Bach Magnificat — Yale Camerata 12/3/2023, Woolsey Hall
Photo: Harold Shapiro
Vocal Performance
Here you can preview some of her performances — please click on “Watch on YouTube” for more information on collaborative artists, performance dates and venues, texts and translations, as well as more performances:
Lamento della Ninfa – Monteverdi
Serenade for Sashekia (2024)
— Zihan Wu (b. 2001)
Quia Respexit (from "Magnificat in D") — J.S.Bach
If Music Be the Food of Love (third version)
— Henry Purcell
Como Poden
— Cantigas de Santa María (ca.1265)
Kahl reckt der Baum
— Anton Webern
Yiran Zhao is frequently in demand for solo and ensemble singing because of her vibrant, warm tone and exquisite phrasing and expressiveness. With perfect pitch and strong pitch accuracy, she has quite often been asked to give the starting pitches for ensembles. Yiran is passionate about performing early music and new music, as well as vocal jazz. She performs with Apollo’s Fire and Yale Choral Artists, and she is one of the VOCES8 US Scholars for the 2023–24 season. She sings at Episcopal Church at Yale and St Catherine’s of Siena in Trumbull, CT.
Yiran joined Beijing Philharmonic Choir at the age of 8, and sang in the choir for 10 years. During her time in the choir, she toured around the world singing in international choral competitions and performing, including winning 1st place in Children’s Chorus category, 2nd place in Grand Prix at the 2010 Béla Bartók Choral Competition in Hungary; 2nd place in Grand Prix at the 2015 SEGHIZZI Choral Competition in Italy; a cappella version of the Olympic Anthem performance in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games Opening Ceremony; the World Choir Games in Riga in 2014, etc. She also sang and accompanied her school choirs growing up.
After coming to the U.S., Yiran has sung in Westminster Chapel Choir, Westminster Schola Cantorum, Westminster Choir, Westminster Williamson Voices, Westminster Symphonic Choir, and Westminster Kantorei. She sang as a concertist in the Westminster Symphonic Choir’s production of the B Minor Mass with the Philadelphia Orchestra with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and St John Passion and Path of Miracles (fully memorized and staged) with Westminster Choir during its residency at Spoleto Festival USA in summer 2019. At Yale, Yiran sang in Yale Schola Cantorum and Yale Recital Chorus, and she served as a soprano soloist in Yale Repertory Chorus and Yale Camerata.
Yiran has also sung in summer programs including the Norfolk Chamber Choir & Choral Conducting Workshop, the Illinois Bach Academy (“Uxor Pilati” in Bach St Matthew Passion), and the Oxford Composing & Singing School. She was a soprano demonstrator of Dennis Shrock’s “Renaissance Symposium” at University of Mississippi, and she was the soloist for Westminster’s student acappella group on Westminster Choir tour. She was also a soprano section leader at Lamington Presbyterian Church.
Yiran is a student of Sherezade Panthaki, Kate Maroney, Victoria Browers, Liz Knight, Clara Rottsolk, and Margaret Woods.