J'Nai Bridges

A Ryan Opera Center alumna, mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges has recently performed the leading roles of Nefertiti/Akhnaten (the Metropolitan Opera), Dalila/Samson et Dalila (Washington National Opera), and Federica/Luisa Miller (Gran Teatre del Liceu). She also recently sang with Gustavo Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at “Global Goal: Unite for Our Future,” a globally televised and streamed concert; was featured in the Grant Park Music Festival’s 2020 virtual season; was a starring artist in Lyric's own Lawrence Brownlee and Friends digital concert event; and collaborated with Los Angeles Opera in leading a Zoom panel discussion on racial inequality in opera, which included colleagues Lawrence Brownlee, Julia Bullock, Morris Robinson, Karen Slack, and Russell Thomas.

An accomplished concert soloist, she has been featured in Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 “Resurrection” with the Louisville Orchestra, in Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the “Farewell to Christoph Eschenbach” concert with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. She created the pivotal role of Carmen in the 2015/16 world premiere of Bel Canto by Jimmy López and Nilo Cruz at Lyric (2017 PBS telecast), and has been acclaimed in the title role/The Rape of Lucretia at Wolf Trap Opera, Sister Helen Prejean/Dead Man Walking at Vancouver Opera, and Bersi/Andrea Chénier, at, among others, San Francisco Opera and Bayerische Staatsoper.

Last updated: September 13, 2020
Photo: Dario Acosta