John Brancy (born November 14, 1988) is an American operatic baritone performing with leading opera companies around the world. He is of Polish, German, English and Scottish descent.

John Brancy
Born (1988-11-14) 14 November 1988 (age 36)
Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, US
OccupationOperatic baritone
Years active2011–present
Websitejohnbrancy.com

Early life and education

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Brancy was born in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, to Margaret and Michael Brancy. He has a younger sister, Jenna, a visual artist[1] Brancy started voice lessons with Marvin Keenze in 2005. He grew up in the Mullica Hill section of Harrison Township, New Jersey and graduated from Clearview Regional High School in 2007.[2] He continued his education at The Juilliard School[3] where he completed his Bachelor of Music (studying voice with Cynthia Hoffmann) and a Graduate Diploma under the voice tutelage of Edith Wiens, who he continues to study with.

Career

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During the 2012/13 season, Brancy made his professional operatic debut with the Dresden Semperoper, singing the role of Fiorello in Rossini's Il barbiere di Siviglia.[4] While still an undergraduate student at the Juilliard School, Brancy made his debuts at Carnegie Hall and David Geffen Hall (formerly known as Avery Fisher Hall) as the baritone soloist in Fauré's Requiem, Mozart's Coronation Mass, and Schubert's Mass in G. He was the winner of the 2010 Juilliard School Honors Recital Competition and in the following year made his Alice Tully Hall debut, with pianist Brian Zeger. Brancy is a recent first prize winner of the Jensen Foundation competition and has received the Sullivan Foundation Grand Prize and career grant, first prize at the Classical Singer Magazine Competition, the Gold Award for Voice at the YoungArts Foundation competition. He was a 2nd Place winner in the Liederkranz Competition in 2010,[5] and in the Gerda Lissner Foundation Competition in 2011,[6] and a laureate of the 2012 Montreal International Music Competition. He is the 2013 winner of the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. In 2020, he received a Grammy Award for his work in Fantastic Mr. Fox. During the 2021-22 NHL season Brancy frequently sang the national anthem before the start of New York Rangers home games, including throughout the team's playoff run.

In July 2023 he created the dual roles of the Artisan/Collector in the world premiere of George Benjamin's opera Picture a Day Like This at the 2023 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.[7]

Repertoire

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Brancy's repertoire includes:[8]

References

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  1. ^ "Life Drawing – J. Brancy". Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  2. ^ Shyrock, Bob. "A Rare Talent", South Jersey Life,August 21, 2007. Accessed October 21, 2018. "Defying considerable odds, John Brancy has posted some rather impressive numbers. For example, in one competition in Miami, the classical baritone from Clearview Regional High School was one of six $10,000 winners.... So it's little wonder the Mullica Hill resident heads to the elite Juilliard School in Manhattan on scholarship in a few weeks to pursue a musical career he hopes will culminate on the worldwide opera stage."
  3. ^ "Operation Superpower". The Juilliard School.
  4. ^ "About John Brancy". Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  5. ^ "Scholarship Award Winner List 1987–2013" (PDF). liederkranzny.org. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2020. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  6. ^ "2011 Prize Winners". gerdalissner.org. Archived from the original on 13 February 2016. Retrieved 29 January 2020.
  7. ^ Morris, Hugh (3 July 2023). "An Opera Partnership's Next Step: A Fable About Happiness". The New York Times.
  8. ^ Brancy, John. "Calendar". OperaBase Website. Retrieved 14 June 2016.
  9. ^ The Argus, "Baritone John Brancy on tackling the trickster Dr Malatesta in Glyndebourne Tour's Don Pasquale", (Brighton, UK), 9 October 2015
  10. ^ "Baritone John Brancy", Pacific Opera (Victoria, BC), April 2016
  11. ^ STLouisToday, "OTSL presents a stylish Ariadne on Naxos", St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis), June 2016
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