Briana Hunter has been hailed by Opera News as “a mesmerizing mezzo-soprano with a fiery theatrical presence and dynamic vocalism.” This past season she returned to her artistic home The Metropolitan Opera to reprise her role of Mercedes in Carrie Cracknell’s Carmen and cover the role of Bersi in Andrea Chénier. In February she had the immense privilege of joining The Chamber Orchestra of the Triangle in Durham, NC to perform Mahler’s masterpiece “Das Lied von der Erde.” Then came Europe with an unexpected performance in Rome, Italy at the Refettorio di Trinità dei Monti for Opera Affinity. This coming Fall/Winter she will make her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut in Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels reprising the role of Katie Ellen/The Caller, and back in New York will sing the role of 2nd Lady in the Met opera’s iconic Julie Taymor production of The Magic Flute.

2024/25 She joined the Metropolitan Opera as Inez in Verdi’s Il trovatore, and as the cover for Giovanna in his Rigoletto. She had the pleasure of joining Ted Sperling’s Master Voices to present Blind Injustice at Jazz at Lincoln Center an incredible work by Scott Davenport Richards and David Cote confronting wrongful incarceration and the work of the Ohio Innocence Project. Then it was Miami, FL in winter to sing Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater with New World Symphony under the baton of Jeri Lynne Johnson. That spring she joined the Detroit Symphony Orchestra for their presentation of Carmen as Mercédès under the baton of Jader Bignamini, and Phoenix Symphony for Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. She returned to the Opera Theater of Saint Louis to create the role of Zoe in Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage’s new opera This House. In a surprise turn, she jumped back into the role of Derrick’s Mother in Blind Injustice this time in Ohio for Chagrin Arts.

2023/24 The Metropolitan Opera became her artistic home appearing in Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking with Joyce DiDonato as Sister Lilianne, Carrie Cracknell’s new production of Carmen as Mercédès, Anthony Minghella’s acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly as Kate Pinkerton, and a reprisal of her role as Ruby/Woman Sinner in Fire Shut Up in My Bones. Hunter released her first solo album, Dispersed and Transcendental Chants, Op. 18 with music by Julian del la Chica and lyrics by herself and RK Devine. That summer she created the role of Vera in Nathaniel Stookey and Eisa Davis’ opera Bulrusher presented by West Edge Opera of Oakland, CA.

2022/23 Hunter made her Los Angeles Opera debut in Omar by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels. She also joined WQXR public radio station as an Artist Propulsion Lab Fellow where she commissioned a new song cycle “At Ease” composed by Jasmine Barnes with lyrics by acclaimed poet Rio Cortez. Here she also produced two major conversations around black women in Classical Music. Simultaneously she made her debut with Intermountain Opera in Bozeman, MT as the Witch in Sondheim’s Into the Woods, Jeanine Tesori’s Blue made its long anticipated debut at the Kennedy Center with Hunter reprising her role of Mother, and Hunter made a role debut as Dardano in Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra’s presentation of Amadigi di Gaula with Anthony Roth Costanzo (San Francisco, CA). The summer was spent in Cincinnati, OH starting with Mahler’s 8th symphony with the Cincinnati Symphony and ending with Cincinnati Opera’s production of The Knock by Alessandra Vrebalov and Deborah Brevoort where she portrayed the character of Aishah.

Ms. Hunter’s 2021/2022 season began with two major New York City debuts: first at the Metropolitan Opera as Ruby/Woman Sinner in a new production of Terence Blanchard’s Fire Shut Up in My Bones, followed by her Carnegie Hall debut with The Orchestra Now in a performance of Julia Perry’s Stabat Mater, under the auspices of the Bard Musical Festival. In January of 2022 she sang the title role in Carmen with Opera Idaho, and reprised her critically acclaimed portrayal of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue in February at Seattle Opera and with Pittsburgh Opera in April. On the concert stage she made her debut at the Madison Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. She made her Kennedy Center Washington National Opera debut ahead of schedule jumping in for a sick colleague in the role of Carmen in Francesca Zambello’s historic production of Carmen. She then went on to perform the role again that summer with the Glimmerglass Festival.

