J’NAI BRIDGES
mezzo-soprano
We at SongFest cannot wait for you to hear the heartfelt sentiment of the radiant J’Nai Bridges. Hers is a deeply important voice in the fight for racial and social justice in classical music, and we are proud to have her words as part of the power house of artists for our 2021 videos. At the top on our list is her recording with baritone Will Liverman and pianist Paul Sanchez of new arrangements of Negro Spirituals by one of our favorite 21st Century composers Shawn Okpebholo entitled Steal Away .
What will the Legacy of the 21st Century be for Art Song?
American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (The New York Times), has been heralded as “a rising star” (Los Angeles Times), gracing the world’s top opera and concert stages.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the cancellation of Ms. Bridges’s engagements in the title role of Carmen at The Metropolitan Opera and Canadian Opera Company, she has emerged at this unique moment as a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim for being a “conversation of striking scope and candor” (The New York Times). Bridges also performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital SOUND/STAGE series. Other upcoming highlights of Bridges’s 20-21 season include her role debut as Giovanna Seymour in Anna Bolena at Dutch National Opera.
Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from The Shoshana Foundation, and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition. J’Nai completed a three-year residency with the Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago, represented the United States at the prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World Competition and was a Young Artist at the Glimmerglass Festival in Cooperstown, New York.
Links:
The Root 100--J’nai is listed as one of the most influential African Amerians in 2020.
Listen to and view this important conversation where mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges hosts LA Opera’s “Lift Every Voice” with tenor Lawrence Brownlee, tenor Russell Thomas, soprano Karen Slack, soprano Julia Bullock, and bass Morris Robinson. These come together and discuss on racial disparity and inequality in the opera world.
“Bridges, a rich-toned mezzo-soprano with a calmly commanding stage presence, delivers a program that runs the gamut from imaginary Asia to true-life America, giving voice to women of color along the way. Accompanied by the pianist Mark Markham, she sings Ravel’s fantastical “Shéhérazade” and Mahler’s heart-wrenching “Kindertotenlieder.” In an aria from Richard Danielpour’s “Margaret Garner,” she embodies a dark, enslaved past, and in “Oh, Glory”—a song written for her by the composer Shawn Okpebholo, its spiritual lines and jazzy underlay spiked with muted modernism—she looks to the future.”