Paul Chwe MinChul An

Paul Chwe MinChul An is a Korean-American multi-disciplinary bass singer. Critically acclaimed by the New York Times, Opera News, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times, and others, he has originated over 20 operatic, theatrical, film and concert roles, in addition to performing over 60 roles in the canon in a career spanning two decades. Paul followed the advice of his teacher W. Stephen Smith at Juilliard, who told him to study and perform everything under the sun while achieving a specialist’s facility and depth in each discipline and genre.

As an operatic basso cantante, he has performed works from Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi and Puccini to Meredith Monk with local, regional, and national companies such as LA Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Nashville Opera, Orlando Opera, PROTOTYPE Festival, Long Beach Opera, and Opera Santa Barbara.

As an oratorio soloist and chamber musician, he has performed the works of early to contemporary masters with such groups as the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Ensemble VIII, and Tenet in venues ranging from school gyms to Carnegie Hall.

Although MinChul does not consider himself fixed to one discipline or genre, he particularly revels in the collaborative process of originating roles. He is lucky to call giants like Meredith Monk, Kamala Sankaram, Ellen Reid, Yuval Sharon, James Darrah, Julian Wachner, Beth Morrison, Kristin Marting, and Alex Gedeon, his friends and collaborators.

Adjacent to the stage, Paul Chwe MinChul An is working to carve out space for underrepresented artists. As a consultant to various performing arts organizations, board member of Overtone Industries, as well as founding member of the Queens Voice Lab, he is joining other beautiful and powerful voices to decolonize, build, and raise up artist communities.