Grammy-winning Baritone and New Jersey-native John Brancy is a master with “mesmerizing tone,” says OperaWire. This powerhouse graduate of New York’s famed Juilliard School expertly performs across operatic and musical styles. He’s a virtuoso of staged opera, concert performance, and recital. “It’s hard not to be impressed by the beauty of his voice.” 

Already in his young career, Brancy has taken the New York performance world by storm. Since winning the Marilyn Horne Song Competition in 2013, he’s performed multiple times at Carnegie Hall; debuted at Alice Tully Hall with pianist Brian Zeger; debuted with MasterVoices at Jazz at Lincoln Center as Escamillo in Carmen. And he reprised HEROES for NYFOS in collaboration with Charles Yang and Peter and Kara Dugan, as well as making his Café Carlyle debut with Peter, ushering in a new era of classical cabaret at the famous venue. 

Internationally, Brancy’s performances have been hailed across the globe. This past summer, he starred in dual roles Artisan/Collector, in the world premiere of Picture a Day Like This by George Benjamin and Martin Crimp, debuting first at the Aix en Provence Festival 75th Anniversary and to open his 23/24 season at London’s famed Royal Opera House. The Financial Times called him “remarkable,” the Telegraph, “powerful,” and the New York Times noted him a Baritone with “impressive skill — seamless passaggio between the richly resonant depths of his range and a weightless, dreamy falsetto.”

Further performances in the current season include concerts with Insula Orchestra at the Barbican Center (Fauré Requiem), Bayerische Staatsorchester in Munich (Weinberg, Lady Magnesia), Oratorio Society of New York at Carnegie Hall (Handel, Messiah), and at the US Naval Academy (Britten, War Requiem). Additionally, he returns to Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in the summer for a title role debut. In coming seasons, Mr. Brancy will debut at the Opéra Comique in Paris, Opéra national du Rhin, Grand Théâtre de Luxembourg, and Teatro di San Carlo.

He has collaborated with conductors Lorenzo Viotti, Helmut Rilling, and James Gaffigan, Henrik Nanasi, Ken David Masur, Lawrence Renes, Alexander Prior, Klaas Stok, and Alexander Briger. With a repertoire that spans from Bach to George Benjamin, Brancy has headlined performances with leading orchestras and opera companies around the world, including the LA Phil, San Francisco Symphony, Oper Frankfurt, Radio Filharmonisch Orkest, Boston Symphony, Rundfunkchor Berlin, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edmonton Symphony, Pacific Opera Victoria, Kansas City Symphony, Florida Grand Opera, Tucson Symphony Orchestra, Vorarlberger Landestheater, and Opera Omaha, among others.

During the 22/23 season, John Brancy made his debut with the Cleveland Orchestra as Jake Wallace in La Fanciulla del West. He took on the role of Franz Wolff-Metternich in the world premiere of La Beauté du Monde, by playwright Michel Marc Bouchard and composer Julien Bilodeau, at Opéra de Montréal; and performed as a soloist with Theater Erfurt in conductor/composer Alexander Prior’s arrangement of Schubert’s Winterreise for orchestra. 

Previously, Mr. Brancy made his role debut as Guglielmo in two new productions of Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte at San Francisco Opera and San Diego Opera to great critical acclaim. He performed Durufle Requiem and Joseph Cantaloube songs with the Milwaukee Symphony under the baton of Ken David-Masur, and debuted Mahler’s Songs of the Wayfarer with the now disbanded APEX Ensemble in Montclair, NJ. 

Mr. Brancy also released a self-produced collaborative album with Avie Records and Vocal Arts DC, The Journey Home: Live from the Kennedy Center which reunited Mr. Brancy and pianist Peter Dugan in a recital program inspired by the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. He produced the recital as a documentary film which aired on WNET and the new PBS app AllArts TV. The Sarasota Herald-Tribune said it was “stirring and sobering,” while BroadwayWorld.com called it “timeless.” Brancy collaborated with Tony Award–winning composer Adam Guettel to create a short film titled Medusa as part of his song cycle Myths and Hymns, produced by MasterVoices, which has also featured artists Dove Cameron, Renée Fleming, and Cheyenne Jackson.

His solo and concert recitals have taken him across the New York metro area and around the world, with performances at Royal Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall, Hugo Wolf Akademie, Société d’art vocal de Montréal, Carmel Bach Festival, and the Kennedy Center. Here at home, he can be found at many NY Rangers NHL Hockey home games as the renowned official anthem singer of Madison Square Garden.