“I'm honored and humbled to join the extraordinary team at Opera Philadelphia, and in my role as Artistic Advisor, I look forward to working with them towards their mission of moving the art form forward and changing the very notion of what opera can be,” said Lawrence Brownlee. “Whether it be helping with the creation of groundbreaking new works like YARDBIRD, Breaking the Waves, and We Shall Not Be Moved, working to build new relationships and partnerships in the U.S. and internationally, or expanding the reach and diversity of audiences, I'm excited to be an agent of change in an organization that is truly committed to building the future of opera.”

The hiring of Brownlee completes a renowned trio of artistic advisors at Opera Philadelphia. Opera and voice instructor Mikael Eliasen, currently Dean of Vocal Studies at the Curtis Institute of Music and Artistic Director of the Curtis Opera Theatre, advises the company on repertoire planning, casting, composer support and the Curtis Institute of Music/Opera Philadelphia partnership. Artist and curator Kristy Edmunds, currently Executive and Artistic Director at the Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, helps shape ways to incorporate contemporary artistic practice from other forms and genres and provides guidance on festival O programming and structure.

“We are honored and thrilled to have Lawrence Brownlee step into this prominent role at Opera Philadelphia,” said David B. Devan. “This partnership is born out of a genuine alignment between our company goals of inspiring artists and audiences, and an artist who has an authentic track record as a performer with nearly every leading international opera house and festival all over the world. Larry has been contributing to our company on stage since 2006, and helped to champion the creation of the chamber opera Charlie Parker’s YARDBIRD in 2015. We believe that in this new position, he will play a key role in making Philadelphia the stage for the future of opera, where diverse audiences gather to share an experience and amplify human connectedness. We are also excited to work with Larry to commission a new opera which he will perform in a future season.”

Brownlee, whose appearance in 2015’s YARDBIRD marked Opera Philadelphia’s first world premiere in 40 years, joins the company at a time of great artistic output. The 2016 world premiere of Breaking the Waves by composer Missy Mazzoli and librettist Royce Vavrek “stands among the best twenty-first-century American operas yet produced” (Opera News). The company will present three world premieres in September 2017 as part of its first annual festival, O17: Elizabeth Cree, from composer Kevin Puts and librettist Mark Campbell, at the Perelman Theater; The Wake World, by composer in residence David Hertzberg, to be staged in the Barnes Foundation; and We Shall Not Be Moved, by composer Daniel Bernard Roumain, librettist Marc Bamuthi Joseph and director Bill T. Jones, which premieres at the Wilma Theater in September before making its New York premiere at The Apollo Theater and its European premiere at Hackney Empire in London, both in October.