Morning Blend host Dorrie Nutt spoke by phone with tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who is slated to perform as part of the Huntsville Chamber Music Guild's Celebrity Series
Lawrence Brownlee got an intriguing offer as the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel came into focus in 2022. Carnegie Hall wanted him to return, but the tenor best known for his bel canto roles in operas by Rossini and Bellini didn’t want to return with the same-old-same-old repertoire of Mozart, Strauss and his go-to Italian favorites.
Tenor Lawrence Brownlee shares the behind-the-scenes process of creating his passion project, his 2023 Grammy-nominated album Rising.
Lawrence Brownlee, the star bel canto tenor, has performed at opera houses around the world. Alex Ross, in The New Yorker, called Brownlee “one of the most impeccable stylists on the opera scene” and praised his thrilling “daredevil virtuosity,” echoing the near-universal praise of other critics and opera fans.
Lawrence Brownlee developed his voice in the Mahoning Valley. It’s a voice that has taken the Youngstown native and 1991 East High School graduate around the world singing operatic arias and classical repertoire with renowned orchestras in prestigious venues. Youngstown also is where he developed his activism, and both are on display on his latest
Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer on the world’s top stages, and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. He has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times), and “one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world today” (NPR).
Rising, the latest album by tenor Lawrence Brownlee, is a testament to this resurgence. Released June 2 on Warner Classics, the album balances canonical works by Robert Owens and Margaret Bonds with newly commissioned songs by six of today’s leading Black composers, who set texts by poets of the Harlem Renaissance.
WRR 101 Focus on the Arts: DFW composer, renowned tenor join forces to unite audiences through music in conversation with composer Jeremiah Evans and Amy Bishop of WRR 101.
This week's guest on the Gramophone Podcast is tenor Lawrence Brownlee, who joins Editor Martin Cullingford to talk about his new album 'Rising', recorded with pianist Kevin J Miller, and available now from Warner Classics.
Opera singer Lawrence Brownlee is currently in town singing at The Metropolitan Opera, but of course, this talented tenor travels all over sharing his gift with audiences. That is also what he is doing with his latest project — a new album inspired by the Harlem Renaissance. Lawrence joined NY1 anchor Stephanie Simon on Sunday to discuss more.
Lawrence and Hanif Abdurraqib talk about the similarities between tennis and singing, commissioning work from Black composers, and finding time for family as a touring musician.
Tenor vocalist and opera curator Lawrence Brownlee discusses his new program with pianist Kevin J. Miller, Rising, which comes to NYC Carnegie Hall on March 23, Philadelphia’s Kimmel Cultural Campus on March 29 and is released on Warners Classics in June.
"As music lovers we have a lot in common with other mediums, like poetry, that convey our emotions and experiences in ways others fall short. I asked Brownlee more about this project and what we can look forward to at Sunday’s concert." – John Banthers
Podcast hosts Lee Bynum, Paige Reynolds, and Rocky Jones, three Black artists, pop culture aficionados, and arts administrators at Minnesota Opera chat with Larry Brownlee on his musical upbringing, the ways he is keeping the doors open for the next generation, and the surprising hobbies that he's passionate about.
The renowned tenor Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera both as a singer on the world’s top stages and as a voice for activism and diversity. He commissioned six of today’s acclaimed African-American composers to set poetry from giants of the Harlem Renaissance to song.
"All too often, Black poetry has been encapsulated in struggle and hardship. That is less the case now. Writers are talking about peace, about love, things we all want in life. I wanted to make sure the conversation was about the fullness of life and not limit this music to African American pain and difficulty."
"For tenor Lawrence Brownlee, a regular at world-class opera houses, frequent recitalist, and champion of new music, commissions tell new stories, share new experiences, and enlighten us with new perspectives that are not always seen in traditional classical music and opera."
“I’m finally getting the chance to sing this role that I’ve always wanted to sing that has been a limitation because of my color,” Brownlee said. “You’ve seen musical theater show and represent much more openness to cast people in roles that were I guess historically considered Caucasian... Opera is trying to catch up.”
Opera houses and concert halls may have been dark for the past year and then some, but tenor Lawrence Brownlee never went silent.
Lawrence Brownlee Honored with 2021 Opera News Award
Lawrence Brownlee featured on the cover of the January/February issue of Opera Now Magazine
Brownlee featured on the cover of Opéra Magazine December 2020 Issue
Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is an eloquent voice for racial equity and inclusion in classical music.
Rossini's music is a great fit for Brownlee and Spyres, Americans well-schooled in the bel canto (literally, "beautiful music") tradition that Rossini excelled in; they're also tenors with voices much like certain voices Rossini was writing for.
