Raehann Bryce-Davis
The mezzo-soprano was born in the USA in 1986 and was a participant in the Florida Grand Opera Young Artist and Merola Opera Programme in 2014/15.
In early 2015 she sang the role of Lily in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, the Palais des Festivals in Cannes and in Amsterdam. She also sang the world premiere of Jacob A. Greenberg's Four Songs for Mezzo Soprano and Orchestra. At the Aspen Music Festival she performed Of Rage and Remembrance by John Corigliano under the direction of Steven Stucky and in the New York Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine with a world premiere of Mahler's 2nd Symphony in an organ transcription with Kent Tritle. Her extensive repertoire includes the role of Marcellina in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, the Countess in Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades, Leokadja Begbick in Kurt Weill's Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Albine in Massenet's Thaïs and Carmela in Manuel de Falla's La Vida Breve.
In 2015, she won 1st prize at the 9th International Hilde Zadek Competition and the Sedat Gürel - Güzin Gürel International Voice Competition 2015 in Istanbul. In 2017 she won 1st place and the Audience Award at the Concorso Lirico Internazionale di Portofino competition. She is also the winner of the Richard F. Gold Career Grant 2016 at the Merola Opera Programme and recipient of the prestigious George London Award at the George London Competition in 2018.
In recent seasons Bryce-Davis has made her debuts at the Metropolitan Opera in Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, the Monnaie de Munt in Brussels as La Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica and the Glimmerglass Festival as Azucena in Il trovatore. She also returned to Los Angeles Opera and Staatstheater Nürnberg as Azucena in Il trovatore and to Opera Ballet Vlaanderen as The Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos.
Other appearances include Leonora in Donizetti's La Favorite at the Teatro Massimo di Palermo, Marguerite in Berlioz' La Damnation de Faust under the baton of Maestro John Nelson with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Costa Rica, Ms. Alexander in Satyagraha at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen and Kristina in The Makropolus Affair at the Janáček Festival in Brno, Wellgunde in Wagner's The Ring at Theater an der Wien, Madeline Mitchell in Heggie's Three Decembers at Opera Maine and Nezhata in Rimski-Korsakov's Sadko at Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.
Her concert highlights include the world premiere of Paul Moravec's Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall, which won her a Grammy nomination, Verdi's Requiem with conductor Kent Nagano and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal at the Olympiastadion, Elgar's Sea Pictures at the Vienna Musikverein with the Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederösterreich, Verdi's Requiem with the Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall, the world premiere of Anthony Davis' We Call the Roll with The Lied Society, Martinů's Julietta with the American Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, Corigliano's Of Rage and Remembrance at the Aspen Music Festival, the world premiere of Come, My Tan-Faced Children by Melissa Dunphy at Lyric Fest, Mahler's Symphony No. 2 at the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine, Prokofiev's Alexander Nevsky with Maestro Philippe Entremont at the Manhattan School of Music, and Mahler's Symphony No. 8 with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra.
As a producer/performer, Bryce-Davis released 'To the Afflicted', her first music video, which received critical acclaim and was selected as the official video for World Opera Day. Her second digital short film 'Brown Sounds' was co-produced with LA Opera and Aural Compass Projects and won Best Music Video at film festivals around the world, including the New York International Film Awards, the New York Cinematography Awards and the Hollywood Boulevard Film Awards, the Anatolian Short Film Festival, and the Silk Road Film Awards - Cannes.