Biography
Mike Fan | 范祖铭 (they)
CAEA, ARCT, MMus, HBMus, BScH
Opera Tenor, Actor, Educator, Advocate
Chinese-Canadian, queer, and gender non-binary tenor, actor, educator, and advocate Mike Zuming Fan | 范祖铭 (they) is known for their expressive power both on and off the stage. Mike possesses a warm full lyric tenor with impressive power, agility, and range. Polymath and polyglot, Mike has performed in 10 languages for audiences across Canada, USA, Europe, and Australia. A passionate, committed, and innovative performer, Mike is strongly committed to social justice as the Artistic Director of Opéra Queens.
Mike joined CAEA (Canadian Actors' Equity Association) as a Pacific Opera Victoria 2021-2022 Young Artist in their Civic Engagement Quartet, filming a gender-bending digital recital Tā (她 / 他) as well appearances and performances online and in the Victoria community. Mike’s versatile performances include opera, art song and concert, musical theatre, plays, and short film for organizations including Infusion Baroque, La Scena Musicale Magazine, Opéra McGill, Opera Laurier, YES Montréal, Guelph and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestras, Rainbow Reels Queer and Trans Film Festival, Guelph and tri-Pride, Concerti Fulmini, McGill’s Queer History Month, FUSE Art and Vera Causa Opera at Le Monument National, Tampere and Newcastle Conservatories, St. Mary’s Cathedral Sydney, Dalhousie Arts Centre, Winchester Street Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, Trinity St. Paul’s, Hunter College, Centre St. Jax, and Kin Experience with. Mike’s training includes the Rossini Opera Festival’s Accademia Alberto Zedda, Canadian Opera Company Youth Opera Labs, Dr. Michael Warren’s Toronto and NYC Voice Intensives, Opera for All, Opera NUOVA, and Halifax Summer Opera.
Beginning as a baritone, Mike has performed the roles of Massenet’s Pandolfe (Cendrillon), Copland’s Top (The Tender Land), Rossini’s Don Alvaro (Il viaggio a Reims), Bizet’s Moralès (Carmen), Weill’s Henry Davis (Street Scene), Offenbach’s Schlémil (Les contes d’Hoffmann), and Heggie’s Fred (Again) as well as scenes as Rorem’s Mr. Webb (Our Town), Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Conte Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro), Gounod’s Valentin (Faust) and Mercutio (Roméo et Juliette), and Tchaikovsky’s Robert (Iolanta). As a tenor, Mike has performed the roles of Bizet’s Dancaïro and Don José (Carmen), Verdi’s Conte Ivrea (Il giorno di Regno), Britten’s Prologue (The Turn of the Screw), Rimsky’s Korsakov’s Indian Guest (Sadko), Livingston’s John (The Yellow Wallpaper), as well as scenes as Tchaikovsky’s Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Léhar’s Prince Sou-Chong (The Land of Smiles), Verdi’s Duca di Mantua (Rigoletto), Saint-Saën’s and Händel’s Samson (Samson and Delilah), and Mozart’s Tamino (The Magic Flute). Additionally, Mike created world premières of roles in operas by Miller, Hajdinjak, and Langan. Theatre and musical theatre roles include Shakespeare’s Malvolio (Twelfth Night), Theseus (A Midsummer Night’s Dream), and Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet); Wilde’s Merriman (The Importance of Being Earnest); Sheridan’s Snake, Careless, and William (The School of Scandal); Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Lord Pinkleton and Jean-Michel (Cinderella); Sondheim’s Fredrik (A Little Night Music) and Paul (Company); and Bernstein’s Riff (West Side Story). Fluent in seven languages, Mike crosses disciplines as an arts and community leader most recently as PGSS Equity & Diversity Commissioner and McGill’s Queer Alumni Association (MQAA) and BIPOC Graduate Network co-founder.
Mike also enjoys surprising audiences as drag persona Tanya Smania (she) whose repertoire includes the title roles of Cilèa’s Adriana Lecouvreur, Bizet’s Carmen, Händel’s Agrippina as well as Tchaikovsky’s Tatiana (Eugene Onegin), Weill’s Rose (Street Scene), Puccini’s Mimì (La bohème), and Mozart’s Zerlina (Don Giovanni). Mike’s many concert and recital highlights include “Chez Pauline Viardot”, a SSHRC-funded recital in drag commemorating woman composer Pauline Viardot-García’s 2021 bicentennial; “Leaving Home”, showcasing immigrant composers and poets; and “Mom & Me”, a rare genderbent presentation of Schumann’s Frauenliebe und -Leben alongside Poulenc and Rachmaninov.
As Artistic Director of the ground-breaking company Opéra Queens, Mike aims to present classical vocal music in drag, gender-bent, and queerified while spotlighting IBPOC voices and living composers. Opéra Queens recently received a $50,000 Canada Council for the Arts Digital Now grant and currently unites artists across Ontario, Québec, and the US. Opéra Queens productions include “Drama Queens” including a commission for Morgan-Paige Melbourne for an Overture to Adriana Lecouvreur alongside Saint-Saëns, Purcell, Cilèa, Viardot-García, and Händel as well as “Latin Night”, featuring the Canadian and live première of Steven Sérpa and Zac Kline’s “these wings are meant to fly” alongside Bizet and Spanish women composers Malibran-García, Viardot-García, and von Martinez.
