men don't feel comfortable singing in a treble register because it's not butch", he told an interviewer in 1998. "Gay men feel quite comfortable singing in their falsetto registers." He was married to Keith Fisher; the marriage ended in divorce. Asawa was the nephew of sculptor Ruth Asawa. His cause of death has been reported differently. Some sources cite heart failure and others cite liver failure. One source in a commentary indicated that he knew Brian Asawa personally and could attest that it was due to liver failure as a result of alcoholism. Asawa died in Mission Hills, California on April 18, 2016, at the age of 49. Recordings Asawa's discography includes solo recital discs for RCA Victor Red Seal ranging from Dowland and Edmund Campion to Rachmaninoff and Ned Rorem. His opera recordings include Farnace in Mitridate for Decca, Arsamene in Serse for Conifer and Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream for Philips with the London Symphony Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis. Asawa appeared on DVD in Ligeti's "Le Grand Macabre" Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, Monteverdi's "Il Ritorno d'Ulisse in Patria" Opus Arte, Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov" Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona, and Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress" Kultur, as well as both a CD and DVD release of Handel's "Messiah" directed by Marc Minkowski. In 2014, Asawa and mezzo-soprano Diana Tash released an album of duets on the LML Music label that included works by Handel, Monteverdi, Purcell, A. Scarlatti and Marco da Gagliano. Discography The Dark Is My Delight and other 16th Century Lute Songs, RCA Red Seal, 1997; The Faces of Love - The Songs of Jake Heggie'', RCA, 1999 Notes Sources External links Brian Asawa's website 1966 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American male opera singers Operatic countertenors Operalia, The World Opera Competition prize-winners Winners of the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions American classical musicians of Japanese descent American gay musicians American LGBT singers LGBT people from California American LGBT people of Asian descent University of California, Los Angeles alumni USC Thornton School of Music alumni Singers from Los Angeles 21st-century American male opera singers Classical musicians from California 20th-century LGBT people 21st-century LGBT people