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Vocal presence
Alumnus Eugene Chan

Eugene Chan

Up-and-coming baritone Eugene Chan (‘06, Music) is already hitting some high career notes. Among them are two national vocal awards and a performance at Carnegie Hall.

“This is a very difficult career to be successful in and to make ends meet,” says Chan. “I am blessed with the opportunity to have been doing the one thing that I love the most—perform.”

In January, Chan, 23, sang at the request of Grammy Award-winning mezzo-soprano and Kennedy Center Honoree Marilyn Horne during her annual Carnegie master class. Chan has studied with the international opera star for six months. “Eugene Chan is a fine young baritone with all the prerequisites for a wonderful career,” says Horne. “He has a beautiful and expressive baritone voice. I expect really good things from him."

Chan’s two recent awards are from some of the most competitive vocal competitions in the country. He received second place honors in the Metropolitan Opera’s Western Regional Finals for young artists, and a special judge’s award from the William Matheus Sullivan Music Foundation’s annual singing competition.

At 21, Chan began singing professionally by soloing in Sacramento Opera’s production of Madame Butterfly. Since then he has been a soloist for the San Francisco Opera as well as for the Camellia Symphony and the Sacramento Choral Society and Orchestra.

Though a longtime vocalist, it wasn’t until attending Sac State that Chan explored opera. Before, he sang vocal jazz and in choral programs. “Voice professor Robin Fisher took me under her wing at a crucial time in my life and gave me the technical tools I needed,” he says.

Chan credits his early success to his ability to be lyrical and subtle, but at the same time able to reach the most difficult notes in a baritone’s upper range.

The recent graduate was a soloist for the West Coast Premiere of Rene Clausen’s tribute to Sept. 11 victims, “Memorial,” performed at the Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts. Earlier this year, Chan performed with the San Francisco Boys Chorus and at the 2006 Green and Gold Gala on campus. He is a past recipient of the Marilyn Horne Foundation’s Encouragement Award.