[email protected] Briana Elyse Hunter www.brianaelysehunter.com Mezzo-soprano (610) 256-2587
Biography
Mezzo-soprano Briana Hunter is at the precipice of a very promising career in opera. This season, Ms. Hunter returns to join the roster of Sarasota Opera to sing the role of Ida in Die Fledermaus and will cover the role of Prince Orlofsky. Once back in NYC she will join the Resident Artists of DiCapo Opera Theater in their 2013-14 season where she will cover the role of Maddalena in Rigoletto and sing her first Angelina in Cenerentola.
In the 2011/2012 season, Ms. Hunter was seen in many of MSM’s productions including Sarah in Ragtime, Donna Elvira in the Opera Scenes production entitled Of Love and Loss , and most recently Woman with Baby in The Ghosts of Versailles where she had the honor of meeting John Corigliano in person. While at MSM, Ms. Hunter was awarded 3rd place in MSM’s Eisenberg-Fried Concerto Competition, made the finals of the Lotte Lenya Competition at Eastman and was a semi-finalist in Opera Theater of Pittsburgh’s Mildred Miller Competition. Outside of school Ms. Hunter was a member of Opera Singer’s Initiative in New York City with whom she sang multiple concerts throughout the city. Upon graduating, Ms. Hunter performed with Nevada Opera in “Opera Shorts” and concerts as a part of Reno’s annual ARTown festival. Later that summer, Briana Hunter participated in I SING BEJING where she studied Mandarin, coached both Chinese and Western repertoire, and performed opera scenes and Chinese art songs in multiple concerts in several Beijing venues including the city’s top performance hall, The National Center for the Performing Arts. Her return to the states was met with a series of concerts and appearances with Opera Singer’s Initiative, Classic Lyric Arts, and Opera Company of Brooklyn. She closed out the year singing the role of Rachel in Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom with American Opera Projects in Brooklyn
Immediately after the New Year 2013, Ms. Hunter headed down to Sarasota, FL to join Sarasota Opera as an Apprentice Artist for their Winter Season for the first time. Then it was back to NYC to perform her first Cendrillon in Cendrillon with New York Lyric Opera in May. This past summer was then spent working with the great French Tenor Michel Sénéchal in the southwestern Périgord region of France, and then in Aub, Germany with her voice teacher Neil Semer performing several concerts and participating in masterclasses in both locations. In between, she tackled the Russian language with Opera Slavica in their production of Iolanta singing the role of Laura.
Ms. Hunter has performed in public master classes with Marilyn Horne, Paul Gemignani, and Johanna Meier. Ms. Hunter holds a M.M. from Manhattan School of Music (2012) and a B.A. from Davidson College (2008.) Briana Elyse Hunter hails from Malvern, Pennsylvania and currently resides in NYC.