Michelle Bradley, a graduate of the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, is beginning to garner great acclaim as one of today’s most promising Verdi sopranos.
This season Ms. Bradley debuts with the San Francisco Opera as Madame Lidoine in Dialogues des Carmélites and returns to the Metropolitan Opera as the title-role in Aida, a role she will also perform for the Fort Worth Opera. She will return to the San Diego Opera as the title-role in Tosca and will debut in Japan as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at the Hyogo Performing Arts Center. In concert Ms. Bradley will sing the soprano soloists in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Eva Ollikainen at the Hollywood Bowl and in Verdi’s Messa da Requiem with the Baltimore Symphony and James Conlon. Future projects include a return to the Lyric Opera of Chicago in a leading role.
Last season Michelle Bradley made her debut with the Lyric Opera of Chicago as the title-role in Tosca and with the Savonlinna Opera Festival in the title-role in Aida and returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Liù in Turandot. In concert, she debuted with the San Francisco Symphony and Daniel Stewart as the soprano soloist in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, with the Atlanta Symphony and Nicola Luisotti as the title-role in Act 3 of Aida and with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni at Tanglewood. She was also heard in a pair of solo recitals for the San Diego Opera with Brian Zeger at the piano.
The previous season, Ms. Bradley made debuts with the Prague State Opera as the title-role in Aida and in recital with the Houston Grand Opera and the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. She also appeared in concert with the Dallas Symphony in a program of Gospel and in a gala concert with the San Diego Opera.
Previously Michelle Bradley made debuts with the Vienna State Opera as Leonora in Il Trovatore (a role debut), the San Diego Opera as the title-role in Aida and returned to the Metropolitan Opera for their New Year’s Eve Gala as Liù in Act II of Turandot. She appeared in solo recital at the Kennedy Center and performed Barber’s Knoxville, Summer of 1915 with the New World Symphony.
Prior to that, Ms. Bradley made a string of notable debuts in Frankfurt for Leonora in a new production of La Forza del Destino, in Nancy and Erfurt for the title role in Aida, at the Deutsche Oper Berlin for the soprano solo in staged performances of the Verdi Requiem. In concert, she debuted in Paris as the soprano solo in Sir Michael Tippett’s A Child of our Time with the Orchestre de Paris under Thomas Adès, sang the soprano solo in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin and sang in recital under the auspices of the George London Foundation in Miami and New York City.
In the 2017-2018 season Ms. Bradley returned to the Metropolitan Opera as Clotilde in the new David McVicar production of Norma. She also appeared in Santiago de Chile as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni. On the concert stage the soprano made her debut at the May Festival in the Verdi Requiem, sang the Four Last Songs with the Santa Cruz Symphony, a program of Chausson and Caplet chamber works with the New World Symphony and solo recitals in Palm Beach and Santiago de Chile.
In the Metropolitan Opera’s 2016-2017 season, Ms. Bradley made debuts in Mozart’s Idomeneo and as the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida. Other engagements included recitals at the Théâtre du Châtelet and at New York’s Park Avenue Armory and a return to Santa Cruz for Verdi’s Messa da Requiem.
In January 2016, Ms. Bradley performed in Carnegie Hall’s Neighborhood Recital Series in honor of Marilyn Horne, and in May she made her debut singing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Santa Cruz Symphony Orchestra. Prior to that, she completed a nationwide recital tour ending in May of 2015.
Ms. Bradley is the 2017 recipient of the Leonie Rysanek Award from the George London Foundation, the 2016 recipient of the Hildegard Behrens Foundation Award, and a first place winner in the Gerda Lissner and the Serge and Olga Koussevitzky vocal competitions. She is the 2014 grand prize winner of The Music Academy of the West’s Marilyn Horne Song Competition.
Ms. Bradley received her Masters of Music in Vocal Performance from Bowling Green State University. She has participated in master classes with Stephanie Blythe, Anne Sofie von Otter, Marilyn Horne, Deborah Voigt, James Morris, and Renata Scotto.
