Porgy and Bess

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Theatre). She can be seen and heard as the Operatic Diva in Tyler Perry’s feature film For Colored Girls . A former San Francisco Opera Adler Fellow, the Philadelphia native is a past winner of the George London Award and a prize winner in ten major competitions, including the Rosa Ponselle competition, of which she was the youngest winner at age 18. HLENGIWE MKHWANAZI ( Clara) Lyric Opera debut debut in May 2014: the leading role of Thérèse in Poulenc’s Les mamelles de Tirésias , which she performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago at Symphony Center. A native of KawZulu- Natal, Mkhwanazi earned her diploma in opera in 2010 and her postgraduate diploma in music performance in 2012, both from the South African College of Music at the University of Cape Town. Among her leading roles in Cape Town have been Fiordiligi/ Così fan tutte , Konstanze/ Die Entführung aus dem Serail , and Antonia/ Les contes d’Hoffmann , all at Cape Town Opera; and Stravinsky’s Anne Trulove/ The Rake’s Progress and Rossini’s Madama Cortese/ Il viaggio a Reims at the Baxter Theater. In America she has been heard as Adina/ L’elisir d’amore at Virginia’s Barter Theatre and Susanna/ Le nozze di Figaro at Brown University. The soprano’s successes in competitions include second overall prize, media jury prize, and audience prize in one of the world’s most distinguished voice competitions, Vienna’s Hans Gabor Belvedere International Singing Competition (2012). Hlengiwe Mkhwanazi is sponsored by Richard P. and Susan Kiphart and Drs. Funmi and Sola Olopade. A first-year member of Lyric’s Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan Opera Center, the soprano earned critical acclaim for her Chicago

and at Tanglewood), and in Washington, New Orleans, and in Germany, Holland, and Belgium. Among other major credits are Azalia/ William Grant Still’s Troubled Island (South Shore Opera Company), Marie Laveau/ Anne LeBaron’s Crescent City (Los Angeles’s new opera company, The Industry), Fricka/ Das Rheingold (Des Moines Metro Opera), Queenie/ Show Boat (Washington National Opera), and “Beyond the Score: Dvořák’s New World Symphony ” (Chicago Symphony Orchestra). This season’s highlights include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Madison Symphony Orchestra). Other orchestral appearances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Hale Smith’s Four Spirituals with the Chicago Sinfonietta, and three seasons at Oregon’s Yachats Music Festival. Brown has given numerous recitals, including for Florida’s American Spirituals Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation, the Opera Memphis Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation, the Fisk University Arts Festival, and the Four Seasons Concert Series in San Francisco. She is a former regional winner (Memphis) and regional finalist (Chicago) with the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. NORMAN GARRETT ( Jake ) Lyric Opera debut National Opera. He has been seen at WNO as Papageno/ The Magic Flute , Masetto/ Don Giovanni (Domingo-Cafritz Young Artist Performance), the Father/ Hansel and Gretel , and in Tristan und Isolde , Jake Heggie’s Moby Dick , Jeanine Tesori’s The Lion, the Unicorn and Me (world premiere), and most recently in Daniel Catán’s Florencia in the Amazon earlier this season. Garrett returned to Wolf Trap Opera in 2014 as Escamillo/ Carmen and Son Ami/Milhaud’s Le pauvre matelot . He previously appeared there as Ford/ Falstaff and Baron Trombonok/ Il viaggio a Reims . The baritone has also been heard at Opera Santa Barbara (Amonasro/ Aida ), Kentucky Opera, Cincinnati Opera, and Philadelphia’s Center City Opera Theater. Garrett is a former resident artist of the Academy of Vocal Arts and a winner of the 2014 George London Foundation Competition. In the past three years, he has garnered top prizes in more than a dozen international vocal competitions, among them those of the Gerda The baritone, a native of Lubbock, Texas, is a recent alumnus of the Domingo- Cafritz Young Artist Program at Washington

Lissner Foundation, the William Matheus Sullivan Foundation, and the Licia Albanese- Puccini Foundation. BERNARD HOLCOMB ( Robbins) Previously at Lyric Opera:

Eight roles since 2011-12, most recently Parpignol/ La bohème , Notary/ Don Pasquale, Captain/ Simon Boccanegra (all 2012-13).

In addition to his previous roles in Lyric’s mainstage season, the tenor’s tenure with the company’s Ryan Opera Center included appearing with Renée Fleming and Sir Patrick Stewart in The Second City Guide to the Opera . Earlier this year Holcomb debuted at Opera in the Heights (Houston) as the Duke /Rigoletto and Chicago Opera Theater as Harlequin/Ulmann’s The Emperor of Atlantis and Donkeyman/Orff’s The Clever One . In Chicago the Detroit native has also been heard at Symphony Center (Rodolfo/ La bohème , Act Four, with the Civic Orchestra), and with the Rush Hour Concert series. In 2009 and 2010, he was featured at the Pine Mountain Music Festival ( Il matrimonio segreto, La traviata ). He made his professional debut in 2006 as the Crab Man/ Porgy and Bess with Michigan Opera Theatre. He later participated in an international tour of Gershwin’s opera, appearing in Russia, Poland, Greece, Latvia, Estonia and Germany. Holcomb is an alumnus of the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, the Eastman School of Music, and the Sarasota Opera young-artist program. CHASE TAYLOR ( Mingo ) Lyric Opera debut

The tenor, who portrayed Mingo in Syracuse Opera’s Porgy and Bess production earlier this year, has performed a wide variety

GWENDOLYN BROWN ( Maria )

Previously at Lyric Opera: Old Woman/ A View from the Bridge (world premiere, 2000-01). The contralto, a former member of the Lyric Opera

of repertoire nationwide. His roles have ranged in style from Florestan/ Fidelio (Skylight Music Theatre) and Bacchus/ Ariadne auf Naxos (IVAI- Tel Aviv, CCM Opera, Cleveland Institute of Music) to Joe/Gershwin’s Blue Monday (Harlem Opera Theater/On Site Opera). Among the other companies with whom he has appeared are Gotham Chamber Opera, the Glimmerglass Festival, Opera on the James, and Empire Opera. Taylor is an alumnus of the Mannes College of Music, the University of

Chorus and an alumna of the Ryan Opera Center, returns to Lyric this season as Maria/ Porgy and Bess, a portrayal previously acclaimed at the Seattle Opera, Boston Symphony Orchestra (both during the regular season

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