As a TenorTenor Mofan Lai is from Hangzhou, China. Graduated from the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University with the President's Commendation for Achievement in the Arts, he has performed the role of Doctor in The Falling and the Rising (won the National Opera Award from the National Opera Association), Young Lover in Tabarro, and Amantio in Gianni Schicchi in 2019 with Peabody Opera. During 2016-17 season he performed the role of Monostatos in an edited version of Magic Flute, Peabody Institute’s outreach production Papageno, touring across Maryland state. He won the Grand Prize of 2015 Chinese Vocal International Competition, High School Division; the first place of the vocal competition of both Zhejiang Province’s and Hangzhou City’s High School Art Festival; the Outstanding Singer Award (2015 Classical Singer’s Convention). He published his album: Chinese Art Songs and Folk Songs after he won the third place in Hong Kong International Vocal Competition, Chinese Art Song Division in 2014. Invited by the Hangzhou Public Library, he held his recital in 2015, reviewed by Metropolitan Express: “Talented young tenor with gifted golden voice”. His school-wide elective and online course–Sing More Fun was awarded as the Top-quality Model Course by Hangzhou Foreign Languages School where he was awarded the Special Contribution Award to the school in its 2015 Art Festival. At Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University, he was the only undergraduate recipient of the “Dean’s Incentive Grant” in 2016 and founded the Peabody Chinese Students and Alumni Association. He was an academic peer advisor, a writing studio tutor at Peabody and also a student representative at both Peabody and JHU alumni council. He would like to thank Dr. and Mrs. Allan and Clair Jensen for establishing the Clair and Allan Jensen Endowed Scholarship at Peabody which largely supports him. He studies with Dr. Stanley Cornett in the US and Maestro Qian Liu in China. He delivers recitals in China and the United States. He teaches at Zhejiang Conservatory of Music, Zhejiang University, and Hangzhou Normal University. He is a member of National Association of Teachers of Singing, and the Association for Opera in Canada.
He published two Single Albums in 2023, featuring two Chinese art songs. They are streamed on Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon Music, and etc. worldwide: Mama in the Candlelight, and In the Mountains. As a Music Manager, he has been on the board of Shriver Hall Concert Series, a 501(c)(3) non-profit chamber music performance company, for two years where he has participated in designing and conducting performances of Marc-André Hamelin, Richard Goode, Imogen Cooper, Midori Goto, Jennifer Koh, Tabea Zimmermann, Johannes Moser, Lawrence Brownlee, Jörg Widmann, Zukerman Trio, Rolston String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Harlem Quartet, Hagen Quartet, Jerusalem Quartet, and etc. He is also the Executive Director of Hangzhou Ledao Consulting Co., Ltd. and has directed Peabody Young Artist Festival and Cornett International Vocal and Collaborative Piano Festival. Talented young tenor with gifted golden voice” |
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As a PhotographerCurrently resides in Shanghai/Hangzhou, China and Baltimore, Maryland, Mofan Lai is a registered member artist in Maryland State Arts Council. He was the media manager and the photographer of Vibes Concert Series at Peabody from 2019-20, appointed by the Computer Music Department. His photographs are now on display in the exhibition of the 50th Anniversary of Peabody Computer Music. Besides using a Sony camera for professional uses, he is also a fan of iPhone photography as he traveled internationally in China, Japan, America and etc. Most his iPhone pictures are posted on Instagram.
His background in classical music and history gives him inspirations in taking portraits and pictures of art works. As an animal lover, he enjoys taking animal photos as well. As an exchange student at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Letterpress, he is also a print maker. As a ResearcherLai's research interests include Opera Studies, Music Aesthetics, Music Cognition, Early Vocal History, and Performing Arts Theories. As a native Chinese speaker with a background of Asian culture, He also speaks English, Italian, German and French and studies at China Academy of Art, as a Lin Fengmian Scholar, and Johns Hopkins University. He studies with Dean Rui Wang, the one of the most important founding theorists of Chinese Opera Studies. Mofan Lai has won the first prize in 2022 China Choral and Conducting Research Competition with his paper on "The Historical Development of Choral Arts in Opera Studies". He receives the 2019 Hugh Hawkins Fellowship and is the 2018-2019 recipient of the Provost's Undergraduate Research Award. His first paper "Three Practical Methods in Chinese Literature Studies for Middle School Students" was published in China in 2012 on Family Education.
He is a lecturer at Hangzhou Public Library, and has designed and lectured several series of classical music salons. The Hangzhou Daily considered his lectures as the most popular musical lectures in Hangzhou City in 2022. His lectures streamed on Weibo has reached over one million online views. |
Peabody congratulates Mofan Lai for receiving
the President's Commendation for Achievement in the Arts |