Barabara Jin – mezzo

Chinese mezzo-soprano Barbara (Yuanyuan) Jin studied for three years on scholarship at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music, China, under the tutelage of Ruogi He as part of the undergraduate program. In 2013, she relocated to the Sydney Conservatorium of Music to complete her Bachelor of Music as a recipient of the International Student First Prize Scholarship. She is now in her final year of a Masters of Opera Performance, studying with Maree Ryan AM, chair of vocal studies and opera. She is a recipient of the Diane Wishart and Quin Quin Foundation scholarships.

Barbara’s operatic credits have included Mercedes (Carmen), La Badessa, La Suora Zelatrice and La Suora Infermiera (Suor Angelica), Miss Fitzhenry, Lady Jersey and Second Nun (Williamson’s English Eccentrics), and Dawn’s Attendant, Mopsa and Secrecy (The Fairy Queen). ClassikON commented of her performance in The Fairy Queen, “Ms Jin has impeccable diction, most suitable for a piece sung in English and a very flexible voice suitable for a variety of singing genres.” Barbara has also appeared in the ensemble for Adamo’s Little Women, Bernstein’s MASS as a Street Singer at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, and in the premiering opera, Ui no Fa’aoe. In October 2016, Barbara was portraying Dorabella in Cosí fan tutte at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, conducted by Stephen Mould. In January 2017, she is going to cast Mrs McLean in Susannah with Opera New England.

Barbara’s awards include the Outstanding Student Award at the Xinghai Conservatory of Music; first prize in German Art Song for the Hong Kong International Singing Competition; first prize in 19th Century Music; first prize in Opera for the Great Composers Competition and second prize in the Nuremberg Music Festival.

She has participated in masterclasses with international conductor, Semyon Rozin in 2015, and with Greta Bradman in 2016.