Gabriela Montero at Prager | Season 4, Concert 5

BEL CANTO CHRISTMAS | Lawrence Brownlee & Erin Morley
Sat, December 20, 2025 at Prager Family Center for the Arts | 7:30 PM

Lawrence Brownlee | tenor & Erin Morley | soprano | USA Bryan Wagorn | piano | Canada

Two of the brightest stars in opera, Lawrence Brownlee and Erin Morley arrive directly from the stage of the Metropolitan Opera, bringing Bel Canto duets from their newly released album.

Time & Place

Saturday, December 20, 2025, 7:30 PM
Doors open at 7:00 PM

The Ebenezer Theater at The Prager Family Center for the Arts
17 S Washington St, Easton, MD 21601, USA

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About the Artists

Lawrence Brownlee

Lawrence Brownlee is a leading figure in opera, both as a singer who has graced the world's leading stages, and as a voice for activism and diversity in the industry. Captivating audiences and critics around the globe, he has been hailed as “an international star in the bel canto operatic repertory” (The New York Times), “one of the world’s leading bel canto stars” (The Guardian), and “one of the most in-demand opera singers in the world today” (NPR).

In the 2024-2025 season, Mr. Brownlee makes his highly anticipated role debut in the title role of Mozart’s Mitridate, re di ponto with Boston Lyric Opera. He also returns to The Metropolitan Opera as Count Amaviva in Il Barbiere di Siviglia (broadcast Live in HD in theaters worldwide), and joins Opéra national de Paris as Tonio in La fille du régiment and Arturo in I puritani, as well as The New National Theatre in Tokyo as Count Almaviva, and Bayerische Staatsoper as Tonio. On the concert stage, Mr. Brownlee will join Levy Sekgapane in a duo concert with the Latvian National Orchestra, L’Auditori in the closing concert, and will embark on a recital tour featuring songs from his acclaimed Rising program across North America and Europe.

Highlights of Mr. Brownlee’s recent seasons include his return as Ernesto in Don Pasquale at Teatro alla Scala Milan and as Tonio in La fille du régiment at Lyric Opera Chicago, as well as his role debuts as Tamino in Die Zauberflöte at The Metropolitan Opera, as Edgardo in Lucia di Lammermoor at The New National Theatre Tokyo and Fernand in a new production of Donizetti’s La Favorite with Houston Grand Opera. In spring 2021, Brownlee joined The Juilliard School as a Distinguished Visiting Faculty Member. He serves as artistic advisor for Opera Philadelphia and is an Ambassador for Lyric Opera of Chicago’s Lyric Unlimited as well as Opera for Peace.

Erin Morley

Erin Morley is one of today’s most sought-after coloratura sopranos. She has stepped into the international spotlight in recent years with a string of critically acclaimed appearances in the great opera houses of the world.

Erin Morley has been praised for the “silken clarity of her voice and the needlepoint precision of her coloratura” (New York Times). A recipient of the Beverly Sills Award, and a graduate of the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, her performances have garnered huge critical acclaim worldwide and she regularly appears on the greatest opera stages, such as the Vienna State Opera, Teatro alla Scala, Royal Opera House, Bavarian State Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Gran Teatre del Liceu Barcelona, Teatro La Fenice, Glyndebourne Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Los Angeles Opera and of course, Metropolitan Opera where she has now sung more than 100 performances and has been featured in eight “Live in HD” broadcasts.

In the 2024-25 season Morley returns to the Metropolitan Opera with a double appearance: as Olympia in The Tales of Hoffman and Gilda in Rigoletto. Further highlights include Gilda and a special performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Arena di Verona and Cunegonde in concert performances of Candide at Semperoper Dresden. Elsewhere on the concert platform, Morley will tour in Berlin and Vienna as soloist with Maestro Christian Thielemann and the Staatskapelle Berlin with a program of Strauss Orchesterlieder, as well as appearances with Boston Baroque and Boston Symphony Orchestra. In recital, she presents Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch together with Huw Montague Rendall and Malcolm Martineau at London’s Wigmore Hall and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw; and presents her “Rose in Bloom” program at Park Avenue Armory, Yale School of Music, Friends of Chamber Music, and the BRAVO! Series at Brigham Young University.

