Samuel Chan
Baritone
Named one of CBC’s Top 30 Canadian Classical Musicians under 30, Samuel Chan debuts with Pacific Opera Victoria as Le Dancaïre (El Dancairo) in a future production of Carmen .
Samuel can also be heard in conversation and performance as part of Pacific Opera’s new platform for IBPOC artists, For All to Hear.
A native of Calgary, Samuel is an alumnus of the Canadian Opera Company’s young artist program, the COC Ensemble Studio. Chan recently debuted with the Saskatoon Opera as Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus. His 2019/20 season includes Figaro’s Wedding with Against the Grain Theatre, Messiah for Kitchener Waterloo’s Grand Philharmonic Choir, and the cover for Figaro in Il barbiere de Siviglia for the COC.
Highlights of the 2018/19 season included the opening night gala of the Elora Festival and a gala concert in Torreon, Mexico. For the COC he performed the Captain in Eugene Onegin; the Sychophantic Senator in the world première of Rufus Wainwright’s Hadrian; Dandini (Tiny Dan) in the Ensemble Studio’s family production of La Cenerentola; the lead role of Daddy in the first workshop of Ana Sokolovic’s The Old Fools; the Sergeant in La bohème; and Marcello in the Ensemble Studio’s performance of La bohème.
Previous engagements include the Sailor in Dido and Aeneas; Papageno in the family opera The Magic Victrola (Canadian Opera Company); the Baritone in the workshop of Andrew Balfour’s Mishabooz’s Realm, Jacob Grimm and the Donkey in Dean Burry’s The Brothers Grimm/The Bremen Town Musicians (Highlands Opera Studio); Morales in Carmen (Brott Music Festival); Don Asdrubale, Calandrino, and Gomatz in Mozart’s Lo sposo deluso, L’oca del Cairo, and Zaide (City Opera Vancouver); Yoshimoto in Tom Pinkerton: The Ballad of Butterfly’s Son (Vancouver Asian Canadian Theatre workshop); Pastore II/Apollo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Cincinnati Chamber Opera), and the Page in Amahl and the Night Visitors (Claremont Philharmonic).
Samuel’s concert repertoire includes Arvo Pärt’s Passio (Cincinnati Camerata), Bach’s St. John Passion/B Minor Mass/Christmas Oratorio, Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs, Jongen’s Mass Op. 130, Monteverdi’s Selva morale e spirituale, and Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music (CCM Orchestras). Recital credits include performances with the Cincinnati Early Music Festival, Toronto Summer Music Festival, Vancouver Songfire Festival, and the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute.
Samuel is the 2nd prize winner of the 2016 COC Ensemble Studio Competition; and a regionalist (2016), district winner (2015), and encouragement award winner (2014) in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. He received his Bachelor of Music from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and has had further training at the National Arts Centre’s Young Artist Programme, Highlands Opera Studio, Vancouver International Song Institute, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, and the Toronto Summer Music Festival.