“Ride On, King Jesus”

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; 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. Among Bridges’s scheduled prestigious engagements later this season are the title role/Carmen at the Canadian Opera Company and Giovanna Seymour/Anna Bolena at Amsterdam’s De Nationale Opera. 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. 

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