Mike has been an invited panelist for Teesri Duniya Theatre's "Artist United Against Racism: Everybody Can Fight Racism". Mike opened the 2021 From the Voice Of “Community in Conversation” series and has appeared on radio with CKUT 90.3 FM Montréal and CKWR 98.5 FM Kitchener-Waterloo.
Mike holds a Masters (MMus) in Opera and Voice Performance from McGill’s Schulich School of Music on full fellowship, 3 ARCT diplomas in Voice, Piano, and Speech Arts and Drama Performance from the Royal Conservatory of Music, and two Honours Bachelors from the University of Guelph in Biomedical Science (BScH, with Distinction) and from Sir Wilfrid Laurier University in Voice Performance (HBMus, with High Distinction) with minors in German and Italian studies. Mike is currently based at vibrant Toronto’s Harbourfront where they continue to enjoy work on and beyond the opera and theatre stage as an educator, poet, host, and pianist, holding executive positions with both the NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Chapters of Ontario Montréal.
For upcoming performances and events, please visit: https://www.MikeZFan.com/performances. You can also stay in touch with Mike via social media @MikeZFan on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter as well keep up-to-date with Mike, Tanya, and the Opéra Queens by signing up for their newsletter at https://www.MikeZFan.com/!
Photo: TamPhotography.ca
Mike Fan ~ At a Glance
Opera Engagements
Pacific Opera Victoria
Teesri Duniya Theatre
Accademia Rossiniana Alberto Zedda, Rossini Opera Festival
Dr. Michael Warren NYC & Toronto Voice Intensives
Italian Canadian Heritage Foundation
Concerti Fulmini series
Kultrún World Music Festival
NUMUS
Guelph Symphony Orchestra
KW Symphony Orchestra Opera Laurier
Halifax Summer Opera
Opera NUOVA
Toronto Vocal Studio
Canadian Ambassador Choir
Vera Causa Opera
Guelph Chinese Performing Arts
Guelph Chinese Canadian Culture Association
Eden Mills Arts Festival
Society for the Archaeology of Ancient Music
Awards
2022-23 ~ Canada Council for the Arts, Public Outreach
2021-22 ~ Canada Council for the Arts, Digital Now
2021 ~ Le Prix Poulenc, Les jeunes ambassadeurs lyriques
2020-21 ~ SSHRC CGSM
2020 ~ Opéra McGill Scholarship
2019-20 ~ Shapiro Fellowship in Opera
2019-20 ~ Schulich School of Music: Graduate Excellence Fellowship
2018-19 ~ Harold & Violet Seegmiller Award
2018-19 ~ Mrs. Iqbal (Bali) Badhwar Memorial Award
2018-19 ~ Concordia Scholarship in German
2018 ~ Ontario Federation of Music Festivals: Provincial Finalist (Voice, National Qualifying Class)
2017-18 ~ William Thomson Scholarship
2017 ~ Ontario Federation of Music Festivals: 1st Place (Advanced Speech Arts)
2014 ~ RCM Gold Medal, Grade 10 Voice
2014 ~ NATS Competition: 1st Place (Mature Beginners)
2013, 2014 ~ College of Biological Science, Roll of Distinction
2010 ~ University of Guelph Entrance Scholarship
2010 ~ Ontario Scholar
2008 ~ Kincardine Summer Music Festival, Chamber Music Scholarship
2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014, 2017, 2018 ~ Kiwanis Music Festival of Guelph Scholarships: Senior Voice, Senior Piano, Speech Arts (Provincial Finalist)
Acting Engagements
Infusion Baroque
Scratch Takes
Merridian Films
SteamWorld Entertainment
Student Budget Productions
Memory Tree Productions
Education
MMus ~ Masters in Music, Opera & Voice Performance (McGill University: Schulich School of Music, 2021)
ARCT ~ Speech Arts Performance (Royal Conservatory of Music, 2021)
HBMus ~ Honours Bachelor’s in Music (Voice Performance) with High Distinction, Double Minors in Italian & German (Sir Wilfrid Laurier University, 2019)
ARCT ~ Voice Performance (Royal Conservatory of Music, 2015)
BScH ~ Honours Bachelor’s in Biomedical Science with Distinction (University of Guelph, 2014)
OSSD ~ Ontario Scholar (Centennial Collegiate and Vocational Institute, 2010)
ARCT ~ Piano Performance (Royal Conservatory of Music, 2009)
Teaching Engagements
The Studio of Mike Fan ~ Voice, Piano, Music Theory, Maths, Sciences, ESL, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Mandarin
Express Voice Studio
Sir Wilfrid Laurier University ~ German 110 & 111
The Canadian Independent College ~ Chemistry 4U
Community Living Guelph Wellington ~ Passport Tutoring: continuing education
Kratovic School of Music ~ Voice, Piano, Music Theory
Octave Music Centre ~ Voice, Piano, Music Theory
Yamaha Children’s Music Academy ~ Piano, Music Theory
JamSchool ~ Piano, Music Theory
Pianist Engagements
Kincardine Summer Music Festival
Ontario Federation of Music Festivals
KW Kiwanis Music Festival
Kiwanis Music Festivals of Guelph
Eta Pi Society
Weston Terrace
Royal on Gordon
The Elliott Community
St. Joseph’s Health Centre
Factory 163
The Women of Broadway and Beyond