“All Night, All Day,” “Come By Here, Good Lord”

Trad., arr. Damien Sneed ("All Night, All Day")
Trad., arr. Damien Sneed ("Come By Here, Good Lord")

Lawrence Brownlee, tenor
Craig Terry, piano

A 2015 recipient of the Sphinx Medal of Excellence (presented annually to emerging Black and Latino leaders in classical music), Damien Sneed (b. 1979) is a pianist, organist, conductor, composer, producer, arranger, vocal coach, and arts educator who has performed worldwide. He has worked with such legends as Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Carlos Santana, Ashford & Simpson, and the late Jessye Norman and Aretha Franklin. In 2015 a performance of Wynton Marsalis's Abyssinian 200: A Celebration marked Sneed's Carnegie Hall conducting debut. Previously, Sneed conducted the U.S. tour performances of Abyssinian: A Gospel Celebration Tour with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis, and the 70-piece Chorale Le Chateau in 2013. He has also been associated with The Juilliard School, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Boys Choir of Harlem, the Orchestra of St. Luke's, and Black Entertainment Television, among other organizations. Many GRAMMY® Award-winning gospel artists have worked with Sneed as their music director.

Sneed has arranged numerous spirituals for tenor Lawrence Brownlee, among them "All Night, All Day" and "Come By Here, Good Lord." In commenting on these pieces, Sneed noted that "our aim and goal was to pull from the incredible historical legacy created by composers such as Harry T. Burleigh, Hall Johnson, Margaret Bonds, and even Moses Hogan, while including elements of American jazz music and gospel music from the African-­American church experience. My hope is that these arrangements expand the listening audience of this art form while simultaneously bringing attention to its rich heritage."

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Host and Artistic Advisor

Lawrence Brownlee

Lawrence Brownlee

Renowned internationally for formidable bel canto roles and for social activism, Lawrence Brownlee won “Male Singer of the Year” awards in 2017 from both the International Opera Awards and Bachtrack. The celebrated American tenor has recently dazzled audiences at Lyric as Count Almaviviva/The Barber of Seville, in Amsterdam as Don Ramiro/La Cenerentola, and in Houston as Fernand/La favorite. He is scheduled to reprise Count Almaviva (San Francisco, New York), Arturo Talbo/I puritani (Zurich) and to portray Edgardo/Lucia di Lammermoor (Tokyo). Brownlee has starred in bel canto repertoire at the Metropolitan Opera (I puritani, La Cenerentola, The Barber of Seville, Rinaldo, La donna del lago), in Zurich (Le Comte Ory), Paris (Don Pasquale), and Munich (Semiramide), among others. Additionally, he has performed globally on prestigious stages including the Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Gran Teatre del Liceu, and Wiener Staatsoper. Brownlee has sung with major orchestras including those of Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston, Cleveland, New York, Berlin, Rome, and Munich, and has been heard at renowned recital venues such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and The Kennedy Center. A passionate supporter and champion of diversity initiatives, he premiered a new song cycle, Cycles of My Being by composer Tyshawn Sorey and lyricist Terrance Hayes, in Philadelphia, which he repeated in Chicago and at Carnegie Hall, among others. Brownlee also performed Giving Voices, a one-night concert at Houston Grand Opera that included singers such as J’Nai Bridges and celebrated the city’s diversity. He serves as artistic advisor at Opera Philadelphia, where he created Charlie/Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD by Daniel Schnyder and Brigitte A. Wimberly. He later reprised the role at New York’s Apollo Theater, London’s English National Opera, and Lyric in a production by Lyric Unlimited, for which he serves as an Ambassador.

Pianist and Ryan Opera Center Music Director

Craig Terry

Craig Terry

The American pianist has an international performance career and recently won a GRAMMY Award for “Best Classical Solo Vocal Album” for the recording he made with Joyce DiDonato, “Songplay.” He has served as the Jannotta Family Endowed Chair music director of Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center since 2013, after having spent 11 seasons with the company as an assistant conductor. Before coming to Lyric, he was an assistant conductor at the Metropolitan Opera after joining its Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. Terry has performed extensively with such esteemed artists such as Jamie Barton, Stephanie Blythe, Lawrence Brownlee, Renée Fleming, Susan Graham, Brian Jagde, Joseph Kaiser, Quinn Kelsey, Kate Lindsey, Ana María Martínez, Susanna Phillips, Luca Pisaroni, and Patricia Racette, among others. He has collaborated as a chamber musician with members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Lyric Opera Orchestra, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus Orchester, and the Pro Arte String Quartet. Terry is artistic director of “Beyond the Aria,” a recital series presented by the Harris Theater in collaboration with Lyric Opera of Chicago. His discography includes “Diva on Detour” with Patricia Racette, “As Long As There Are Songs” with Stephanie Blythe, and “Chanson d’Avril” with Nicole Cabell.

Craig Terry is The Jannotta Family Endowed Chair

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