Born in Beijing, trained at the China Central Conservatory and the University of Denver, principal artist of the Metropolitan Opera for over two decades, and a leading voice on the world's great stages for more than thirty years.
Hao Jiang Tian, internationally renowned bass born in Beijing, has sung over 1,400 performances of 50 operatic roles worldwide. The only Chinese singer who has appeared at the Metropolitan Opera for 20 years in 26 operas, Tian has been highly praised for his appearances as a major bass in opera houses worldwide such as the Staatsoper Berlin, Teatro Comunale in Florence, Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa, Arena di Verona, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, San Francisco Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Canadian Opera Company, Washington National Opera, all the major opera houses in China, such as the National Center for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Beijing, and opera houses in France, Belgium, Spain, Holland, Portugal, Chile, Russia, and Japan.
Highlights of his recent engagements include Gremin in Eugene Onegin at the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theatre, conducted by Valery Gergiev; Liu Siye in Rickshaw Boy in Genoa, Florence, and Turin with the tour of Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA); and Banquo in Macbeth and Fiesco in Simon Boccanegra, both with Plácido Domingo in the title role at NCPA. His recent seasons also include performances of The Diary of John Rabe at Berlin Staatsoper, Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie and Vienna; the title role of Voyage to the East at Lincoln Center; and Marco Polo in Genoa, Italy. He sang Vodník in Rusalka at Pittsburgh Opera and gave solo recitals in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, New Jersey, Beijing, and Nanjing.
His autobiography, Along the Roaring River: My Wild Ride from Mao to the Met, was published by Wiley and Sons as a Lincoln Center Book. His book Turandot at the Arena, in Chinese, was published by San Lian Publishing Company. Tian is the founder and artistic director of iSING! International Young Artists Festival, which had its American premiere performance of Echoes of Ancient Tang Poems with the legendary Philadelphia Orchestra at Lincoln Center in January 2023. As producer and artistic director, he triumphantly completed his first production of the Chengdu SKP iSING! Opera Gala, a show that merged high fashion with grand opera. His honors include the Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Denver (2014), the Ellis Island Medal of Honor (2015), the Carnegie Mellon Award (2011), the BraVo Award for Best Male Vocalist in Russia (2019), and an Honorary Doctorate from Manhattan School of Music (2021).
Hao Jiang Tian, a bass who has dazzled the Metropolitan Opera, the world of music and all who came into contact with him over thirty decades, shares his world of magic with you through his most recent book in Chinese "Turandot at the Area".
Hardcover, Simplified Chinese characters, 400 pages, 8.27"x5.70"
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Hao Jiang Tian’s autobiography, co‑authored with Lois B. Morris, with a foreword by Robert Lipsyte. Tian is a Chinese‑American opera singer who performed with the Metropolitan Opera. He was a wild child who lived on his own during the Cultural Revolution, was sent to work in a factory for seven years, and was nearly expelled from a music program for wiggling his hips like Elvis during a performance. This book shares his operatic tales of love, art, and survival that led fatefully to the Metropolitan Opera and on to the world’s musical capitals—often alongside Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti—where he helped forge a path for Asian singers in the often reluctant opera world. The book was published in May 2008 by John Wiley & Sons.
Hardcover, English, 322 Pages, 9.55" x 6.45"
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Tian’s first one-man show began with “From Mao to the Met,” a PBS pledge special that weaves song and story into a compelling tale of growing up in China under Chairman Mao. He tells the story of the music—and the woman—that changed his life, accompanying himself on accordion, guitar, and piano, his voice carrying the journey from Mao to the Met.
DVD, Running time: 70 minutes, 7.5"x5.45"
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Beijing native Hao Jiang Tian (田浩江) has established himself as one of the most accomplished singers at New York's Metropolitan Opera and across the world's major operatic stages. This CD, "Sounds of Our Generation" (再见小路) is a collection of songs from the 70's that were popular amongst the youth of Beijing and left a long-lasting impact on this generation. Accompanying himself on the accordion and the guitar, Tian sings of the romance and dreams of this tumultuous time and transports us back to that age of passion.
Audio CD, 13 Songs
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A veteran of the world's most prominent opera stages, Hao Jiang Tian has established a particularly close relationship with New York's Metropolitan Opera, where he has appeared every season since 1991. "There are many fine singers in China, but because it is not our culture, singing western opera is probably the most difficult job we could undertake," he says. It is a particular testament to Tian's success that, of the nearly fifty rôles in his repertoire, he has often been the first Chinese performer ever to embody a particular character. "I have chosen the arias for this recording because they are very meaningful to me personally and professionally," he says. "They are my life and blood." Arias by Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Rossini, Bellini, Gounod, Massenet and Ponchielli, with the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Alexander Rahbari.
Audio CD, 12 Songs
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