American soprano Kearstin Piper Brown has delighted audiences with her award-winning performance in Lynn Nottage and Rocky Ian Gordon’s Intimate Apparel at the Lincoln Center Theater earning her a World Theater Award, as well as nominations by the Drama Desk Awards, Lucille Lortel Awards, and Antonyo Awards. Kearstin has been praised for her interpretation of lead roles modern operas such as The Shining with Opera Parallèle, Proximity with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, This Little Light of Mine with Santa Fe Opera, and It’s a Wonderful Life with San Francisco Opera.
Other operatic highlights of Ms. Brown’s career include Violetta in La Traviata, Gilda in Rigoletto, Euridice in Orfeo, Pamina in Die Zauberflöte, Musetta in La Bohème, Micaëla in Carmen, and Clara in Porgy and Bess at the Teatro di San Carlo. She also portrayed the role of Mrs. McDowell in the world premiere of Rise for Freedom: The John P. Parker Story with Cincinnati Opera.
Ms. Brown has performed the role of Bess worldwide with Opera Kazan, New Orleans Opera, Skylight Music Theatre, Dayton Opera, Virginia Opera, Utah Festival Opera, and the Belarusian State Philharmonic Orchestra, Minsk. In addition, the European Porgy and Bess tour of New York Harlem Productions brought her Bess to such prestigious venues as the Hamburgische Staatsoper, the Semperoper Dresden, the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, and the Komische Oper Berlin. Ms. Brown also toured with Cape Town Opera, where she sang at the Edinburgh Festival, the Royal Festival Hall London, and the Israeli Opera.
Highlights of Ms. Brown’s performances as a concert soloist include an appearance at the Palais Augarten in Vienna, a gala of American music with the Moscow City Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville Summer of 1915 with the San Jose Chamber Orchestra, Handel’s Messiah with the National Philharmonic and Lebanon Symphony, the Vaughan Williams Dona Nobis Pacem with the Rochester Oratorio Society, Cedar Rapids Chorale and Symphony, and Geneseo Symphony, the Festival Classique’s Opera Under the Stars concert with the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, and the Edison Awards Gala 2010 with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, both of which were televised live in the Netherlands. She has also appeared s a soloist with the Gateways Music Festival, Dallas Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, Finger Lakes Opera, Pasadena Symphony, Rochester Early Music Festival, and the Hines-Lee Opera Ensemble at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Ms. Brown starred in a gala concert Our Songs – The Music of African American Composers at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center with Opera Ebony and was heard at Jazz at Lincoln Center under the auspices of the Licia Albanese-Puccini Foundation. The versatile soprano has also toured with the 3 Mo’ Divas (sister group of the 3 Mo’ Tenors) and scored an early success as Sarah in the Light Opera Works Chicago regional premiere of Ragtime, earning her a “Best Actress in a Musical” nomination from the Black Theater Alliance in Chicago, and made a triumphant returned to the role with the Utah Festival Opera. In addition, she has appeared in theater productions in the Washington DC area with the Studio Theater, Roundhouse Theatre, Arena Stage, and the Kennedy Center Theatre for Young Audiences.