J'Nai Bridges

J’Nai Bridges is a two time Grammy-Award winning American mezzo-soprano. She is a winner of the Marian Anderson Award and has performed for the Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, and San Francisco Opera. BET has described her as The Beyoncé of opera.[1]

J’Nai Bridges
Bridges at the Saint-Georges International Music Festival in 2019
EducationCharles Wright Academy
Alma mater
OccupationOperatic mezzo-soprano
AwardsMarian Anderson Award, Grammy Award

Early life and education

Bridges was raised in Lakewood, Washington. She was the third of four children and grew up listening to Motown music with her parents and singing at church.[2][3] She attended high school at the Charles Wright Academy in Tacoma.[3] Her focus was originally on basketball, but she became interested in singing after taking choir as an elective. After deciding to focus on music, she attended the Manhattan School of Music and then the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia for graduate school.[4] While participating in a young artists' program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, she was mentored by Renée Fleming.

Career

She names Black opera stars Denyce Graves, Shirley Verrett, Kathleen Battle, and Jessye Norman, at whose funeral she sang, as inspirations.[5]

Bridges sang at the Kennedy Center for the first time after winning a 2012 Marian Anderson Award.[5] She competed in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2015.[6] She performed at the Los Angeles Opera in November 2016 as Nefertiti in Akhnaten by Philip Glass.[7] In 2017, she performed the role of Josefa Segovia in the premiere of John Adams's Girls of the Golden West at San Francisco Opera.[8], and in the 2019 European debut of the opera at the Dutch National Opera in Amsterdam. [9] In June 2019, she returned to San Francisco for the title role in Bizet's Carmen.[10] She made her Metropolitan Opera debut reprising her role in Akhnaten in November 2019, and her Washington National Opera debut as Delilah in Samson and Delilah by Saint-Saëns in March 2020.[11][12]

The COVID-19 pandemic put her on-stage career on hold in favor of virtual programing. After the murder of George Floyd, she proposed and led an online panel of Black opera singers with Los Angeles Opera. She returned to the stage in January 2022 for Palm Beach Opera's production of Carmen.[13]

In March 2022 she performed with the National Philharmonic in composer Adolphus Hailstork and librettist Herbert Martin's new work "A Knee on the Neck," a tribute to George Floyd. Critic Michael Andor Brodeur wrote that Bridges was "especially gripping" in the performance.[14]

In 2023, she was profiled in an episode of the PBS series American Masters entitled “In the Making”.[15][2]

Awards
Year Award Category Notes Ref
2012 Marian Anderson Award [5]
2021 Grammy Awards Best Choral Performance For Danielpour: The Passion of Yeshua [16]
2022 Grammy Awards Best Opera Recording For Glass: Akhnaten [17]

References
  1. "J'Nai Bridges, 'The Beyoncé Of Opera,' Makes Her Debut As Nefertiti". BET.com.
  2. Turner, Christine (February 28, 2023). "J'Nai Bridges Unamplified". PBS. Retrieved June 22, 2023.
  3. Sailor, Craig (December 23, 2016). "Lakewood basketball player turned opera star will perform in free Tacoma concert tonight". The News Tribune. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  4. Kai, Maiysha (November 29, 2019). "From Carmen to Nefertiti, J'Nai Bridges Is the Next Big Voice in Opera". The Root. Retrieved October 18, 2020.
  5. Dalfonzo, Gina (March 3, 2020). "J'Nai Bridges' debut in Samson and Delilah is a dream come true". DC Metro Theater Arts. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  6. "J'Nai Bridges". Opera News. October 2015. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  7. "Glass' Akhnaten Triumphs in New L.A. Opera Production". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  8. Swed, Mark (November 26, 2017). "Review: Where to look for treasure in California's new gold rush? Try John Adams' new opera". LA Times.
  9. "Girls of the Golden West - De Nationale Opera (2019)". Opera Online. Retrieved March 30, 2023.
  10. "J'Nai Bridges Multitasks in Her Debut as Carmen". San Francisco Classical Voice. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  11. Davidson, Justin (November 11, 2019). "Gleaming and Self-Aware, Philip Glass's Akhnaten Is Borne to the Met". Vulture. Retrieved October 19, 2020.
  12. "How a Fast-Rising Opera Singer Prepared for Her Met Debut" by Merrell Hambleton, The New York Times, November 13, 2019
  13. Oliver, Richard Sylvester (January 28, 2022). "After two years, J'Nai Bridges returns to the stage, making her Florida debut as Carmen". South Florida Classical Review. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  14. Brodeur, Michael Andor (March 27, 2022). "National Philharmonic premieres 'A Knee on the Neck,' a powerful tribute to George Floyd". Washington Post. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
  15. Hautzinger, Daniel (March 24, 2023). "'American Masters' Features an Opera Singer with Ties to Chicago". WTTW Chicago. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  16. Freeman, Abigail (March 14, 2021). "Grammys 2021: The Winners List". Forbes. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  17. "2021 GRAMMY WINNERS". www.grammy.com. Retrieved April 4, 2022.
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