Lawrence Brownlee |
Lawrence Brownlee
Lawrence Brownlee is one of the most recognized and most sought-after bel canto tenors of our day. The public and critics note the beauty and lightness of his voice, technical perfection, which allows him to perform the most difficult parts of the tenor repertoire of efforts without visible effort, inspired artistry.
The singer was born in 1972 in Youngstown (Ohio). He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Anderson University (South Carolina) and a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. In 2001 he won the National Vocal Competition held by the Metropolitan Opera. Received a number of prestigious awards, prizes, prizes and grants (2003 – Richard Tucker Foundation Grant; 2006 – Marion Anderson and Richard Tucker Prizes; 2007 – Philadelphia Opera Prize for Artistic Excellence; 2008 – Seattle Opera Artist of the Year title).
Brownlee made his professional stage debut in 2002 at the Virginia Opera, where he sang Count Almaviva in Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In the same year, his European career began – a debut at Milan’s La Scala in the same part (in which he later performed in Vienna, Milan, Madrid, Berlin, Munich, Dresden, Baden-Baden, Hamburg, Tokyo, New York, San -Diego and Boston).
The singer’s repertoire includes leading roles in Rossini’s operas (The Barber of Seville, The Italian Girl in Algeria, Cinderella, Moses in Egypt, Armida, The Count of Ori, The Lady of the Lake, The Turk in Italy) , “Otello”, “Semiramide”, “Tancred”, “Journey to Reims”, “The Thieving Magpie”), Bellini (“Puritans”, “Somnambulist”, “Pirate”), Donizetti (“Love Potion”, “Don Pasquale”, Daughter of the Regiment”), Handel (“Atis and Galatea”, “Rinaldo”, “Semela”), Mozart (“Don Giovanni”, “Magic Flute”, “That’s what everyone does”, “The Abduction from the Seraglio”), Salieri (Axur, King Ormuz), Myra (Medea in Corinth), Verdi (Falstaff), Gershwin (Porgy and Bess), Britten (Albert Herring, The Turn of the Screw), contemporary operas by L. Maazel (“1984”, world premiere in Vienna), D. Katana (“Florencia in the Amazon”).
Lawrence Brownlee performs tenor roles in cantata-oratorio works by Bach (John Passion, Matthew Passion, Christmas Oratorio, Magnificat), Handel (Messiah, Judas Maccabee, Saul, Israel in Egypt”), Haydn (“The Four Seasons”, “Creation of the World”, “Nelson Mass”), Mozart (Requiem, “Great Mass”, “Coronation Mass”), masses of Beethoven (C major), Schubert, oratorios Mendelssohn (“Paul”, “Elijah”), Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Stabat Mater and Dvorak’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Britten’s compositions, etc.
The singer’s chamber repertoire includes songs by Schubert, concert arias and canzones by Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini, Verdi.
Starting his career on the US opera stages, Brownlee quickly gained worldwide fame. He was applauded by theaters and concert halls in New York, Washington, San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Detroit, Philadelphia, Boston, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles; Rome and Milan, Paris and London, Zurich and Vienna, Toulouse and Lausanne, Berlin and Dresden, Hamburg and Munich, Madrid and Brussels, Tokyo and Puerto Rico… The artist participated in major festivals (including Rossini festivals in Pesaro and Bad -Wildbade).
The singer’s extensive discography includes The Barber of Seville, The Italian in Algeria, Cinderella (DVD), Armida (DVD), Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Mayr’s Medea in Corinth, Maazel’s 1984 (DVD), Carmina Burana Orff (CD and DVD), “Italian Songs”, recordings of chamber compositions by Rossini and Donizetti. In 2009, Laurence Brownlee, together with the stars of world opera, the choir and orchestra of the Berlin Deutsche Oper under Andrei Yurkevich, took part in the recording of the Opera Gala Concert organized by the AIDS Foundation. Most of the recordings were made on the EMI Classics label. The singer also collaborates with Opera Rara, Naxos, Sony, Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Virgin Classics.
Among his stage and recording partners are Anna Netrebko, Elina Garancha, Joyce Di Donato, Simone Kermes, René Fleming, Jennifer Larmor, Nathan Gunn, pianists Martin Katz, Malcolm Martineau, conductors Sir Simon Rattle, Lorin Maazel, Antonio Pappano, Alberto Zedda and many other stars, the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin and New York, the Munich Radio Orchestras, the Santa Cecilia Academy…
In the 2010-2011 season, Lawrence Brownlee made his debut in three theaters at once: Opéra National de Paris and Opéra de Lausanne (Lindor in The Italian Girl in Algiers), as well as at the Canadian Opera (Prince Ramiro in Cinderella). He first sang the role of Elvino in La Sonnambula at the St. Gallen (Switzerland). In addition, the singer’s engagements last season included appearances at the Seattle Opera and the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin (The Barber of Seville), Metropolitan Opera (Armida), La Scala (Italian in Algiers); debut at the famous Tivoli Concert Hall in Copenhagen with a concert of arias bel canto; performance of the solo part in Mendelssohn’s oratorio Elijah (with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra).
Information from the website of the Moscow Philharmonic
