James L. Brown, Chair / voice

brown Praised for his “generous tenor” by Early Music America, tenor, stage director, and voice teacher James L. Brown is an active proponent of both early and new music. James is the Chair of Vocal Studies at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA where he oversees a large and diverse voice program. As the director of that school’s Opera Workshop, he has been the recipient of several grants including a Regency Scholarship Grant and a Production Grant from the Kurt Weill Foundation for Music in New York, NY. Brown will join the faculty of Lutheran Summer Music in Minnesota this year.

In praise of his operatic singing, Opera News wrote that “His lyricism is most appealing.” Brown has sung with such opera companies and presenters as New York City Opera, New Orleans Opera, Opera Company of Philadelphia, Bronx Opera, Rogue Opera (Oregon), Chautauqua Opera, Seattle Early Music Guild, Skylight Opera Theatre (Milwaukee), Aspen Opera Theater and The Spoleto Festival in Spoleto, Italy. The tenor has sung roles under the baton of such well-known conductors as James Conlon, John DeMain, Richard Hickox, Julius Rudel and Robert Spano and early music directors Rinaldo Alessandrini, Arthur Haas, Andrew Lawrence King and Stephen Stubbs.

James has introduced many world premieres in the last several years, among which are: Russian composer, Vladimir Ryabav’s The Border Between Light and Darkness, Sheila Silver's The Thief of Love (recently released on DVD), Jack Beeson's The Equilibrists and Mexican/American composer Riccardo Zohn-Muldoon's Comala at the Teatro de Bellas Artes in Mexico City.
As a concert soloist, James has appeared at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, Seattle’s Town Hall, Harris Concert Hall at the Aspen Festival, The Ravinia Festival in Chicago and the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California. James sang the title roles in New York State Baroque’s productions of Rameau’s Pygmalion, Handel’s Jephtha and Bach’s St. John Passion (Evangelist).
Recent performances have taken Brown back to New York for the title role in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Stony Brook), Boston for three Fringe Concerts at the 2007 Boston Early Music Festival, Seattle for Cavalieri’s Rappresentatione di Anima e di Corpo with the Seattle Academy of Baroque Opera, and Britten’s Serenade and Cantata Misericordium with Choral Union in Tacoma, WA (2008).
Brown holds a Bachelor’s Degree in voice performance from Loyola University/ New Orleans, a Master of Music degree in voice from the Juilliard School and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the State University of New York at Stony Brook.