Last season saw Morley making her highly anticipated company debuts at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden as Gilda in Rigoletto, and at Teatro la Fenice in Venice as Zerbinetta in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos. On the concert platform further highlights included her debut at the Arena di Verona in Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and Morgana in Alcina with Les Musiciens du Louvre under the baton of Marc Minkowski at Teatro alla Scala to mark the release of a new recording of the opera on Pentatone. Further concert engagements included the soprano soloist in Orff’s Carmina Burana with the Orchestre de Paris under the baton of Andrés Orozco Estrada; a gala concert with Washington Concert Opera; Poulenc Gloria with Houston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Juraj Valčuha; Brahms Requiem with the Orchestra of St Luke’s at Carnegie Hall conducted by Xian Zhang; and recitals in Berkeley and at the Kennedy Center, Washington DC, to mark the release of her solo recital album, “Rose in Bloom.”

Recent operatic highlights include: Pamina in a new production of Die Zauberflöte, the title role in Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Olympia in Les Contes d’Hoffmann, all at the Metropolitan Opera; her Teatro alla Scala debut as  Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos; Gilda in a new production of Rigoletto, Tytania in a new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Zerbinetta, and Sophie, all at the Wiener Staatsoper; Norina in Don Pasqualeand Zerbinetta both at Glyndebourne Festival; a critically acclaimed debut in one of the most iconic coloratura title roles in Lakmé with Washington Concert Opera; Gilda at Staatsoper Berlin; Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail and Sophie at Opéra de Paris; Fiakermilli in Arabella and Gilda at Bayerische Staatsoper; the title role of Lucia di Lammermoor in Nancy; Tytania, Roxana in Krol Roger, Mme Silberklang in Der Schauspieldirektor and the title role in Stravinsky’s The Nightingale, all at Santa Fe Opera. Cunegonde in Candide is another role that Morley has made her own and has performed in stellar company at LA Opera with James Conlon and actors Kelsey Grammer and Christine Ebersole; with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Philadelphia Orchestra with Alek Shrader, Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan; and at the Carnegie Hall Centenary with John Lithgow.

Equally at home on the concert platform, Morley has performed with leading orchestras such as Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, LA Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Staatskapelle Dresden and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent successes include Beethoven Missa Solemnis with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Riccardo Muti; Carmina Burana with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Festival conducted by Andris Nelsons; Mozart’s Mass in C Minor for the Mostly Mozart Festival at the Lincoln Center, conducted by Louis Langrée, a tour with Harry Bicket and The English Concert, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Met Chamber Ensemble in Carnegie’s Zankel Hall; and Poulenc Gloria with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lorenzo Viotti at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna’s Musikverein. Morley also appeared in the famous televised New Year’s Eve concerts with the  Staatskapelle Dresden and Christian Thielemann, performing Princess Mi in Léhar’s Das Land des Lächelns. She has collaborated with the Staatskapelle Dresden on tour as well, again with Maestro Thielemann, in a program of Strauss Orchesterlieder, including a world premiere of Thomas Hennig’s “Nacht.” A dedicated recitalist, Morley’s appearances include collaborations with pianists Vlad Iftinca, Ken Noda, Gerald Martin Moore, and Malcolm Martineau.

Morley’s debut recital disc with Gerald Martin Moore, “Rose in Bloom,” released in 2024 and has received critical acclaim worldwide, praising the ‘crystalline debut of a new high coloratura star’. Morley’s many recordings include Morgana in a complete recording of Handel’s Alcina for the Pentatone label, Eurydice in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated recording of Matthew Aucoin’s Eurydice, Princesse Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le Diable with Opéra National de Bordeaux for Palazzetto Bru Zane, Sister Constance in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated Les Dialogues des Carmélites, as well as Sophie in the Met’s GRAMMY-nominated Der Rosenkavalier on DVD/Blu-Ray for the Decca label; Mater Gloriosa in the LA Phil’s GRAMMY-winning Mahler Symphony No. 8 with Gustavo Dudamel for Deutsche Grammophon; Princess Mi in the Staatskapelle Dresden’s Das Land des Lächelns with Christian Thielemann for Unitel; Sandrina La Finta Giardiniera with Emmanuelle Haïm in Opéra de Lille’s production for the Erato label; Woglinde Götterdämmerung in the Metropolitan Opera’s GRAMMY-winning Lepage Ring Cycle for Deutsche Grammophon; Marguerite de Valois in Les Huguenots, live from Bard SummerScape for the American Symphony Orchestra; Carl Nielsen’s Symphony No. 3 “Espansiva” with Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic for Da Capo Records; and Sylvie in Gounod’s opéra-comique La Colombe with Sir Mark Elder and The Hallé Orchestra for the Opera Rara label.

