With “a voice of silver brightness and clarity” (Bachtrack) and “immaculately produced and enticing tone matched by superb musicianship” (Opera News), soprano Chen Reiss came to prominence as a member of the ensemble of the Bavarian State Opera and artist-in-residence at the Vienna State Opera. Her operatic repertoire encompasses the title role in Cavalli’s La Calisto (Teatro alla Scala, Milan), Ginevra (Royal Opera House Covent Garden), Mozart’s Zaide (Teatro dell’Opera di Roma), Donna Anna and Contessa (Le nozze di Figaro), Anne Trulove (The Rakes’s Progress), Liu (Turandot), Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus), and the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Incoronazione di Poppea.
Highlights of the 2025–26 season include her debut as second soprano in Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with Tarmo Peltokoski, Mahler’s Symphony no. 2 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, including an Asia tour, Carmina Burana with the Detroit Symphony, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä, Brahms’ German Requiem with the London Symphony Orchestra under Manfred Honeck and Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony with the Hallé and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. Chen returns to the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Lahav Shani for Mahler’s Symphony no. 4, and she will record a CD with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn featuring works by Anton Reicha, Andreas Romberg, Ferdinand von Waldstein, and Peter von Winter. In the 2025–26 season, Chen will serve as artist-in-residence with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla.
Recent highlights include her debut as Contessa in Le Nozze di Figaro at Welsh National Opera, Strauss Four Last Songs with the Israel Philharmonic, and collaborations with conductors including Zubin Mehta, Ivor Bolton, Lahav Shani, Alain Altinoglu, and Kristiina Poska in repertoire ranging from concert arias by Mozart and Beethoven to the orchestral songs of Strauss, Schreker, and Korngold. She has been artist-in-residence at the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, featured soloist in the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra’s Christmas Day concert, rejoining conductor Klaus Mäkelä to sing music by Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn, and debuted in Mahler’s Das Klagende Lied at the Leipzig Gewandhaus Mahler Festival, and Dvorak’s Stabat mater, with Christoph Eschenbach.
Recent recordings include Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang with the Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and Paavo Jarvi (Alpha Classics), Mahler’s Fourth Symphony with the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov (Pentatone), Schreker’s Vom ewigen leben with Christoph Eschenbach and the Konzerthausorchester Berlin (Deutsche Grammophon), lieder and scenas of Fanny Hensel and Felix Mendelssohn with the Jewish Chamber Orchestra of Munich, and Beethoven arias and scenas with the Academy of Ancient Music.
February 2026
Please note: Biographies are based on information provided to the CSOA by the artists or their representatives. More current information may be available on websites of the artists or their management.
