Brandon Bell is a young baritone making waves in the operatic landscape within North America. This season, he made his role debut as Marcello in La bohème with Borderland Arts Foundation, sang Moralès in Carmen with Virginia Opera, and made a “propitious” role and house debut as the Baker in Into the Woods with Union Avenue Opera (KDHX), which showed Bell’s “strong dramatic baritone” (Broadway World) and “expressive acting and strong vocals” (PopLifeSTL). In concert, Mr. Bell made his Santa Clara Chorale debut as the soloist in Margaret Bond’s Credo and presented Gregory Spears’s Walden with the Cincinnati Song Initiative and Salt Creek Song Festival. Upcoming engagements include Wagner in Faust with Heartbeat Opera, and a performance with Brooklyn Art Song Society of Carlos Simon’s American Sonnets. In the summer of 2025, Mr. Bell joins Marlboro Music Festival as a musician in residence.

 

During his recent tenure as a resident artist with Pittsburgh Opera, he sang Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Oreste in Iphigénie en Tauride, and Baron Douphol in La traviata, Boy in Venables/Huffman’s Denis and Katya and Huntsman in Rusalka.  His performance as Pa Zegner in Proving Up showed “deep and golden tones” (Onstage Pittsburgh.) He also covered the Count in Le nozze di Figaro and sang the role in a student matinée performance.  In 2023-2024, Mr. Bell joined Santa Fe Opera as the Shepherd in Pelléas et Mélisande and as Pastore 2 and cover of 4th Pastore/1st Spirit in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo. In past seasons, Mr. Bell sang Baron Douphol and covered Germont in La traviata (Fort Worth Opera), sang Dr. Grenvil in La traviata (Utah Opera), sang Jim and covered Jake in Porgy & Bess and covered Momus in Platée (Des Moines Metro Opera), sang Colline in La bohème (West Bay Opera) and the Corporal in La fille du régiment (Opera Saratoga), covered Masetto and Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni (Chautauqua Opera), and sang L’imperial Commissario in Madama Butterfly (Wolf Trap Opera).

 

A champion of new works, Mr. Bell has been part of the workshops of Orth/Moscovitch’s 10 Days in a Madhouse as Josiah Blackwell with Opera Philadelphia, Another City with Houston Grand Opera, and Gordon’s Morning Star as Hymie Felderman with Opera Fusion: New Works, a collaboration between Cincinnati Opera and CCM Opera. World premieres include a “robust” performance (The Classical Review) as Gomez in Zorro (Fort Worth Opera), and appearances in Listen, Wilhelmina! and as a Featured Dater in Speed Dating Tonight! (Wolf Trap Opera). Other new music credits include covering Thomas McKeller in American Apollo and covering Hawkins Fuller and singing General Arlie/the Bartender in Fellow Travelers with Des Moines Metro Opera. He also sang the British Major in Silent Night, Montague Somers in Gentleman’s Island, and Garcia/Zuniga in La tragédie de Carmen (Utah Opera), Terry in Missy Mazzoli’s Breaking the Waves (West Edge Opera), and English Ambassador in Corigliano’s The Ghosts of Versailles (Wolf Trap Opera).

 

This past season, Mr. Bell sang with Brooklyn Art Song Society in a concert featuring Schumann’s Liederkreis, joined Salt Creek Song Festival for a recital, and was a finalist in the Duncan Williams Voice Competition. He has joined White Snake Projects for their concert Sing Strong: Incarcerated Voices, as  well as in concert with Utah Opera. He was granted a fellowship at the Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute where he studied and performed a variety of art song repertoire.  Mr. Bell was a soloist in Mozart’s Requiem with the California Symphony, Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Cape Symphony and as a featured ensemble singer with the Oakland Symphony in their Pride & Prejudice: Notes from LGBTQ concert.

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Mr. Bell was a finalist in the 2023 Duncan Williams Voice Competition.  He won an Encouragement Award in the Tennessee District of the 2022 Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. In 2021, he received an Encouragement Award for the Gerda Lissner Lieder/Song Competition and the Utah District of the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition. He was also awarded 4th Place in the 2018 East Bay Opera League Young Artist Scholarship Awards Competition and was chosen as a finalist in the 2018 Mondavi Center Young Artist Competition. In 2017, he received both Third Place (Student Division) - Orpheus Da Capo Award at the Orpheus National Music Competition for Vocalists and the Leola Boyce Award, awarded by the Knoxville Choral Society.  The Cleveland Foundation chose Mr. Bell as the 2015 and 2016 recipient of its A. Grace Lee Mims Vocal Scholarship, awarded in recognition of his commitment to the perpetuation of the singing of the Negro spiritual.

 

Mr. Bell has participated in the resident artist programs of Pittsburgh Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and Utah Opera, and the young artist programs with Santa Fe Opera, Des Moines Metro Opera, Ravinia’s Steans Music Institute, Opera Saratoga, Chautauqua Opera, and Wolf Trap Opera. He is a graduate of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he received a Postgraduate Diploma in Vocal Performance. Additionally, he holds his Master of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and his Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.