Lunga Eric Hallam is making his HGO debut. He recently completed his third year with Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Ryan Opera Center. Hallam joined the Wolf Trap Opera program in summer 2023 for Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni and Jupiter in Semele, and in fall 2023 he debuted as Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville with Pittsburgh Opera. During Lyric’s 2022-23 season, Hallam appeared in Le Comte Ory, and in the 2021-22 season, he performed in Sunday in the Park with Lyric’s Rising Stars and as Adult Nathan in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Other Chicago engagements include two appearances at the Harris Theater’s Beyond the Aria series, one alongside Joyce DiDonato, and his recent debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti in Un ballo in maschera. Recent engagements as a Young Artist at Cape Town Opera include Tebaldo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and Roberto in Maria Stuarda, as well as Ramiro in La Cenerentola at Cape Town Conservatory. He was featured as part of the 2017 Harare International Festival of the Arts in Zimbabwe. Hallam competed as a semifinalist in the 2019 Neue Stimmen International Singing Competition and the 2019 Voice of South Africa International Singing Competition. He founded the nonprofit organization Phenomenal Opera Voices in Khayelitsha, South Africa. He received his diploma and postgraduate (with honors) degrees in music training at the University of Cape Town College of Music.