Biography

Ziniu Zhao, a first-year artist in the Butler Studio from Shandong, China, was the second-place winner at HGO’s 2024 Eleanor McCollum Competition Concert of Arias. During the 2024-25 season, he makes his HGO debut as Don Magnifico in the company’s English-language Family Day production of Cinderella and also sings the role of Reinmar von Zweter in Tannhäuser. Zhao was a member of the Opera Talent Training Program of the China National Arts Foundation and has won several prestigious awards, including first prize at the Colorado International Music Competition, the Rossini Singing Award at the Fiorenza Cedolins Opera Competition in Italy, and the Maria Callas Award at the Vincerò International Opera Competition, also in Italy. In 2023, he performed a solo concert in Shandong. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, where his operatic roles included Don Pasquale (title role), Colline in La bohème, and Don Alfonso in Così fan tutte. There, he was awarded the Outstanding Student Scholarship for four consecutive years.