Profile of Mr. DAI Yuqiang

Mr. Dai Yuqiang is a Chinese operatic tenor. He was the first and only Chinese student of Luciano Pavarotti. With Wei Song and Hong Kong born Warren Mok he has performed abroad as "China's Three Tenors.

A Citation for Honorary Fellow Mr. DAI Yuqiang

Mr. Dai Yuqiang is a famous tenor, vocal theorist and educator. Currently, he is a Professor at the Academy of Opera of Peking University as well as being a Visiting Professor of several other universities. Mr. Dai has taken leading roles in dozens of Chinese and foreign operas such as Tosca, Turandot, Mulan and Xi Shi. The songs he sings like “You Are that Kind of Person” and “It Is Me” have deeply moved innumerable people. He has won many national artistic achievement awards including the Plum Performance Award, the Five Ones Project Prize and the Wenhua Performance Prize, and he won the first place in the Shizuoka International Opera Competition in Japan.

Mr. Dai also cooperated with Mr. Wei Song and Mr. Warren Mok in the “China’s Three Tenors Global Tour Concert” and made it an influential musical brand worldwide. The melodies of their song “I Am like Snowflakes from the Sky” accompanied Chang’e 5-T1 spacecraft blasting off into outer space as far as 540,000 kilometers from the earth, making the enthusiasm of Chinese artists bubble up and the dreams of Chinese scientists come true.

Mr. Dai was born in a peasant family and started formal training in music at the age of 22. There was a time when he hardly earned a living in Beijing. He worked as a labourer at construction sites and performed in bars and clubs. As a result of overwork, he lost his voice at one time and missed a rare performance opportunity. However, he never abandoned his resolve to pursue his dreams of singing. His spirit of never giving up has made him a role model for younger generations.

As an Asian student who was privately educated by Luciano Pavarotti, Mr. Dai Yuqiang has not only contributed to popularising the art of Western opera in China, but has promoted Chinese arts and artists to the world. Being a big fan of Beijing Opera, he has absorbed the essence of singing skills from this traditional art and brought it to audiences abroad. With Mr. Dai as the leading performer, the China’s Three Tenors have had over 60 concerts in scores of cities around the world including Beijing, Hong Kong, New York and London. They have presented the world with voices from China, stirring up a passionate wave of interest. The trio even received high praise from Queen Elizabeth II and from Spanish tenor Plácido Domingo, who acclaimed “their voices are among the finest voices in the world.” Mr. Dai uses his beautiful voice to contribute to cultural exchanges between China and the world, and was awarded the titles of “The Sino-German Cultural Ambassador” and “The Cultural Ambassador of the Friendship Ambassadors Foundation.”

Mr. Dai Yuqiang is very public-spirited. He regularly participates in many charity concerts and other cognate work. In 2015, he started an online educational singing activity “Super Vocal MOOC”. With his creative teaching method of “One Master + One Classic Song + One Mini-Concert”, he has provided music lovers with workshops to learn music and experience its glamour. Committed to promoting the art of singing, Mr. Dai is indeed a great teacher who has cultivated numerous students.

Mr. Chairman, in view of Mr. Dai Yuqiang’s relentless pursuits of his dreams, his outstanding achievements in the art of singing, his unremitting efforts to promote cultural exchanges between China and the world, and his remarkable contributions to the good of the community, it is my privilege and honour to present him to you for the award of an Honorary Fellowship.