Hailed as “a booming, well-crafted bass” (Opera News) with a “strong presence, ” (S. Fairbank) Chinese-American singer and librettist Robert Ellsworth Feng is a Grand Prize Winner of the Burbank Philharmonic Hennings-Fischer Young Artist Competition, and placed first in the Martorella Scholarship in Classical Voice (HI Chapter), the Dorothy Lincoln Smith Voice Competition (HI Chapter), and the Mozart International Competition Vienna. Robert's 2025–2026 season begins with Lyric Opera of Kansas City’s Madame Butterfly as the Imperial Commissioner and continues with Hawai’i Opera Theatre’s The Riot Grrrl on Mars (Rossini’s L’Italiana in Algeri) as Taddeo and Opera Grand Rapids’s Madama Butterfly as The Bonze.
Performance highlights include Mazzoli/Vavrek’s Lincoln in the Bardo (Mr. Baron), La bohème (Benoît/Alcindoro), and Styles/McKendrick’s Sitcom (Bouncer) with Chautauqua Opera, La Calisto (Giove), The Rake’s Progress (Nick Shadow) and Carmen (Zuniga) with Opera Memphis, La bohème (Colline), An American Dream (Papa), Carmen (Zuniga), Gianni Schicchi (Betto di Signa), Gasser/Harrison's The Secret Garden (Ben Weatherstaff), The Pirates of Penzance (Pirate King), Dichterliebe (Soloist), and Madama Butterfly (Bonze/Prince Yamadori) with Hawai'i Opera Theatre, the co-production of Prestini/Shaughnessy’s Sensorium Ex with Washington National Opera/Vision Into Art/Beth Morrison Projects, Robert le Diable (Bertram) with St. Johns in the Village, The Garden of Alice (Mad Hatter & Others) with City Lyric Opera, Roméo et Juliette (Frère Laurent), and the world premiere of Carl/Banks’ Harmony (Rev. Twichell) with Seagle Festival, Juana (Padre Antonio), Il ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria (Il Tempo), and Anna Bolena (Rochefort) with dell’Arte Opera Ensemble, and Les pêcheurs de perles (Nourabad) and Don Giovanni (Il Commendatore) with /Kor/ Productions. Robert also participated in the Joyce DiDonato Masterclass at Carnegie Hall.
Robert placed second in the NY Classical Music Society International Voice Competition, third in the Beethoven Club of Memphis Savell Competition, and third in the Lyra Mozart International Voice Competition. Robert holds degrees from Peabody Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music. He is a proud alumnus of the Seagle Festival (2021 & 2023), the Hawai'i Opera Theatre Young Artist Program (2022–2024), and Opera Memphis’s Handorf Company Artist Program (2024–2025).
