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. He trained 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 awarded the St Clare Barfield Memorial Bowl for Operatic Distinction and 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 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. He has studied singing with Klemens Cheng, Gerald Hon, David Quah, Gwion Thomas and Kiss B. Atilla.
Passionate about opera, Michael has sung operatic roles as: Tonio in Leoncavallo's Pagliacci, Escamillo in Bizet's Carmen and Colline in Puccini’s La Bohème for Midland Opera, Macbeth in Verdi’s Macbeth for Leeds Youth Opera, Renato(Cover) and Silvano in Verdi’s Un Ballo in Maschera for Winslow Hall Opera, Rigoletto(Cover), Count Ceprano and Court Usher in Verdi’s Rigoletto for Bare Boards Opera, The Four Villains, Hermann and Schlémil in Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffmann for Passaggio Oper, Don Magnifico in Rossini’s La Cenerentola for Red Earth Opera, Bonze and Il commissario imperiale in Puccini's Madama Butterfly for OperaUpClose R&D, Don Basilio in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia for Opera Novella, Marco in Puccini’s Gianni Schicchi for London Gay Symphony Orchestra and William Griffiths, Ferrando(Cover) in Verdi’s Il Trovatore for Opéra de Baugé, Baron Douphol in Verdi's La Traviata for Musica Viva, and the Young Man 3 in Huang Ruo's Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (world premiere) for Opera Hong Kong; Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro, The Forester in Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen, Bottom in Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream, and Dr Blind in Johann Strauss II's Die Fledermaus in the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts productions; Death in Holst’s Sāvitri, Le fauteuil in Ravel's L'enfant et les sortilèges and Count Almaviva in Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro in Birmingham Conservatoire productions; David in Barber's A Hand of Bridge, and Argante in Armida (world premiere), a pasticcio of music by various composers, in the Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music productions. He has also sung main roles in excerpts from different operas, including Iago in Verdi's Otello, Marcello in Puccini's La Bohème, Papageno in Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, Belcore in Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore, Don Alfonso in Mozart's Così Fan Tutte, Figaro in Rossini's Il Barbiere di Siviglia and the title role of Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Michael has also performed actively as a concert soloist. His past concert engagements include: the bass solo in Haydn's Nelson Mass with The Really Big Chorus and Hong Kong Police Choir; the bass solo in J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D Major with Hong Kong Oratorio Society, HKOS Cantata Singers and HKFYG Hong Kong Melody Makers; the baritone solo and bass solo in Felix Mendelssohn's Die erste Walpurgisnacht with Hong Kong Oratorio Society; the bass solo in Handel's Messiah with Hong Kong SingFest; the bass solo in J.S. Bach's Magnificat in D Major with Village Voices UK; the baritone solo in Faure's Requiem with Chesterfield Co-operative Choral Society; the baritone solo in Brahms's Ein deutsches Requiem with The Guild Consort Choir. He has also performed as the baritone soloist in “Another Night at the Opera” concert with Red Earth Opera, and “A Night of Celebration” and “French Connections” concert with Midland Opera.
Michael was a prizewinner of numerous international and national singing competitions. He won many prizes in the Hong Kong Schools Music Festival, including the First Prize of Miss Barbara Fei Vocal Prize Final (Open) and Operatic Solo. Lam won the First Prize in the 2nd Hong Kong International Music Festival Vocal Competition and the Excellent Prize in the 3rd Asian International Vocal Festival International Opera Contest in 2015. In 2016, Lam won the First Prize in the International Music Competition 'London' Grand Prize Virtuoso Vocal Competition; the "Wyken" Rose Bowl, Bennett Cup, E Burton Cup and William Griffiths Prize in Leamington Spa Competitive Festival; and the First Prize of Vocal class in Abergavenny Eisteddfod Y Fenni. In 2017, he won the Birmingham Conservatoire Singing Prize and the Ashleyan Opera Prize. He was the First Prize Winner of International Music Competition "Rome" 2018 and The North International Music Competition 2018. He has been given the Gil Rodriguez Scholarship Award from Opéra de Baugé in 2019 for having been identified as one of the singers who has the greatest potential in that year.