In 2020-21 she performed the title role in Carmen with Opera Orlando in a special production including dialogue in Haitian Creole; Tanya in Is This America? with Santa Fe Opera on a boat in Red Hook, BK a new opera about Fannie Lou Hammer; and Constance Fletcher in The Mother of Us All with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra. Virtual performances in 2020 include a broadcast on WQXR with the Mostly Mozart Festival for Blue; the Santa Fe Opera for a Digital Winter Concert Tour; Bare Opera’s original production of The Late Walk under the auspices of the Decameron Opera Coalition; Letters You Will Not Get with American Opera Projects; the North American Premiere of Apollo y Dafne livestreamed from The Hispanic Museum and Library; and Opera from a Sistah’s Point of View with Opera Birmingham and Cincinnati Opera. The Kennedy Center will release the first-ever commercial recording of Blue in 2022, featuring Ms. Hunter as Mother.

In the 2020-2021 season, Ms. Hunter was originally scheduled to perform Blue with Washington National Opera at the Kennedy Center; as Ottavia in The Poppea Project at Opera Columbus; and for her role debut as Orlovsky in Die Fledermaus at Opera Theatre of Saint Louis all cancelled due to COVID.

Ms. Hunter created the roles of Mother in Jeanine Tesori’s Blue at the Glimmerglass Festival and Dee Dee Reyes in Hillard and Boresi’s The Last American Hammer with UrbanArias. Additional recent performances include multiple roles in Augusta Read Thomas’ Sweet Potato Kicks the Sun with the Santa Fe Opera; Hannah Before in Laura Kaminsky’s As One at the Kaufman Music Center with New York City Opera and American Opera Projects; Annie and Strawberry Woman in Porgy and Bess at the Glimmerglass Festival; and Giovanna in Rigoletto and Gertrude Stein in Ricky Ian Gordon’s 27 at Michigan Opera Theatre, for which she won the Encore Michigan award for Best Performance in an Opera. At the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, she performed the role of Flora in La Traviata for Patricia Racette’s directorial debut, as well as Pvt. Stanton in the world premiere of An American Soldier. She made her Lincoln Center Theater debut for a workshop of Intimate Apparel by Ricky Ian Gordon and Lynn Nottage, directed by Bartlett Sher, and returned for a gala performance of Camelot starring Lin-Manuel Miranda.

Additional roles include the title role of Carmen with the Music Academy of the West and Mercédès at Michigan Opera Theatre, El Paso Opera and Knoxville Opera; Jo in Little Women, Wowkle in La fanciulla del West, and Madeleine Audebert in Silent Night at Michigan Opera Theatre; Rachel in the world premiere of Harriet Tubman: When I Crossed That Line to Freedom with American Opera Projects; Play by Play in the world premiere of Bum Phillips: An All-American Opera at LaMama Experimental Theater; and Ida in Die Fledermaus at Sarasota Opera. As an Apprentice Artist with Santa Fe Opera, she covered the roles of Lucinda in the world premiere of Jennifer Higdon’s Cold Mountain and Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, and performed the roles of Giulietta in Les contes d’Hoffmann and Ruggiero in Alcina for the Apprentice Artist scenes.

An accomplished stage actress, Ms. Hunter has worked with Tony and Academy Award winning playwright Mark Medoff in a production of his play Gunfighter–A Gulf War Chronicle, in addition to developing and starring in an original double bill titled Infinite Variety/For Every Passion Something under the direction of the Royal Shakespeare Company and presented in a two-week run at the Fringe Festival in Scotland. At the Manhattan School of Music, she performed in the institution’s first ever production of The Vagina Monologues in addition to singing with the American Musical Theater Ensemble for productions of Godspell and Ragtime. 

Ms. Hunter is a Lotte Lenya Competition finalist and winner of the Lys Symonette Award from The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music. She participated in the I SING BEIJING program where she performed at The National Center for the Performing Arts. Ms. Hunter holds a M.M. from Manhattan School of Music and a B.A. from Davidson College. Originally from Malvern, Pennsylvania, she currently resides in New York City.

See all of Briana's upcoming engagements here.