BIOGRAPHY
Bass Robert Ellsworth Feng is is a born collaborator who creates powerful performances with artists of all mediums.
Robert is the recipient of the George Woodhead Prize in Voice and the Peabody Career Development Award, the Special Prize in the Ise-Shima International Singing Competition, placed second in the New York Classical Music Society International Voice Competition, third in the Lyra Mozart International Voice Competition, third in the Opera for Earth Vocal Competition, and the Seagle Festival Guild Scholarship.
Performance highlights include Anna Bolena (Rochefort) with Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore) with Opera on the Rocks, Les pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad) and Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore) with /Kor/ Productions, The Mikado (Ko-Ko) with Hawaii Opera Theatre, Madama Butterfly (Il Commissario Imperiale) with Opera West, Street Scene (Henry Davis) with Social Distance Opera/Barn Opera, Tobias Picker’s Emmeline (Pastor Avery) with Manhattan School of Music, La traviata (Dottore Grenvil) and Les pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad) with Thomas Muraco’s Opera Repertoire Ensemble, La sonnambula (Count Rodolfo), Così fan tutte (Don Alfonso) and I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Capellio) with Opera Alchemy, Die Zauberflöte (Sarastro) and Le nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) with Manhattan Opera Studio, La favorite (Balthazar) with NY Opera Forum, Prince Igor (Khan Konchak) with Russian Opera Workshop, Le nozze di Figaro (Bartolo) with Berlin Opera Academy, and Massenet’s Chérubin (Le Philosophe) and Le nozze di Figaro (Antonio) with Peabody Conservatory.
Not limited to performing standard repertoire, Mr. Feng has created the role of Reverend Joseph Twitchell in Robert Carl and Russel Banks’ opera Harmony with Seagle Festival, and has premiered new works by composers including Tony Small (“Qadar”, Smithsonian), Nicholas Bentz (“Mikylvxka Hllupo”, Peabody Institute), Faye-Ellen Silverman (“To Love?”, Christman Opera - Voices Rising Voices), and Felix Jarrar (“When they killed us, did you say they killed Americans?”). Robert has also been a featured artist for The Kennedy Center’s annual holiday concert for the Boys & Girls Club of Greater Washington in 2020.
Robert received his Bachelor’s degree at Peabody Conservatory, his Master's degree at Manhattan School of Music, and is an alumni of Seagle Festival. Mr. Feng is also a proud member of the Hawaii Opera Theatre Mae Z. Orvis Opera Studio. Later this season, Robert will perform with Hawaii Opera Theatre in Madama Butterfly as The Bonze, I’ll Be Seeing You: 1940’s Radio Hour Live as the Radio Announcer, and their Aïda Outreach as Radamès rewritten for bass voice; and City Lyric Opera as the Mad Hatter, Frog Footman, and Card #7 in the production of Elizabeth Raum’s The Garden of Alice.
