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Brian Mulligan Baritone

Brian Mulligan is the 2006 winner of the International Hans Gabor Belvedere Vocal Competition, only the third American in the competition’s history to win this coveted prize. He has been praised by Opera News for his “velvety, evenly and effortlessly produced baritone and nuance-rich phrasing” and by Opera Now for his “commanding presence [and] booming sound.

Brian Mulligan's 2009/10 season includes his Chicago Symphony debut in the world premiere performances of Songs for Adam, a cycle of meditations on Adam and Eve by composer James Primosch and poet Susan Stewart. These performances will be conducted by Sir Andrew Davis. Operatic highlights include a return to San Francisco Opera as Valentin in Faust conducted by Maurizio Benini. He returns to English National Opera as Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor in the celebrated David Alden production as well as being on the roster of the Metropolitan Opera.

He also makes his debut in Ireland in a Samuel Barber recital at the National Concert Hall in Dublin, where he will sing Dover Beach with the RTE Vanbrugh String Quartet.

A graduate of the Juilliard School and the recent winner of a Richard Tucker Career Grant, Brian Mulligan made his San Francisco Opera debut during the 2008/09 season as Marcello in La Bohème under the baton of Nicola Luisotti, as well as his English National Opera debut as Sharpless in Anthony Minghella’s celebrated production of Madama Butterfly. Other highlights included a return to Los Angeles Opera as Prometheus in a new production of Walter Braunfels’s Die Vögel, conducted by James Conlon as part of the Recovered Voices series; his debut at Opera Colorado as Zurga in Andrew Sinclair’s production of Les Pêcheurs de Perles, conducted by Sebastian Lang-Lessing; and Lescaut in Manon Lescaut at New Orleans Opera.

The 2007/08 season included performances of Marcello for the New York City and Houston Grand Operas. Mr. Mulligan also took on Bohème’s Schaunard for Los Angeles Opera, under the baton of Plácido Domingo, followed by Melot in that company’s critically acclaimed production of Tristan und Isolde, conducted by James Conlon. During the summer of 2008, the American baritone performed Tarquinius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia at Central City Opera. His concert schedule included Handel’s Judas Maccabæus with Maestro Conlon and members of the Los Angeles Opera Orchestra, and his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra in Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony; and Mendelssohn’s Paulus with the Houston Symphony.

During the 2007/08 season he also understudied both Sharpless in Madama Butterfly at the Metropolitan Opera and the title role in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Yevgeny Onegin. Recent engagements include Schaunard in La Bohème at New York City Opera, and Sharpless in Palm Beach Opera’s Madama Butterfly. He also covered the role of Riccardo in I Puritani at the Metropolitan Opera and appeared on the concert stage with Houston Grand Opera for Der Kaiser von Atlantis under the baton of James Conlon, and with the New Haven Symphony for Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols.Brian

Mulligan made his Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2003/04 season in Die Frau ohne Schatten and has since been heard there as Fiorello in Il Barbiere di Siviglia. Other notable engagements from past seasons include Malatesta in Don Pasquale at Palm Beach Opera, the title role in Gianni Schicchi at Oregon Lyric Opera, Marcello in La Bohème with Wolf Trap Opera, Silvio in I Pagliacci with New Zealand’s Auckland Philharmonic, the title role in Don Giovanni with the both Wolf Trap Opera and the Juilliard Opera Center and the role of Masetto at New York City Opera, Prometheus in Die Vögel with Julius Rudel and Capulet in Roméo et Juliette at the Spoleto USA Festival, Ford in Falstaff at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival with Seiji Ozawa, Jake Wallace in La Fanciulla del West with New York City Opera, Count Almaviva in Le Nozze di Figaro with Harry Bicket, and the title role in Der Kaiser von Atlantis with James Conlon at the Los Angeles Philharmonic, at the Ravinia Festival, and with the Juilliard Orchestra in New York. In addition to his recent accolades, Mr. Mulligan has also been awarded the Sara Tucker Study Grant and the George London Prize and holds dual citizenship in the United States and Ireland.

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