Shiddharth Chand Photo: Supplied
Sid Chand is used to trailblazing.
Back in 2023, he was the first person of Fijian-Indian ancestry to win a spot with New Zealand Opera as a Studio Artist in its Artist Development Programme.
Next year, Chand - who's just finished a stint studying in San Francisco - will head east across the USA to Chicago to take up a spot as an ensemble member with the Ryan Opera Center at the Lyric Opera of Chicago.
He becomes not only the first New Zealander to earn that role, but as far as he knows, the first opera singer of Indian descent.
Chand spoke to RNZ Concert from a cold San Francisco, where his studies gave him the opportunity to perform with the San Francisco Opera: his favourite opera, Benjamin Britten's "The Turn of the Screw", where he played the ghostly Peter Quint.
