Eric Asakawa is an emerging Portland-based singer. He has been praised for his versatile, expressionate voice, commanding stage presence, and high-flying acrobatics. Equally at home with both contemporary and classical music, he has been cast in musicals, operas, and oratorio. He studied music at Pacific University and was awarded Outstanding Vocalist. He was a young artist at Miami Music Festival in 2018, and the Aspen Opera Center in 2016. He has spent two summers studying at the American Institute for Musical Studies in Graz, Austria. Before he started into music and theater, he competed internationally as a gymnast for 10 years at the Multnomah Athletic Club.
Operatic roles include Begearss in The Ghosts of Versailles at Miami Music Festival, Tanzmeister and Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, Snout in Britten's A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the Teapot and Little Old Man in Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, and Contino Belfiore in Mozart’s La Finta Giardiniera at Portland State University. Theater roles include Ren McCormack in Footloose at Broadway Rose Theater, the title character in Paul Rudnick’s Jeffrey, Chip Tolentino in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Ariel in The Tempest, and ensemble in Cats, The Producers, and Hair. Concert works include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem in D minor, Gounod’s St. Cecilie Mass, and Handel’s Messiah.