Male voice in a soprano world

Jorg Waschinski found his voice at the ripe old age of 26 at a friend's birthday party. Until then the male soprano considered himself a tenor. 'We were making music at the party [and] I asked my friend to try me on the soprano aria. Everybody told me it was perfect, that I should consider becoming a professional,' the Berlin-born vocalist says.

Waschinski (right) will be in town to perform with the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong on Tuesday under the baton of the ensemble's chief conductor Jean Thorel.

For his Asian debut he will sing a rare programme of opera arias recalling the golden age of the castrati, including the Overture from Handel's Giulio Cesare, Alto Giove from Porpora's Polifemo and Haydn's Symphony No30 in C major, Alleluja.

Also celebrating the 250th anniversary of Handel's death, Waschinski will perform three pieces written by the German-born baroque composer.

'Handel wrote for the male sopranos,' Waschinski says. 'I like his music very much and I think the audience will like it too.'

Waschinski loved listening to female sopranos and was a big fan of contralto voices so he was thrilled when he realised he could sing in the range himself. He received his professional training from Renate Faltin at the Hochschule fur Musik Hanns Eisler in Berlin before winning the Johann Heinrich Schmelzer competition in Melk, Austria, in 1996 and gaining international recognition.