Born in Anhui, Yajie Zhang began her vocal studies in Shanghai, where she was simultaneously a member of the Zhou Xiao Yan Opera Center. In 2020, she completed her education with a master’s degree in Hannover. She was a member of the International Opera Studio at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and a member of the ensemble at the Leipzig Opera from 2022-2024, where she could be heard as Angelina in La Cenerentola, Hänsel in Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel, and as Suzuki in Puccini’s Madama Butterfly.
The 2025/26 season sees Yajie Zhang returning to Zurich, where she sings Maddalena in Verdi´s Rigoletto. Later in the season, she can be heard as Wellgunde in Wagner’s Rheingold at the Salzburg Easter Festival under the baton of Kirill Petrenko. Furthermore, she can be heard in Hadyn´s Nelson Mass under the musical direction of Adam Fischer at Vienna´s Musikverein and with Berio´s Folk Songs together with the Musikkollegium Winterthur.
Highlights from recent years include her debut at the Opéra National de Paris as Nancy Tang in Nixon in China, Flower Maiden in Parsifal and Flosshilde in Tobias Kratzer´s new staging of Wagner´s Rheingold at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich as well as the title role in Carmen with the Wuhan Philharmonic. Furthermore, she performed Nicklausse/Muse in Offenbach’s The Tales of Hoffmann under Pinchas Steinberg, Cherubino in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, and Stefano in Gounod’s opera Roméo et Juliette at the NCPA in Beijing.
In 2019, she sang Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 9” with the China Philharmonic Orchestra under Yu Long at the Beijing Music Festival, followed by a spectacular last-minute appearance with the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste performing Mahler’s “Rückert-Lieder”. She also performed at the Shanghai Baroque Festival with the Shanghai Camerata under David Stern and Verdi´s “Messa da Requiem” at the Berlin Philharmonie with DSO Berlin and Eva Ollikainen and could be heard in Mahler´s “8th Symphony” at the Musikverein in Vienna under Yutaka Sado.
From Anhui to Hanover: the musical journey of Yajie Zhang
Yajie Zhang has also appeared in song recitals, accompanied by pianist Hartmut Höll, at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal, the Redpath Hall in Montreal or the Philharmonic Hall in St. Petersburg.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the 2018 DEBUT Classical Singing Competition, the 2019 “Das Lied” competition in Heidelberg, the Stanisław Moniuszko Vocal Competition at the Teatr Wielki in Warsaw, and the International Opera Competition in Portofino. As early as 2017, she gained significant attention as the youngest participant in the International Vocal Competition in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, where she won the Grand Prix, the Opera Prize, and the Junior Jury Prize. Yajie was a scholarship holder of the Richard Wagner Foundation and the Song Academy of Heidelberger Frühling.
