The Rise of Brownlee

Lawrence Brownlee is one of today’s most celebrated bel canto tenors, in demand for opera performances as well as song cycle recitals with major orchestras across the country and around the world. He’s particularly praised for his interpretations of Rossini – his Grammy-nominated album Virtuoso Rossini Arias prompted famed New Yorker critic Alex Ross to ask rhetorically, “Is there a finer Rossini tenor around?”

Brownlee’s one-week residency at the Music Academy of the West, his festival debut, and first visit to Santa Barbara, features two dramatically different concerts. His 19-selection Mosher guest artist recital at Hahn Hall on July 23, titled “Songs of My Youth,” will feature some arias from signature roles and art songs that date back to his earliest days as an opera singer, as well as spirituals that come from his childhood with his family in church in Youngstown, Ohio. He’ll be supported by pianist John Churchwell, the co-director of Lehrer Vocal Institute and a longtime friend and colleague. (“We both have a great love for music and tennis and often play together,” Brownlee said. “Now we’re looking forward to play pickleball when I come to Santa Barbara.”)

Brownlee won’t be singing in the second concert but will instead be curating and coaching the vocal fellows in a program called “Uprising/Rising Up,” which was inspired by his Grammy-nominated 2023 album Rising. The concert is comprised of songs that explore our search, discovery, and celebration of the human spirit. In similar fashion, Brownlee’s album traces an ancestral link among Black composers by focusing on the common inspiration of Harlem Renaissance-era poetry through existing song-cycles and new commissions.

Brownlee talked about both over the phone from Germany where he was set to start recording a new album the following day. 

Q. What inspired you to create the “Songs of My Youth” concert?

A. They’re songs that come from musical education as a young kid – the first French song I ever heard in the classical style, the first Italian and German songs I ever performed. I’m singing “Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön” from Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which was the first opera role I ever sang. These are pieces that set me on the path and made me decide that I wanted to pursue music as not only my passion, but my life’s work and my profession. For people who know me for Rossini, they’ll be able to see what else I do, and the genesis of who I am now. 

I enjoy sharing that with people because it is a part of what I tell people as far as how I was raised, and my maturation process in the music world. 

You’re also singing four American spirituals.

I grew up in a Christian home with parents who were very involved in music at church. My father directed the choir and my mother sang solos. These are some of the things that I heard all the time growing up… It’s a way for me to pay homage to them because these songs were very meaningful to them.

I notice they’re last on the program, even though they were first in your life.

I’m the most at home with these songs, and they’re very moving for me as I tap into them emotionally within. I’m very relaxed with them, so it would be hard to follow up with more technical pieces. 

Why did you want to do this program at MAW?

I want the fellows to hear those early pieces not as something only scholastic, just things for beginners, but as expressive pieces of music in which you can use your full artistic cache of things, that you have your arsenal to bring these things to life. As far as musicality, as far as intention, as far as pronunciation and everything, these are real gems. 

I know that George Floyd/Black Lives Matter was the impetus behind Rising. What prompted you to go in the Harlem Renaissance direction?

It was exploring issues of agency and space and opportunity. As someone who gets a chance to do a lot of recitals, I wanted to do something meaningful that would open the doors for people, for young composers, for young musicians to be able to get their music out there. I want to use my platform in a positive way. So the idea was to pair writings from the Harlem Renaissance with African American composers. I thought that would be a really nice project. I wanted people to feel like they could express their artistic voices and let who they were as musicians really come out. 

But the “Uprising/Rising Up” isn’t drawing from the same material. 

No, the idea was to have the fellows be provoked by the Rising project and then use their voice to speak out on something or to express something that is potentially meaningful… It’s not about anger or fear, but rather human interaction, belief, hope, and love. 

I was fascinated by a quote from you that I read where you said, “I need to have an out of body experience in the sense that I don’t just rest on what I know. I need someone to untap potential in me.” That seems both bold and vulnerable.

As they say, complacency is the death of art. When you become too comfortable, you begin to phone it in. You need something to provoke, you need something to challenge you, upset the apple cart. That’s how you grow. It’s an opportunity for you to discover things that you didn’t know you could do. 

I imagine you try to impart those concepts when you work with the students.

Yes, and it’s also so good for me. It is kind of like a mirror that I place in front of myself. I see them and I feel a greater responsibility to do that thing that I’m telling them to do, to have a true intention and to have and use all your colors and musicality and your expressiveness. It’s medicine for me too. 

Thursday, July 18: It’s masterclass mania as Houston Symphony Concertmaster Yoonshin Song, one of six different teaching artists leading the public coaching sessions this season, takes her turn with the talented fellows. (Lehmann, 1:30 pm; $10)… The marvelous mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke, the double Grammy winner who has sung at just about every important concert hall across the globe, lands at Miraflores for her four-week residency as second-year co-director of Lehrer Vocal Institute. The 2002 MAW alum will share her wisdom and experience with the singing fellows fresh off last weekend’s performances of Carmen. (Hahn, 3:30 pm; $10)… It’s 7-11 time at MAW, as seven teaching artists and 11 fellows – covering strings, brass, winds and piano – combine for tonight’s x2 series concert. There’s music for 18 musicians – but not Steve Reich’s seminal work, rather Pierre Gabaye’s “Récréation,” Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s “Nonet in F Minor, Op. 2,” and Brahms’ “Clarinet Quintet in B Minor, Op. 115.” What a treat! (Hahn Hall, 7:30 pm; $45)

Friday, July 19: This week’s Fellow Fridays (nee Picnic Concerts) performance features the fellows performing works that have curated themselves, including Henri Tomasi’s “Fanfares liturgiques”and Bartók’s “Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion, Sz. 110, BB 115,” with other pieces TBA. (Hahn Hall, 7:30 pm; $45)

Saturday, July 20: Tonight’s Showcase Series faculty artist’s sampler is the only concert performance featuring mezzo-soprano Sasha Cooke and pianist John Churchwell, the co-directors of Lehrer Vocal Institute, who will be teaming up for Wagner’s “Wesendonck Lieder,” which include early studies for his opera Tristan und Isolde. Also on the program: Danzi’s “Wind Quintet in B-flat Major, Op. 56, No. 1”; Ravel’s “Piano Trio in A Minor”; and Christopher Cerrone’s “Double Happiness,” an electroacoustic work performed by percussionistMichael Werner and pianist Conor Hanick. That’s 16 teaching artists in all for those of you keeping count. (Lobero Theatre, 7:30 pm; $40)

Tuesday, July 23: The viola studio is also spreading the wealth around, with four teaching artists handling one masterclass each. Today, it’s the MAW debut of Milan Milisavljević, Principal Viola with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, whose performances and recordings have won much critical acclaim. (Weinman Hall, 1:30 pm; $10) 

Wednesday, July 24: Enjoy a glass of wine and settle into the classy yet intimate chamber environs in MAW’s main building for a Salon Series evening boasting mezzo-soprano Maggie Reneé – hot off her stirring turn in the title role of last weekend’s Carmen production at the Granada – singing Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder arranged by Stéphane Fromageot and scored for singer and piano quartet. Five other featured fellows will play Vaughan Williams’ “Piano Quintet in C Minor.” (Lehmann Hall, 7:30 pm; $45)