About

Bass-Baritone Liam James Karai’s voice is celebrated for its elegance, striking flexibility and dark timbre. Hong-Kong born, and of Scottish, Irish and Indian heritage, Karai continues to make successful and celebrated debuts across top international opera houses, captivating audiences with his strong voice and compelling stage presence.

Karai’s 26/27 season sees him make his US debut with LA Opera as Escamillo in their new production of Carmen. He also returns to the Polish National Opera as Angelotti in Tosca as well as to Teatro Municipal De Santiago for an unannounced role debut, and makes his house and role debut with English National Opera as Jan Nyman in Breaking the Waves. Further engagements that season include Elijah in Elijah with the Handel & Haydn Society at Boston Symphony Hall, his house and role debut at Bayerische Staatsoper as Donner in Das Rheingold, followed by his house debut at Royal Ballet and Opera, London as Donner in Das Rheingold. 

Previous seasons have seen Karai make exciting house debuts at Teatro di San Carlo (Marcello in La bohème), Teatro Municipal de Santiago (Jochanaan in Salome), Opera North (Figaro in Le Nozze di Figaro), Nederlandse Reisopera (Abram in the award-winning world premiere of Hagar), Glyndebourne Festival (Truffaldino in Ariadne auf Naxos), Polish National Opera (Escamillo in Carmen & Angelotti in Tosca),Oper Frankfurt (Escamillo in Carmen), Tiroler Festspiele Erl (Schaunard in La bohème) & Semperoper Dresden (Sciarrone in Tosca). He has also appeared in concert with the WDR Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra and was a finalist and/or prize winner in several international competitions, including Operalia, the Tenor Viñas Competition, the Riccardo Zandonai Competition, the Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition & the Antonina Campi Vocal Competition.

Karai was a member of the International Opera Studio at Staatsoper Hamburg for the 22/23 & 23/24 seasons. His roles there included Angelotti in Tosca, Hobson in Peter Grimes, Figaro (Cover) and Antonio in Le Nozze di Figaro, Zaretsky in Eugene Onegin, Count Ceprano in Rigoletto and Alcindoro in La bohème. He also performed as Escamillo in Carmen at Oper Frankfurt and Staatstheater Mainz as well as extracts with the Hamburg Philharmonic, appeared in a concert version of Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet as Horatio at Salzburg Festspiele and sang in new production of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk at Oper Leipzig and Staatsoper Hamburg. Concert highlights include Beethoven 9 as a Bass Soloist with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, two galas with the Orquestra Simfònica de les Illes Balears conducted by Pablo Mielgo, and an Elbphilharmonie Großer Saal debut in Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with the Hamburg Philharmonic under Kent Nagano. Karai has also performed bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s Weihnachtsoratorium & in an Opera gala with the Mozarteum Orchestra in Salzburg.

Karai completed both a Master of Music and a Postgraduate Diploma on full scholarship at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, studying under Quentin Hayes. During his time there, he received the Sir John Tomlinson and Andrew Lloyd Webber Scholarships, won the 2021 Frederic Cox Award, the Robin Kay Memorial Prize, the RNCM Silver Medal and the Joaninha Trust Award.