Yijie Shi

Biography

Despite his young age Yijie Shi has already had tremendous success singing at internationally renowned venues such as Metropolitan New York, San Francisco Opera, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées de Paris, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia di Roma, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Teatro San Carlo di Napoli, Opéra de Nancy, Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse, Opéra de Lausanne, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Festival Mozart de La Coruña, Avenches Festival, Teatro Arriaga de Bilbao and De Vlaamse Opera of Antwerp, working with such conductors as Zubin Mehta, Antonio Pappano, Roberto Abbado, Kent Nagano, Alberto Zedda, Bruno Bartoletti, Jeffrey Tate, Daniel Oren, Louis Langrée and Dan Ettinger.

Born in Shanghai, he began his vocal studies in his native town and graduated with top score at the Toho College of Music in Tokyo (Japan). After having won a fellowship offered by Toho Postgraduate School of Music, he came to Europe to continue his studies, in Graz, and won several international vocal competitions, including the International Singing Competition Ferruccio Tagliavini in Graz, Toti dal Monte in Treviso (2007), Maria Caniglia in Sulmona and Festpielstadt Passau (2007). Among his teachers, it can be mentioned Chunting Xuan, Akemi Yamasaki, Klaus Busch, Andrea Molitoris, Peter Schmelzer and Richard Barker. After having been the revelation of Rossini Opera Festival 2008, singing as Cavalier Belfiore in Il viaggio a Reims in the Accademia Rossiniana production, he was immediately invited back to Pesaro to sing the title role in Le Comte Ory at the Rossini Opera Festival 2009, where he had a warm success imposing himself on the international scene.

He also took part in important productions including Armida (Ubaldo) at Metropolitan New York, Falstaff (Fenton) at Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Zubin Mehta, Il viaggio a Reims (Cavalier Belfiore) at Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Kent Nagano as conductor, La Favorite (Fernand) at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse and Oper Graz, Die Zauberflöte (Tamino) at De Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Il ritorno di Ulisse in Patria (Anfinomo) at De Vlaamse Opera Antwerp, Sarka (Lurim) and L’elisir d’amore (Nemorino) at Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Rossini’s Otello (Jago) at Opéra de Lausanne, Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Tokyo conducted by Alberto Zedda, L’italiana in Algeri (Lindoro) at Rossini Opera Festival di Pesaro and at NCPA Beijing, L’occasione fa il ladro (Conte Alberto) at Théâtre des Champs-Elysées de Paris; Demetrio e Polibio and Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater (Paisiello version) at ROF in Pesaro, Rigoletto (Duca di Mantova) at Shangai Oriental Art Center.
Since 2011 he has been teaching singing at Hunan Normal University in China.

Latest performances: Falstaff (Fenton) at NCPA Beijing; Tancredi (Argirio) at Opéra Municipal de Marseille; Il barbiere di Siviglia (Conte di Almaviva) at Deutsche Oper Berlin; Dream of the red chambre (Bao Yu) at NCPA Beijing, San Francisco Opera and Hong Kong Arts Festival; Rigoletto (Duca di Mantova) at Ópera Nacional de Chile, Santiago; Tancredi (Argirio) at Palau de les Arts de Valencia; Il turco in Italia (Narciso) at Théâtre du Capitole de Toulouse; Rossini’s Otello (Jago) at Liceu de Barcelona; Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo) at Opera di Firenze.

Recent engagements: Die lustige Witwe (Camille) and La fille du regiment (Tonio) at NCPA Beijing; La sonnambula (Elvino) at Opéra de Lausanne and in Las Palmas; Don Pasquale (Ernesto) at Oper Stuttgart; Il barbiere di Siviglia (Conte di Almaviva) at Opéra National du Rhin de Strasbourg and at Teatro Regio di Parma; Die Zauberflöte (Tamino) and La traviata (Alfredo) at NCPA Beijing; I puritani (Arturo) at Opéra Municipal de Marseille and Opera de Oviedo; Cosi fan tutte (Ferrando) at New National Theatre Tokyo; Lucia di Lammermoor (Edgardo) at Ópera Nacional de Chile, Santiago.