Event Detail

Mezzo Soprano J'nai Bridges and Baritone Justin Austin will visit Anthony Davis's Music 12 Opera class on Thursday, January 15th at 11:00 a.m. They will discuss their careers in opera and music theater and their most recent collaboration with composer Damien Geter. La Jolla Music Society and San Diego Opera present the work COTTON at The Conrad on January 16th.

Image: "Spirits Rising" by John Dowell

ABOUT THE ARTISTS: 

J’Nai Bridges

Two-time GRAMMY® Award-winning American mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (The New York Times), and “calmly commanding stage presence” (The New Yorker), has been “marked out at an early stage as a singer headed for top flight” (Financial Times), gracing the world’s leading operatic and concert stages “with a voice both voluptuous and statuesque” (The New York Times).

In the 2024-25 season, Bridges makes her role debut as Maddalena in Verdi’s Rigoletto at The Metropolitan Opera. She returns to Seattle Opera in her role debut as Didon in Les Troyens and sings the title role in Carmen in her debut at the Wiener Staatsoper. Her concert engagements include Erika in Vanessa with the National Symphony Orchestra and engagements with Symphony Tacoma, the Minnesota Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. She gives a solo recital as an artist in residence at the Kaufman Music Center and joins the Dessoff Choirs in Verdi’s Requiem at Trinity Church. Bridges recently made her Lincoln Center debut performing Peter Lieberson’s Neruda Songs, and sang the role of Mary in John Adams’ El Niño at the Metropolitan Opera to critical acclaim.

Bridges has emerged as a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice in the performing arts. In 2022 she was announced as one of the Kennedy Center’s NEXT50 cultural leaders, and appeared with The National Philharmonic in the world premiere of Adolphus Hailstork’s A Knee on the Neck that same year. Bridges led a highly successful panel on race and inequality in opera with the Los Angeles Opera that drew international acclaim for being a “conversation of striking scope and candor” (The New York Times). Bridges was also featured in the Converse shoe brand’s All Stars Campaign for its Breaking Down Barriers collection, and performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel for two episodes of the digital SOUND/STAGE series. She was also a part of the Global Citizen movement’s Global Goal campaign, a program which also included Coldplay, Shakira, Usher and more and was featured as a “DVF” Woman, a campaign started by clothing designer Diane Von Furstenberg recognizing leading women who also love fashion.

Bridges is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Sphinx Medal of Excellence Award, a 2016 Richard Tucker Career Grant, first prize winner at the 2016 Francisco Viñas International Competition, first prize winner at the 2015 Gerda Lissner Competition, a recipient of the 2013 Sullivan Foundation Award, a 2012 Marian Anderson award winner, the recipient of the 2011 Sara Tucker Study Grant, the recipient of the 2009 Richard F. Gold Grant from The Shoshana Foundation, and the winner of the 2008 Leontyne Price Foundation Competition. 

Justin Austin

Possessing a “mighty lyric voice” (The New York Times) “with a burly, burnished tone capable of striking nuance and color” (Washington Post), Drama Desk Award-nominated baritone Justin Austin was named Rising Star of the Year at the 2024 International Opera Awards and is a recipient of the 2024 Marian Anderson Vocal Award. Deemed “a natural performer—a star awaiting a galaxy to form around him” (Washington Post), he has been praised for his “intensity and charisma” (Opera), “rich, pointed expressiveness” (Parterre), and “immaculate musicianship” (Seen and Heard International).

Following the world premiere of Damien Geter’s American Apollo at Des Moines Metro Opera (“a galvanizing, Herculean performance,” Opera Today) and appearances at Caramoor and the Sag Harbor Song Festival in summer 2024, Justin begins the 2024-25 season with his house debut at Los Angeles Opera as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette, returning to the company later in the season in his role debut as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. He also returns to Opera Theatre of St. Louis for the world premiere of Ricky Ian Gordon’s This House, starring as Lindon. In concert, he returns to Carnegie Hall for Brahms’s Deutsches Requiem with the Cecilia Chorus of New York, and joins for selections from Terence Blanchard’s Champion and Fire Shut Up In My Bones at La Jolla Music Society in La Jolla, CA, The Soraya in Northridge, CA, and with Seattle Theatre Group, among others. He also returns to Stuttgart, Germany, for a concert with the Stuttgart Philharmonic and Opera for Peace as well as New York Festival of Song for My Brother’s Keeper at Kaufman Music Center, an event he personally conceived. He and pianist Howard Watkins additionally give a recital at the Peace Center in Greenville, South Carolina, and Justin appears at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music for a guest recital.

Last season, Austin starred as Young Emile in Lyric Opera of Chicago’s premiere of Terence Blanchard’s Champion to great critical acclaim. He returned to the Metropolitan Opera, opening their season as the Motorcycle Cop in the company’s premiere of Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking in a new production directed by Ivo van Hove and conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, as well as Washington National Opera making his role debut as Mercutio in Roméo et Juliette. He additionally sang the title role in The Barber of Seville at Opera Theatre of St. Louis and performed in the New York premiere of Damien Geter’s song cycle COTTON alongside Denyce Graves at the 92nd Street Y. In concert, he gave the Marian Anderson Vocal Award Recital at the Kennedy Center as the 2024 recipient and gave concerts with Houston Grand Opera, Strathmore and Washington Performing Arts, the Kimmel Center, and Des Moines Metro Opera. He gave recitals with pianist Howard Watkins at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall, the Longy School of Music with the Celebrity Series of Boston, Gore Recital Hall (at the University of Delaware on Delaware’s Master Player’s Concert Series), and Atlanta’s Spivey Hall (Clayton State University).

Austin has received accolades and awards from The Recording Academy, NAACP, George London Foundation, Washington National Opera, Opera Ebony, Gerda Lissner Foundation, Manhattan School of Music, NANM, Choir Academy of Harlem, and Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. He is the recipient of a 2023 Mabel Dorn Reeder Award from Opera Theatre of St. Louis which goes to “the single artist in each season with the greatest potential to make a significant contribution to the art form of opera.” He is under the tutelage and mentorship of Catherine Malfitano.

Born in Stuttgart, Germany, Austin is an alumnus of the Choir Academy of Harlem, Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, Heidelberg Lied Akademie, and Manhattan School of Music (M.M. and B.M.).