Morley spent her early years studying violin and piano, and frequently collaborated with her mother, violinist Elizabeth Palmer. An undergraduate of the Eastman School of Music, she went on to earn her Master of Music voice degree from The Juilliard School and her Artist Diploma from the Juilliard Opera Center in 2007, where she received the Florence & Paul DeRosa Prize. Morley also trained at the Opera Theatre of St. Louis as a Gerdine Young Artist, the Ravinia Festival Steans Institute, and the Wolf Trap Opera Company as a Filene Young Artist. She won 1st Prize in the Jessie Kneisel Lieder Competition in 2002, and 1st Place in the Licia Albanese Puccini Foundation Competition in 2006. She also received the Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2013, the Beverly Sills Award in 2021, the Opera News Award in 2023, the Eastman School of Music Centennial Award in 2023, and the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the French government in 2024.

Bryan Wagorn

Canadian-American pianist Bryan Wagorn serves as Assistant Conductor at The Metropolitan Opera. He has appeared on such television and radio stations as Good Morning America, WQXR and CBC Radio. He regularly performs with the Met Chamber Ensemble in concerts at Carnegie Hall and performed as pianist in the Met’s Grammy-winning productions of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” and Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in my Bones” and “Champion”. He recently performed the role of pianist Boleslao Lazinski onstage at the Metropolitan Opera in their 2023 production of Giordano’s Fedora directed by David McVicar, the role having been last performed by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.

As a conductor he collaborated with Angel Blue and the LA Opera on a digital short film with music by David Lang directed by Bill Morrison. He also performed and recorded on the Met Museum’s Cristofori fortepiano, the oldest such instrument in existence. In 2022 he performed in Carnegie Hall’s gala fundraiser for Ukraine in Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium along such artists as Angel Blue, Denyce Graves, Isabel Leonard, Midori, and Evgeny Kissin.

Mr. Wagorn has been engaged by summer festivals including Tanglewood, Ravinia, Salzburg, Glyndebourne, Marlboro, Seiji Ozawa’s Matsumoto festival, and has served on the faculties of the National Arts Centre Orchestra of Canada’s Summer Music Institute, Youth Orchestra of the Americas, and Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra. He has performed with internationally acclaimed artists including Angel Blue, Anthony Roth Costanzo, Lise Davidsen, Joyce DiDonato, Midori, Nadine Sierra, and Pinchas Zukerman. He has been a guest teacher at the Royal Academy of Music in London, the Glenn Gould School of Music in Toronto, the Met’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program, Glynebourne’s Jerwood Young Artist Program, and the McGill Schulich School of Music.

He made his solo recital debut at New York's Carnegie Hall in 2009 and has also appeared at the Library of Congress, the United Nations General Assembly, the Teatro Real in Madrid, the Teatro di San Carlo in Napoli, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Hamburg Opera, Summer Stage in New York’s Central Park, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and he has also toured extensively with Jeunesses Musicales. He has also performed recitals for the Marilyn Horne Foundation, Richard Tucker Foundation, and George London Foundation.

Mr. Wagorn is on the advisory boards of the Hildegard Behrens Foundation and the Bagby Foundation, and serves on faculty at the Mannes College of Music and the Manhattan School of Music. He is a graduate of the University of Ottawa, the Mannes College of Music, and the Manhattan School of Music.

Mr. Wagorn is a Steinway artist.