Brian Asawa

Brian Asawa was a contemporary Japanese American countertenor known for his work in opera and early music. He was an exuberant and fearless performer with a distinctively dark and expressive voice. Asawa was born in Fullerton, California, in 1966 to a non-musical family. His father worked as a chemist, and his mother operated a beauty salon. He began his musical journey at young age with piano lessons, and he sang in his church choir. In the early ’80s, he enrolled at the University of California, Santa Cruz, as a piano student, but he almost immediately changed his major to voice. Asawa discovered his abilities in the countertenor range while singing soprano parts on his walks home from class. His vocal teacher Harlan Hokin was supportive of Asawa’s transition, and he proceeded as a countertenor. After one year, he transferred to the University of California, Las Angeles, where he studied with Virginia Fox and Kari Windingstad. After he completed his bachelor’s degree in 1989, he enrolled as a graduate student at the University of South California. There he studied early music performance under lutenist James Tyler, but he was not able to finish his degree because his professional career quickly escalated. In 1991, Asawa became the first countertenor to win the Metropolitan Opera Eric and Dominique Laffont Competition. He also won the Adler Fellowship with the San Francisco Opera, which was a two-year-long contract as an artist-in-residence. This led to his professional debut in a production of Hans Werner Henze’s Das Verratene Meer. He continued singing with the San Francisco Opera and received further vocal instruction from Jane Randolph. In the following season, he made his New York opera debut in the title role of Mozart’s Ascanio in Alba, conducted by Adam Fischer. For the next 15 years, Asawa was in high demand, and he performed at many of the major opera houses in Europe, Australia, and Canada. In addition to his expertise in early music and opera, Asawa was an advocate for new music and commissioned works by contemporary composers, such as Jake Heggie’s Encountertenor cycle. He also performed and recorded works by Kurt Erickson, Juliana Hall, and others. Asawa died from liver failure in 2016 at the age of 49. His recorded legacy is available through several record labels including RCA, Naxos, and Decca. ~ RJ Lambert