Zheng Cao is a regular guest of leading companies here and abroad.  A personal favorite of Seiji Ozawa, she has appeared with him as Marguerite in a concert presentation of La Damnation de Faust at the Saito Kinen Festival, Mezzo-Soprano Soloist in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony for the recent Winter Olympic Games in Japan, and as Suzuki in Madama Butterfly for her debut with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

She began her professional career with the San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow and has subsequently performed Idamante in Idomeneo, Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro, Dorabella in Cosi fan tutte, Nicklausse in Les Contes d’Hoffman, Siebel in Faust, and Suzuki, Washington Opera as Rosina in Il Barbiere di Siviglia and Suzuki, Los Angeles Opera as Zerlina in Don Giovanni and Penelope in Il Ritorno di Ulisse in Patria, Opera Pacific as Nicklausse in Les Contes d’ Hoffman, Michigan Opera as Rosina, Pittsburgh Opera as Sesto in Giulio Cesare, San Diego Opera as Siebel and Suzuki, and Grand Theatre de Geneve as Suzuki.

Recent engagements include appearances with the San Francisco Opera in Bonesetter’s Daughter,San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera as Suzuki, Houston Grand Opera as Varvara in Katya Kabanova, their world premiere production of Salsipuedes and as Cherubino and with the Kentucky Opera as Rosina. Nest season, she will return to Pittsburgh as Cherubino and debut with Vncouver Opera as Nancy Tang in Nixon in China and Suzuki.

On the concert stage, she has performed Ravel’s Sheherazade, with the Honolulu Symphony,  Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the San Francisco Ballet, Handel’s Messiah with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Warsaw Philharmonic and Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Boston Symphony.  She has also appeared in recital at the J.F.K. Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.

She holds a Bachelor’s degree from the Shanghai Conservatory of Music and a Master’s Degree from the Curtis Institute of Music, where she performed the role of Carmen in Peter Brook’s The Tragedy of Carmen, Amastris in Xerxes and Zerlina in Don Giovanni.  She was a 1992 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions finalist and a winner of the 1993 Palm Beach Opera International Vocal Competition.