Ruan Tutors

Praised for a voice of “deliciously deep and rich,” (Birmingham Post), Hong Kong baritone Michael Chun Ting Lam is a wide-ranging opera and concert soloist who has performed in Hong Kong, Vietnam, the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany, Austria and Hungary, as well as other European countries. He trained at the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music, Hungary, as a recipient of the Joseph Weingarten Scholarship. He received his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, where he was supported by Opera Hong Kong K Wah International Vocal Scholarship, Foundation for the Arts and Music in Asia Limited (FAMA) Vocal Scholarships and Birmingham Conservatoire Scholarship Fund. Prior to that, he gained his Bachelor of Music from the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, where he received a number of scholarships, including the Welsh Male Choir Scholarship, the Bernard van Zuiden Music Fund, Mr. Ng Fung Chow Memorial Scholarships, The Hong Kong Children’s Choir Chan Ho Choi Memorial Scholarship and Michael Rippon Memorial Scholarship.

Passionate about opera, Michael has sung more than 40 operatic roles and performed for many opera companies and festivals, including Opera Hong Kong, Musica Viva, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Silent Opera, Winslow Hall Opera, OperaUpClose, Passaggio Oper, Opéra de Baugé, Hanoi Opera House and more. His operatic roles include including the title roles of Macbeth, Don Pasquale, Giulio Cesare and Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tonio(Pagliacci), Alfio(Cavalleria Rusticana), Marcello & Colline(La Bohème), Escamillo(Carmen), Belcore(L’elisir d’amore), The Four Villains(Les Contes d’Hoffmann), Count Almaviva(Le Nozze di Figaro), Forester(The Cunning Little Vixen), Bottom(A Midsummer Night’s Dream), Bonze(Madama Butterfly), Il Commendatore(Don Giovanni), Don Magnifico(La Cenerentola), Lord Guglielmo Cecil(Maria Stuarda), Death(Sāvitri), Le Fauteuil(L’enfant et les sortilèges), among others. A fan and advocate of contemporary music, Michael has created several roles in the world premieres of operas, including Sakyamuni, the Buddha in Anna Vienna Ho’s Buddha and the Monkey King(2020) and The Monk of the River(2021) for Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival, The Lead Picker in Daniel Blanco Albert’s Autohoodening: The Rise of Captain Swing(2021) for Infinite Opera and Post Workers Theatre, and Confucius in Gustav Ka Lok Mak’s The Legend of Confucius(2022) for Global Symphony Orchestra; and main roles in pasticcios including Don Basilio in Fortunes of Figaro(2017) for Opera Novella, Argante in Armida(2018) for Zeneakadémia and Eisenstein in The Merry Party(2022) for Bel Canto Singers.

On the concert stage, Michael performed as the concert soloist for many music organizations, singing the masterpieces of various composers, including Haydn’s Nelson Mass, J.S. Bach’s Magnificat in D Major, Felix Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht, Handel’s Messiah, Faure’s Requiem, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, etc. He has performed as the baritone soloist in Opera Galas for Red Earth Opera, Midland Opera, Oxford Opera Society, Józsa Judit Galéria, and Holy Trinity Church Coventry. He has also been giving solo recitals regularly, including one at St Andrew’s Church Rugby as part of the Rugby Festival of Culture 2019 and one at Hong Kong City Hall as part of Hong Kong Leisure and Cultural Services Department’s “Our Music Talents” series 2022. In 2022, he sang the role of Konfuzius in Gustav Mak’s Die Legende von Konfuzius(world premiere) with the Budapest MÁV Symphony Orchestra in the Golden Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna.

Michael was a first-prize winner of numerous international singing competitions, including Hong Kong International Music Festival Vocal Competition, Grand Prize Virtuoso, The Ashleyan Opera Prize, The North International Music Competition, International Music Competition “Таланты XXI века”, Quebec International Music Competition, IYMC Classical Music International Competition, King’s Peak International Music Competition, Odin International Music Competition, Swiss International Music Competition, Danubia Talents Liszt International Music Competition and International Vocal Competition “The Song”, to name a few. In 2017, he was awarded the St Clare Barfield Memorial Bowl for Operatic Distinction from Royal Birmingham Conservatoire. He has been given the Gil Rodriguez Scholarship Award from Opéra de Baugé for his outstanding contribution to the 2019 Operatic Season.

Besides performing as a singer, Michael frequently appears as a Zhongruanist. He was the leader and the principal Zhongruanist of Ng Wah Chinese Orchestra and, a Ruanist of Hong Kong City Chinese Orchestra, Hong Kong Bright East Chinese Orchestra and Sonata Elite Chamber Orchestra. In addition to participating in large-scale concerts held in concert halls, such as “A Concert of Popular Chinese Music” and “A Concert of Guided History”, Michael has also actively participated in chamber performances in various community events, dinners, and cocktail parties. In 2020, he has been involved in the project “It Gets Lighter From Here”, organized by Birmingham Opera Company and Culture Central. He has also participated in the world premiere of Anna Vienna Ho’s The Monk of the River as part of the Tête à Tête: The Opera Festival 2021. He was the first-prize winner of the International Art Festival & Contest “Talents of Europe” 2021.

An enthusiastic educator, Michael has been teaching Voice, Ruan and Liuqin for many years. He was a music tutor at Canon Music & Arts Centre, Greenery Music & Arts Center and Parkland Music Limited. A member of Hong Kong Music Tutors Union, he organized his first students’ concert at Parsons Recital Hall in Hong Kong in 2015. In 2016, he has successfully organized “No Vocalists Allowed”, an opera workshop for non-vocal major students, and an opera scenes concert at the New Lecture Theatre, Birmingham Conservatoire, UK. He has worked as an assistant vocal coach in K. Wah Opera Hong Kong summer school programme 2017. In 2020, he has been invited to be one of the language coaches for Vopera in their award-winning production of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. He has been the adjudicator of the “Festival of Instrumental and Vocal Arts” International Online Music Competition, Russia, in 2021 and 2022, and International Competition for Musicians “Virtuosos”, Russia, in 2022. He has also worked as a singing teacher and choir conductor at the Christian Alliance S W Chan Memorial College, Po Leung Kuk Lee Shing Pik College, the Salvation Army William Booth Secondary School, Yu Chun Keung Memorial College and Hong Kong and Kowloon Kaifong Women’s Association Sun Fong Chung College. He is a vocal instructor at Po Leung Kuk Choi Kai Yau School, International Christian Quality Music Secondary and Primary School and Hong Kong International Institute of Music, and a choir conductor at several primary and secondary schools.