the opera Poet Li Bai. With support from APAC he stayed in Colorado to receive his Master of Music degree and was accepted to the highly acclaimed Washington National Opera‘s Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Program.
After completion of the program he has appeared Timur in Turandot with Pittsburgh Opera, Phanuel in Hérodiade with Washington Concert Opera and he made his Santa Fe debut with Santa Fe Opera as Kobun in the world premiere of (R)evolution of Steve Jobs, for which he won the Grammy Award, and covering Gualtiero Walton in I Puritani for the Metropolitan Opera. On the concert stage, he joins the Kansas City Symphony for the Mozart Requiem. Wu's upcoming performances include the role Angelotti in Tosca with Los Angeles Opera, Kobun in (R)evolution of Steve Jobs with Calgary Opera, covering Oroveso in Norma with Metropolitan Opera.
Baritone José Rubio from Portland, Oregon. He participated the iSING! Festival in 2014 and since then he has returned to iSING! Festival for three more years to further explore the Asian culture and music. In 2019 he made his debut in Staatsoper Berlin, Germany, singing in Mandarin in "The Diary of John Rabe", a Chinese Opera. In 2020, he performed in the world premiere concert titled "Ancient Tang Poems From iSING! Suzhou to the World. In 2022, Rubio performed at the "Sound of Spring" a Chinese New Year concert organized by the US-China Music Institute of Bard College Conservatory of Music at Bard College and at Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York.
Soprano Deborah Solange Martinez, a native from Nicaragua, Martinez joined iSING! Festival in 2019 performed at the iSING! International Young Artists Festival. She further pursued her vocal training with iSING! in 2020 and 2021 season. She performed in the world premiere concert titled "Ancient Tang Poems From iSING! Suzhou to the World. In 2022. She made her debut as Musetta in La bohème at the Regina Opera Company Summer Festival, in collaboration with soprano Daria Masiero as Mimì, and performed the role at Haifa Auditorium, Israel, in collaboration with conductor Yishai Steckler.
Pianist Diyi Tang often serves as a piano accompanist for the APAC artists. Mr. Tang is established as one of the leading young artists of his native China and his prodigious talent is becoming recognized in United States.
Mr. Tang come to national prominence in 2006 when he won the silver medal in the prestigious Hilton Head International Piano Competition in South Carolina. In the same year, He was invited to perform Mozart Piano Concerto K. 467 in the Lucerne Festival in Switzerland.