The Artist of the Week is Canadian soprano Xin Wang. She will be the soloist in Tapestry Opera‘s new staging of Ana Sokolović‘s Love Songs from March 26th to 29th (tickets and info here).
Xin is known for her fearless virtuosity and abundant flexibility. Career highlights include the Toronto Symphony Orchestra‘s Our Shared Anthem, performing Canadian works at the Convent Garden, World Stage Design and the Beijing International Modern Music Festival and winning Most Outstanding Performance in Theatre for Young Audiences at the 2011 Dora Awards.
This week, Xin chats with us about making music with her family, her childhood dream job and what she can’t live without. Read on to find out more.
When was your first singing lesson (and with whom)?
I sang as soon as I could speak, and I sang as much as I spoke. My parents are my first singing teachers. But not in the sense of technique. They taught me that making music is the same as living. Growing up in the late 70s and early 80s in China, we had many nights with no electricity, and those nights were full of my parents making music together. Dad on the accordion and mom singing everything from southern Chinese folksongs to “Un bel di, vedremo.” By the time I was six, I was singing duets with my mom, and by the time I was eight, I could sight read any song you put in front of me. I remember singing for hours in the stairwell of the apartment building where the sound would be so echoey.
Heels or flats?
Bare feet as much as possible!
Favourite place?
I love being very close to the people I love, it doesn’t really matter where.
Who is a singer you admire that is currently working?
Raphaële Kennedy.
What are you afraid of?
People I love getting hurt when I am not with them.
What’s your favourite mind-calming practice?
Writing a list, cooking, watering my plants (I have many) and learning music slowly calm me down.
Where’s your favourite coffee shop?
My couch when the morning sun is out and my plants are all stretched out in the light right before me.
What’s the luckiest thing that has ever happened to you?
The people. I love people. Making real connections with people is my drug of choice. To be able to live this life interacting with people is the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me.
What was your childhood dream job?
To sing, or to have many horses.
Are you happiest in the country or in the city?
In the city. The hustling and bustling make me feel safe.
Which album did you listen to last?
Ella Fitzgerald duets with Joe Pass.
What book are you reading at the moment?
Pleasure Activism.
What’s your guilty pleasure?
Thrifting, and then finding and buying the perfect dress that I don’t need.
Which colour best symbolises your personality?
I just asked my eldest daughter, Sophie (20). “Stop asking me these questions, mom! Red, wait blue! Well, certainly primary.” So there!
Are you superstitious? If yes, can you share what it’s about?
I am not. But I feel the energy of a place and the energy of a person, and I believe firmly in voicing your hopes and wishes to the universe. My bedroom is full of happy plants, rocks and pebbles my kids and I have come across over the years and you can always see my last round of tarot cards leaning there too.
Do you enjoy cooking? If yes, what is your best dish?
Absolutely. I think I do best when making something simple and tasty, using whatever is already in the kitchen. I like applicable creativity 🙂
If you could be stuck in an elevator with one person, who would it be?
The world’s best elevator fixer.
What is one thing that you cannot live without?
Love.
Do you approach singing and/or upcoming projects differently today than you did at the beginning of your career?
Yes, I learn even slower 🙂 and I start earlier 🙂
What’s the biggest risk you’ve taken for a production?
Suggest an opera for solo voice.
The music industry is tough, and filled with rejection. How do you cope? Does it get easier?
I love practicing. I love being with the people I love. I love teaching singing. No rejection can touch those three things…
Do your on stage experiences also feed into your personal life?
I am exactly the same person on stage as I am in life.
© Photo used with permission form the artist
Jimmie LeBlanc’s ‘Light’, an chamber opera for soprano and guitar for film (2022)
© Photo used with permission form the artist
Cooo Ana Sokolovic’s four doves from Love Songs. Adapted for the very young produced by the Wee Festival (2025)
© Photo used with permission from the artist
Luciano Berio‘s Sequenza III directed by Amanda Smith produced by New Music Concerts (2021)
Love Songs
Tapestry Opera
COMPOSER: Ana Sokolović
SOPRANO: Xin Wang
TAP DANCER: Rumi Jeraj
DIRECTOR: Michael Hidetoshi Mori
LIGHTING DESIGNER: Emerson Kafarowski
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CAN’T LET GO OF LOST LOVE?
A heartbroken woman embarks on a hauntingly beautiful journey, experiencing the love stories of different people in a desperate search for her lost love.
A Tapestry Opera Production in partnership with New Music Concerts
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