Press Features

The Score

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.

"City Lights" with Lois Reitzes - 90.1 FM WABE

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.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

"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."

360° of Opera

"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."

Associated Press

“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.”

The Boston Globe

Opera houses and concert halls may have been dark for the past year and then some, but tenor Lawrence Brownlee never went silent.

Opera News

Lawrence Brownlee Honored with 2021 Opera News Award

Opera Now

Lawrence Brownlee featured on the cover of the January/February issue of Opera Now Magazine

Opéra Magazine

Brownlee featured on the cover of Opéra Magazine December 2020 Issue

Opera News

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is an eloquent voice for racial equity and inclusion in classical music.

WRTI 90.1

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.

Observer

“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

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.

Chicago Tribune

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.

The New York Times

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.”

The New York Times

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.

Opera Magazine

Listening to Lawrence Brownlee sing Rossini is exhilarating. The more formidable the vocal challenges, the more he revels in them.

ABC News

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.

Philadelphia Inquirer

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.

Operawire

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.

Classical Post

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).

The Baltimore Sun

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.

PaperCity Magazine

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.

The Boston Globe

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.

NPR All Things Considered

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.

San Francisco Chronicle

“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.”

Broadway World

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.

WNYC

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.

NRC - Netherlands

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.

The Epoch Times

”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.

Classical WCRB

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.

NPR All Things Considered

A new song cycle contemplates blackness

The Washington Post

A tenor looks beyond opera and explores being a black man in America