Cristy Lynn Brown

American mezzo soprano Cristy Lynn Brown is active on both the opera and concert stage.  Her diverse operatic repertoire spans from the dramatic to the comic.  Brown’s performance as Mme. de Croissy in Dialogues of the Carmelites was praised by Opera News as “exquisitely detailed” and “harrowing.”  Opera (London) applauded her voice and acting as “rotund of voice [and] fiercely loyal of demeanor.”   Her comic flair has been noted in her performances as the Witch in Hansel and Gretel, Little Buttercup in H.M.S. Pinaforeand the Old Lady in Candide.  She has appeared with the Chattanooga Symphony and Opera, Dayton Opera, Indianapolis Opera, Opera Roanoke, Opera Carolina, Toledo Opera, Mobile Opera and has been an audience favorite as the Mother in Piedmont Opera’s past productions of Amahl and the Night Visitors.

Brown has appeared in concert in the United States and Europe, touring extensively in Germany and France as the alto soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.  Her performances of works such as the Verdi Requiem, Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Elijah and Handel’sMessiah are becoming well known throughout the U.S. She has also appeared in concert at the Mozart Bicentennial Festival at Lincoln Center, and has been a frequent soloist in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. Recently she was highly acclaimed for her performance in Verdi’s Requiem with the Raleigh Master Chorale, and in their performance of Mahler’s Das Klangende Lied. Brown is a two-time winner of the S.C. District Metropolitan Opera Auditions, and an Affiliate Artist’s Talent for America winner. A former student of the world-renowned soprano Virginia Zeani, Brown received her education at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts and the Indiana University School of Music, and is currently continuing her graduate studies at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.