Singaporean tenor Jonathan Charles Tay is one of the leading opera singers to emerge from his home country in this generation. His clear lyric tone and commitment to text and drama have contributed to his increasing presence on the opera and concert stages in Singapore and the United States.

Since moving back to Singapore in 2015, Jonathan has performed in no less than 21 concerts and 16 operas in the last few years. In 2018, Jonathan along with along with his brother David Charles Tay, and producer Shridar Mani, started The Opera People with the aim of bringing engaging opera performances to local audiences and creating a platform for young professional singers to collaborate with musicians, theatre makers and creatives to bring opera to a new generation. Co-founding TOP has been an important initiative for Jonathan to emerge as a leader in the local vocal music scene, working not just as an artist but also to shape and develop the local opera scene to serve the increasingly large number of singers and opera makers in Singapore.

Jonathan and The Opera People started 2020 commemorating Beethoven’s 250th anniversary by presenting his only opera, Fidelio, in an hour-long abridged production of it at the Arts House’s Night to Light festival. Jonathan also featured in Dr Chen Zhangyi’s recording of his short operas, reprising the role of the Father in Kopi for One, a role he premiered and helped create in its 2018 premiere. This season, Jonathan looks forward to working with composer John Sharpley on the revision of his opera Fences of the Heart, as well as an exciting season ahead with The Opera People. He will also reprise his role as 阿牛in 刘三姐 with Singapore Chinese Orchestra.

In 2019, Jonathan took on Zemlimsky’s Der Zwerg, in a new sold-out production with The Opera People, Dwarf, that was performed in partnership with the Musicians Initiative Orchestra. Their debut production of Mozart’s Il Re Pastore renamed Love and Duty in 2018 was another sold-out success at the Esplanade Annexe Studio last year. Jonathan starred in the role of Algernon (Agenore).

Shortly after Zwerg, Jonathan performed one of his biggest opera roles yet, starring in Singapore Lyric Opera’s Carmen as Don José. Other 2019 highlights include appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, featuring as a soloist in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasie and in SSO’s Mother’s Day Concert.

In a busy 2018, Jonathan performed 阿牛in 刘三姐 and 曹操 in 赤壁 with Singapore Chinese Orchestra. Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte with the Esplanade, Dvorak’s Stabat Mater and Yellow River Cantata with BHSO, Parpignol in Puccini’s La Boheme with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Il Messaggero in Verdi’s Aïda with Singapore Lyric Opera, soloist in Zao Bao’s 遇见 concert at the Singapore Writers Festival, The Father in A Singapore Trilogy: Kopi for One with L’arietta, and tenor soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with NUSSO, amongst other highlights.

Previous credits include Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore with SLO, Steuermann in Singapore’s first Wagner’s Der fliegende Holländer, garnering praise from OPERA! as “excellent and very lyrical”. Also, Orpheus in Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, Peppe in Donizetti’s Rita, Peter Quint in Britten’s Turn of the Screw, Hussar in Stravinsky’s Mavra with New Opera Singapore, and Astolf in Schubert's Die Versworenen, Edoardo in Rossini’s La cambiale di matrimonio, Muley Graves in Ricky Ian Gordon's Grapes of Wrath, Laurie in Mark Adamo’s Little Women and Ferrando in Mozart’s Cosi fan tutte in performances in New York and Chicago. Jonathan also performed as Re Gonzaga and L’araldo in Franco Faccio’s Amleto. His performance with Opera Southwest was listed in Opera News best of 2016 recordings.

In recital, Jonathan has performed Schubert’s Die schöne Müllerin, Schumann’s Dichtelierbe and Brahm’s Liebesliederwaltzer at The Esplanade and The Arts House in Singapore, Charles Loeffler’s Five Irish Fantasies at the Manhattan School of Music, and Finzi’s Till Earth Outwears and Beethoven’s An die ferne Geliebte at Northwestern University in Illinois, USA. He was also the featured soloist with the New Mexico Symphonic Chorus, giving an “impressive” (Albuquerque Journal) performance of Benjamin Britten’s Serenade for Tenor and Horn.

Mr. Tay attained his Bachelor of Music at the Manhattan School of Music, studying with renown tenor Neil Rosenshein and his Master of Music at Northwestern University, studying with professor W. Stephen Smith. He is also a recipient of the 2013 Eckstein Merit Scholarship Award, a New Horizon Aspen Music Festival Award in 2014 and recently was award a scholarship to the 2017 Richard Wagner Stipendienstiftung in Bayreuth, Germany, representing the Richard Wagner Association of Singapore.

Upon his return to Singapore, Tay has also responded to his passion for teaching and sharing music with the next generation. His endeavours in teaching has paid dividends with his students achieving distinctions and awards in the ABRSM singing examinations. Jonathan’s instruction has seen students gaining entry into schools such as Mannes School of Music, Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, Royal Northern College of Music and School of the Arts. His teaching career has brought him to teaching Instrumental Studies at School of the Arts this year. Jonathan has also been a guest adjudicator for auditions and recitals at Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, as well as being invited as a panel speaker at YST’s voice conference in 2019.

Jonathan finds it of paramount importance to help his students find their authentic voice in singing. His approach to teaching focuses on a singer’s ability to communicate text, which he believes is the most important job of any singer. Singers learning with Jonathan are taught the basic building blocks of vocal training, in a systematic approach to singing in any language.

Dr Daniel Fong is a Singaporean baritone, musicologist and educator with over ten years of experience teaching children, teenagers and tertiary-level students. A former teacher at Coronation Music School, he is delighted to return to the school community after completing his PhD at the University of Oslo, where his research focused on opera studies and pedagogy.

Daniel is currently an Adjunct Lecturer at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), where he teaches both voice and academic studies. He has previously taught at the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, King’s College London and the University of Oslo. Trained as both a singer and musicologist, he also holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Music (Honours) and a Master’s in Arts for Vocal Performance at the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Daniel teaches classical, musical theatre and popular singing, and enjoys working with students of different ages, abilities and musical interests. He has prepared students for ABRSM and Trinity College London performance and theory examinations, with students achieving distinctions in both performance and theory, as well as for DSA auditions and conservatoire applications. His former students have gone on to careers in performance and teaching, and have gained admission to institutions including the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and Berklee College of Music.

As a professional baritone, Daniel has performed with Singapore Lyric Opera in productions including Mozart’s Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni. He has also appeared regularly in art-song recitals, including performances with The Sing Song Club and at the Singapore Lieder Festival. His experiences as both a performer and researcher continue to shape the way he thinks about music and teaching.

Daniel believes that learning music should, above all, be enjoyable and a journey of self-discovery. For him, lessons should never feel intimidating or simply “by the book”. While developing a healthy vocal technique and strong musical foundations is important, he believes that music also offers students a way to discover their own creativity, confidence and sense of self-expression. His lessons are adapted to the needs, interests and goals of each student, creating a supportive space in which they can explore, experiment and gradually find their own musical voice.

For Daniel, encountering music is experiential rather than simply cerebral or based on rote learning. He encourages students to ask not only what is written on the page, but what they think and feel the music is communicating—and, in turn, what they themselves want to express through it. Through listening, singing, discussion and exploration, he hopes to nurture what he calls the “thinking-feeling musician”: a musician who brings together curiosity and understanding with imagination, intuition and genuine personal expression.

Most importantly, Daniel hopes that students leave their lessons not only singing with greater skill and confidence, but also with a deeper sense of connection to music and to themselves.