In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, AGMA is proud to spotlight a conversation between Communications Coordinator Eldad “Eldee” Eyimife and Soloists Vice President Andrew Stenson, exploring identity, representation, and advocacy in the opera industry. Stenson reflects on his journey as a Korean American adoptee coming of age in a field where Asian artists were rarely visible, and how that absence shaped both his artistry and his commitment to expanding opportunity for others. From performing in groundbreaking works that center Asian stories to helping secure meaningful equity provisions at the bargaining table, his career reflects a broader shift driven by artists pushing for change.
Andrew Stenson’s whole life before coming to America is captured in two paragraphs—translated from Korean and of uncertain accuracy. Like the tens of thousands of Korean adoptees raised in Minnesota, he has spent his life and career filling in the gaps those paragraphs left out, bearing and benefiting from an English name.
That uncertainty has shaped Andrew into one of opera’s most committed advocates for Asian representation on stage, and for the labor protections that make careers possible in the first place. He entered the industry at a time when there were hardly any Asian male opera singers to look up to, and, when he looked to the broader cultural landscape for mirrors, the pickings were slim. John Cho’s emergence following American Pie was, he recalls, a genuine event — a childhood friend and fellow Korean adoptee changed his hair to match Cho’s almost immediately. The only other representation he saw was Jackie Chan. In opera, the void was starker.
“God only knows I would have modeled everything I possibly could after somebody who came before,” Andrew says. “There were no male Asian singers I could think of off the top of my head.”
He was forced to seek out his identity elsewhere. Reading Renée Fleming’s memoir, Andrew was struck by her reflection that a singer’s voice is an amalgam of family and influences.
“The voice I have is the only tangible connection I have to a life I will never know,” he shares. “One of the most humbling things about being part of this community, as an opera singer and an AGMA member, is that it has afforded me many unexpected ways to find fellowship and to seek my identity as a Korean-American. I’ve met so many exceptional Korean artists at home and abroad, people who are genuinely strangers in a different land, who are reaching out to create that community. These people helped me figure out who I am.”
His career has taken him through productions that put Asian stories and Asian artists front and center, such as the world premiere of An American Soldier at Washington National Opera and Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, or Bel Canto at Lyric Opera of Chicago, at a time when few others were doing the same. When he auditioned for Bel Canto, he estimates there were perhaps three Asian tenors in the country who might have been considered for a house of that caliber. And now? There are so many more options.
That shift didn’t come from nowhere; it came from passionate artists advocating for themselves. For example, during the 2021 AGMA/Metropolitan Opera negotiations, Andrew helped secure an affirmative consideration clause, requiring the Met Opera to actively consider singers of color for standard repertoire roles commensurate with those they’ve appeared in, in instances of race-specific casting.
“There’s no reason why someone singing the part of Bess shouldn’t be singing Mimì. That language has since spread like wildfire through contracts across the industry. The more we normalize having the workplace look like America does, the more opportunity we can create for our underrepresented colleagues.”
Andrew, who proudly serves on AGMA’s Board of Governors as Soloist Vice President, has a clear understanding of where he stands now and how his voice can be used, both on stage and at the negotiating table, to improve the lives of future generations. Andrew is entering the phase of his career where the seeds he helped plant are blooming for someone else, and he understands the significance of that.
For a man whose entire origin story fits in two paragraphs, Andrew has written quite an expansive chapter for himself—one that generations of Asian opera singers will be able to point to, even if they never need to explain why it mattered.