Erin Morley & Lawrence Brownlee

From: Salt Lake City, Utah. LA Opera: Cunegonde in Candide (2018).

Erin Morley is one of today’s most in-demand coloratura sopranos. Her performances have garnered huge critical acclaim as she regularly appears on the great opera stages of the world.

She has been praised as “the personification of bel canto” (Opera News), and is “in a class of her own among coloratura sopranos, singing even the most dazzlingly difficult material with beauty and musical sense” (New York Classical Review). A recipient of the Beverly Sills Award, Morley’s performances have garnered huge critical acclaim worldwide as she regularly appears on the greatest opera stages, including the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Staatsoper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Teatro La Fenice, Arena di Verona, Glyndebourne Opera, Santa Fe Opera, LA Opera and Metropolitan Opera, where she has now sung more than 140 performances and has been featured in eight “Live in HD” broadcasts. 

For the 2025/26 season, Morley makes her long-awaited role debut as Marie in The Daughter of the Regiment at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as returning to Pamina in The Magic Flute. She also returns to the Vienna State Opera as Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, and makes a company and role debut as Zdenka in Arabella at Opernhaus Zürich. A highlight of the season will be Pentatone’s release of Morley’s duet album Golden Age with superstar tenor Lawrence Brownlee and the Münchner Rundfunkorchester led by Ivan Repušić. Brownlee and Morley will tour this program at Vocal Arts DC, University of Wisconsin, Berlin’s Konzerthaus with the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Opera Carolina, and New York City’s 92nd St Y. Elsewhere on the concert platform, Morley will solo with the Metropolitan Orchestra at Carnegie’s Weill Hall, delivers a solo recital at Dallas Opera, and returns to the Chicago Symphony for Poulenc’s Gloria.

In the 2024/25 season, Morley returned to the Metropolitan Opera with a double appearance: as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann and Gilda in Rigoletto. Further highlights included Gilda and a special performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Arena di Verona and Cunegonde in concert performances of Candide at Semperoper Dresden. Elsewhere on the concert platform, Morley toured in Berlin and Vienna as soloist with Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin with a program of Strauss orchestral songs, as well as appearing as soloist with the BBC Concert Orchestra at the Proms in London, and appearances with Boston Baroque and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she presented Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch together with Huw Montague Rendall and Malcolm Martineau at London’s Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; and presented her “Rose in Bloom” program at Park Avenue Armory, Yale School of Music, Friends of Chamber Music, and the BRAVO! Series at Brigham Young University.

Recent operatic highlights include her highly anticipated company debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Gilda and at Teatro la Fenice in Venice as Zerbinetta; Pamina, the title role in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Olympia, all at the Metropolitan Opera; her Teatro alla Scala debut as Zerbinetta; Gilda, Tytania in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zerbinetta, and Sophie, all at the Vienna State Opera; Norina in Don Pasquale and Zerbinetta both at Glyndebourne Festival; a critically acclaimed debut in one of the most iconic coloratura title roles in Lakmé with Washington Concert Opera

Learn more at ErinMorley.com.

From: Youngstown, Ohio. LA Opera: Tamino in The Magic Flute (2013).

Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer who has graced the world’s top stages, and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (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).

Highlights for Brownlee’s 2025/26 season include Metropolitan Opera appearances in the roles of Elvino in La Sonnambula, Tonio in The Daughter of the Regiment and Lord Arturo Talbot in a new production of I Puritani. Brownlee returns to the New National Theatre in Tokyo for his role debut as the Duke in Rigoletto and Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola at the Paris National Opera. In the fall, Brownlee and Erin Morley’s debut recording, Golden Age will be released on Pentatone. The pair will embark on a Golden Age recital tour with dates in the US and Europe with Vocal Arts DC, 92NY, Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, University of Wisconsin, and Opera Carolina. Brownlee will also appear in solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, Wanamaker with Opera Philadelphia, and Parlance Chamber Concerts.

In spring 2021, Brownlee joined the Juilliard School as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty Member. He serves as artistic advisor for Opera Philadelphia, and is an Ambassador for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited as well as Opera for Peace. Highlights of Brownlee’s recent past seasons include role debuts as the title role in Mitridate, Re di Ponto at the Boston Lyric Opera, Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at New National Theatre Tokyo, and Fernand in a new production of Donizetti’s La Favorite with Houston Grand Opera as well as acclaimed roles at the Metropolitan Opera, Opera Bastille in Paris, New National Theatre in Tokyo, and State Opera Munich.

A passionate advocate for diversity initiatives, Mr. Brownlee works with companies and engages civic organizations in the cities he visits to create programs and experiences seeking to expand opera audiences. In May 2020, Brownlee launched “The Sitdown with LB,” a weekly Facebook Live series exploring the experience of being an African-American opera singer. In 2021, Brownlee expanded the series to include a segment titled “Inside the Industry” where he shifted the focus to a behind-the-scenes look at the opera industry. In 2023, Brownlee released his Grammy-nominated album Rising, a recording project that set poetry from the Harlem Renaissance to song in commissioned works from six of today’s leading African-American composers. The album, named one of The New York Times‘ best classical music albums of 2023, was also supported by a North American tour with pianist and collaborator Kevin J. Miller.

Brownlee is a grand prize winner of the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council auditions. Brownlee is a winner of numerous awards and distinctions including “Male Singer of the Year” (2017 International Opera Awards), the Kennedy Center’s Marian Anderson Award, and the Opera News Award (2021). In 2024, Brownlee was awarded the title Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of The Order of Arts and Letters) by the Cultural Counselor of France.

Learn more at LawrenceBrownlee.com.