Speaking Voice with Brace N.

Brace N. has been a prolific performer since his arrival to New York in 1998. Brace recently brought his “powerful bass baritone voice” to Hubbard Hall Opera Theatre as the title character in Don Pasquale. Recent performances include a “Bolgeresque Leporello [that]was truly hilarious” in Don Giovanni with the Bronx Opera; Bass soloist in Handel’s Te Deum and PDQ Bach’s Missa Hilarious and Handel’s Easter Oratorio with the Oratorio Singers and Orchestra of Westfield, New Jersey; Colline in La Boheme with Opera Manhattan; Pandolfe in Massenet’s Cendrillon with New York Lyric Opera Company; Count Ceprano in Rigoletto with San Antonio Opera; Figaro in a concert version of Le nozze di Figaro with the Northern Dutchess Symphony Orchestra; and Pantaleone in Bronx Opera’s Der Drei Pintos. In July of 2009, Brace had his European opera debut performing the title role of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale as well as the Bonze in Puccini’s Madame Butterfly with Lyrique en Mer Opera Company in Belle Île, France with a national radio broadcast of Don Pasquale’s first act on the radio station, France Musique. In the fall of 2008, Brace had his debut with Toledo Opera as Count Ceprano in Verdi’s Rigoletto with a favorable mention in the Toledo Blade Newspaper that read “In supporting roles soprano Kirsten Chambers as Countess Ceprano and bass-baritone Brace as her indignant husband, Count Ceprano, were standouts in the first act, opening scene”. In March 2009, Brace was invited back to Toledo Opera to perform the 1st Nazarene and the Cappadocian in Strauss’s Salome. Past performances include Jupiter in Offenbach's Orpheus and the Underworld with Bronx Opera which nabbed Brace a solid review in the New York Times stating that “The bass-baritone Brace, one of the better singers on Saturday, also demonstrated comic gifts as the swaggering, hypocritical Jupiter”; Figaro in Le nozze di Figaro with the Queens College Opera Studio; Christiano in Verdi's Un ballo in maschera with Des Moines Metro Opera where he received a review in the October 2008 issue of Opera News; Finalist in the Azuriales Opera Festival/Competition Concert Series performed in Beaulieu sur Mer, France; a Lincoln Center debut as Ali in an excerpts program of Rossini's L'Italiana as part of the Melody for Peace UNESCO Concert at Avery Fisher Hall; Gregorio in Romeo et Juliette and 2nd Armored Man in Zauberflote both with New Jersey Opera Theater; performer with the Lucerne Festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, under Maestro Pierre Boulez and Daniel Reusse; an Asian debut in Singapore with Singapore Theatreworks as the lead The Cowherd in The Silver River by Bright Sheng; and finalist in the Heinz Rehfuss Competition held in Orlando, Florida. *** Lesson Details *** I break up the lessons as follows, unless requested to do otherwise (based on an hour lesson): -20 minutes warm-up -20 minutes working range, movement, flexibility, dynamics, breath control and general strengthening of the voice -20 minutes rep work: we work the song your brought to work on *** Studio Equipment *** Piano. Acoustic guitar. Electric guitar. Metronome. Living room seating for parents. *** Travel Equipment *** would be nice to have piano on hand if I come to someone's house. *** Specialties *** I am mainly an opera singer. That's definitely my forte but have performed and taught other styles, particulalry music theater. Could fiddle with jazz for a bit too but not to take someone to super advanced levels. General performing of any type of singing would also be something I could definitely help with- I myself am a successful performer signed by a major agent in the opera world.