Yongzhao Yu, who won the Audience Choice Award and the Ana María Martínez Encouragement Award in HGO’s 2015 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias, is a Butler Studio alumnus. He made his HGO stage debut as a Winged Angel in the world premiere of It’s a Wonderful Life (2016), and also performed Flavio in Norma and selected performances of Alfredo in La Traviata during the 2017-18 season. In 2018 he returned to HGO to perform the role of Rodolfo in La bohème, a role he also has sung for New Orleans Opera, Wolf Trap Opera, and Arizona Opera; covered for The Metropolitan Opera; and performs in the 2023-24 season with the Berkshire Opera Festival. Also in the 2023-24 season, he returns to New Orleans Opera to perform the role of Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor, and continues his relationship with the Metropolitan Opera, covering Rodolfo in La bohème. In the 2022-23 season, he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as Flavio in Norma. Additionally, he recently made his Seattle Opera debut as the Duke of Mantua in Rigoletto, covered the role of Alfredo in La traviata at The Metropolitan Opera, and made his Houston Symphony debut in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy. He has performed Flavio in Norma with the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing, Naulz in Visitors on the Icy Mountain with the Shanghai Grand Theater, and Alfredo in the concert hall of the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. He has performed in concert in the Grand Theatre of the Suzhou Culture and Arts Center and in an Eternal Verdi concert in Shanghai in honor of the bicentenary of Verdi’s birth. Further awards include first prize in Opera Concorso.