Le Bu

Chinese bass-baritone Le Bu was a 2022 Grand Finals Winner of the Met's Laffont Competition, now in his second year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. During the 2023–24 season, he sang the High Priest of Baal in Nabucco, Biterolf in Tannhäuser, and is currently singing the Mandarin in Turandot. Later this season, he will sing the Mandarin at Washington National Opera then make his company debut at Wolf Trap Opera, where he will sing Colline in La Bohème and the French General in Puts and Campbell’s Silent Night. He made his Met debut last season as a Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo and appeared as the Second Guard in Julie Taymor's beloved holiday presentation of The Magic Flute. Recent engagements include covering Daland in Der Fliegende Holländer and singing the Second Spirit in L'Orfeo at the Santa Fe Opera, Dr. Bartolo in Le Nozze di Figaro at Aspen Opera Theater, and the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte with the Merola Opera Program. On the concert stage, he has appeared as the bass soloist in Beethoven's Missa Solemnis with the Bard Orchestra, a concert of operatic arias and scenes with the Manchester Music Festival, and the Lindemann Program's annual spring recital series held at the New York Library for the Performing Arts. Additional accolades include second place in the 2023 Giulio Gari International Vocal Competition, winner of the 2022 Opera Index Competition, and recipient of the Hildegard Zadek Foundation's young artist scholarship. He is an alumnus of the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera, the Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Artist Program, and the Art Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music. He holds a bachelor's degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was awarded the Hugh Ross Commencement Award.

Le Bu’s participation in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program is sponsored by the Kern family, in memory of Ralph W. Kern.