“The time is now to make a change, and this idea seems to be resonating in a way that gives me hope,” Brownlee told Observer during a recent conversation. “I have been extremely vocal about this for a long time, and hopefully, people are finally ready to take action."
WFMT spoke with Lawrence Brownlee about this concert, his career in opera, and what he thinks classical music organizations should be doing to better represent their communities.
Classical music indeed has been behind the times when it comes to confronting racism, with African American artists woefully underrepresented in operatic and symphonic realms.
There are signs that leaders in the opera world are listening, though that is only one step toward progress. “It’s very easy right now to be an ally,” Mr. Brownlee said in an interview. “But what I have charged people to do is be deliberate. I told my agent, I told general directors: Now is the time to put your money where your mouth is.”
Artistic institutions need to be focused on representing and really serving the communities that they’re in. There needs to be community engagement, not community outreach. Outreach is something you do occasionally. But you’re always in the act of engaging; it’s a constant effort.
Listening to Lawrence Brownlee sing Rossini is exhilarating. The more formidable the vocal challenges, the more he revels in them.
As a Black tenor who specializes in bel canto -- literally "beautiful singing," a style of opera popular with 19th century Italians -- Brownlee has made a career performing roles "written for someone who didn't look like me." Lawrence Brownlee is in limited company as a star Black tenor. He has some ideas why.
Last Wednesday, just as the nation was building toward its boiling point, Anthony McGill took out his clarinet and MacBook Pro and recorded himself playing “America the Beautiful.” He posted the video on Facebook and challenged others to do the same to put a spotlight on the struggle for justice and decency.
Tenor Lawrence Brownlee has premiered a new Facebook live series, “The Sitdown with LB.” The show, which premiered on May 24, will discuss the unique realities and experiences of being an opera singer of African-American or African descent.
American-born tenor Lawrence Brownlee captivates audiences and critics around the world, and has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times), “one of the world’s leading bel canto stars” (The Guardian), and “one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world today” (NPR).
There are certain perks that come with being an internationally renowned opera singer. There’s the travel, of course, and the public showering of praise after a job well done. For tenor Lawrence Brownlee, though, the biggest perk is how his platform can now lend support to other projects.
When opera superstar Lawrence Brownlee last took the Wortham Center stage in early 2019 for the Houston Grand Opera production of The Pearl Fishers, he noticed something special and wonderful about the casting.
On paper, the duo program that tenor Lawrence Brownlee and bass Eric Owens bring to Jordan Hall on April 7 is a fairly typical affair: some operatic highlights from each man’s repertoire in the first half, and a selection of traditional spirituals, popular songs, and gospel numbers in the second.
The experiences of black men in America today are making their way onto the classical concert stage, thanks to internationally acclaimed tenor Lawrence Brownlee. Brownlee enlisted the help of two other prominent African-American artists, composer Tyshawn Sorey and poet Terrance Hayes.
“The cycle’s six songs, which run about 35 minutes altogether, are arranged in three elaborately matched concentric pairs, whose traversal feels like a descent into a maelstrom followed by the emergence out the other side….Brownlee was an ideal interpreter of this music.”
When tenor Lawrence Brownlee--he of the sweet, cultured tones and ringing high Cs-Ds, and higher--was first asked to put a recital together by Carnegie Hall, he was pretty certain of the centerpiece: Robert Schumann's "Dichterliebe (A Poet's Love)," the elegant 19th century song cycle about rapture, disillusionment and regret.
Internationally acclaimed bel canto tenor Lawrence Brownlee discusses his Black Lives Matter-inspired song cycle called Cycles of My Being. Brownlee collaborated with two other black artists, composer Tyshawn Sorey and poet Terrance Hayes to create the piece.
The famous opera podiatrists applaud American Lawrence Brownlee for his honeyed, shimmering belcanto tones , which will be heard for the first time in the Concertgebouw next Wednesday. But those notes, he says, only embody one side of his soul. The black tenor puts his fame and also votes for the Black Lives Matter movement.
”Do I believe in fate? I do. I think you can take advantage of fate with hard work; I don’t think that fate without preparation works,” says Lawrence Brownlee, one of the most in-demand male voices in opera. A practical statement, to be sure, but Brownlee soon revealed he was skeptical about the start of his own journey.
Without a doubt, my favorite 2018 concert to be at, and my favorite 2018 WCRB In Concert broadcast to produce, was this Celebrity Series of Boston evening with tenor Lawrence Brownlee.
A new song cycle contemplates blackness
A tenor looks beyond opera and explores being a black man in America
