The Chinese soprano Ziyi Dai was a member of the International Opera Studio of the Zurich Opera House from 2019 to 2022, singing roles including Marzelline (Fidelio) and Comtesse Adèle in Rossini’s Le Comte Ory.
She made her role debut as Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the National Theatre in Prague and has gone on to perform this role in a production by Andreas Homoki at the Zurich Opera House and at the Teatro dell’Opera in Rome.
In 2023 she sang the role of Amina (La sonnambula) at the Buxton International Festival. She also performed in concerts with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra and the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra.
She has appeared alongside her father, the tenor Yuqiang Dai, in concerts featuring arias by Puccini, Verdi and Lehár as well as Chinese folk songs at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts in Philadelphia.
Her future engagements include a return to the Zurich Opera House and her debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
Ziyi Dai studied at the China Conservatory of Music in Beijing and at the Manhattan School of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music in New York. She has also participated in masterclasses with artists including Javier Camarena, Enza Ferrari, Eric Owens and Ferruccio Furlanetto. In 2018 she won second prize in the Premiere Opera Foundation’s International Vocal Competition. She is also a prize-winner of the vocal competition at the Huanglong Music Festival.
In summer 2026 she makes her debut at the Salzburg Festival as Zerbinetta.
