New Zealand–born Samoa bass-baritone, Samson Setu is in his second year as a Lindemann Young Artist for the Metropolitan Opera in New York. This season, he makes his Met debut in Verdi’s Don Carlos. He recently studied at the Royal College of Music, London, completing a post-graduate diploma in classical voice. He is also a former student in the Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Program for Young Singers, Freemason’s New Zealand Opera Artist, and the Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist of 2018 for New Zealand Opera. His most recent accomplishments include competing as a finalist in the annual IFAC HANDA Australian competition in September of 2019, where he received awards of a three-week program at the State Opera House in Saarbrücken, a four-week intensive course at any Goethe Institut Centre in Germany, and an opportunity to participate in the International Vocal Arts Institute (IVAI) Summer Program in New York in 2020. 

During New Zealand Opera’s 2018 season, he performed in a revival of Gilbert and Sullivan’s Trial By Jury, in the role of the Usher, and through the Royal College of Music, he appeared as Simeon in Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue and the Speaker and Sarastro in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte.