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Brian Mummert
A charismatic and versatile musician, baritone & conductor Brian Mummert adapts easily to a wide variety of musical genres and eras. He has appeared as a soloist at the American Bach Soloists Festival, with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, with Spire Chamber Ensemble, as a Colburn Fellow at SongFest, and in the world premiere of Georgi Andreev’s A Melancholy Beaut, at Avery Fisher Hall and the Kennedy Center, and has directed a variety of vocal ensembles in venues spanning six continents, including American Prize-winning ensemble The New Consort.
Brian’s operatic roles include Aeneas in Dido and Aeneas, Bob in The Old Maid and the Thief, Mother in Kurt Weill’s Die Sieben Todsünden, Ottone in L’incoronazione di Poppea, Demetrius in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Apollo in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, in addition to a broad oratorio & concert repertoire ranging from Buxtehude’s Membra Jesu Nostri to Pärt’s PASSIO. His ensemble affiliations as a singer include performances in the inaugural concert of the Yale Choral Artists under William Christie, at the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival with Simon Carrington, with the Santa Fe Desert Chorale, the New York Choral Artists, and The Thirteen, and at Bard Summerscape in the New York stage premiere of Strauss’ Die Liebe der Danae. He can be heard on the recordings of Sing Out, Mr. President under Judith Clurman for NPR for Sono Luminus, on Echo Bloom’s latest album, Blue, and on recent releases of the Sanctuary Choir of Marble Collegiate Church in NYC and the Choir of the Basilica of the National Shrine in DC.
Brian is the founder and musical director of The New Consort, a professional solo-voice ensemble dedicated to the juxtaposition of music from diverse composers and repertoires and winners of the 2015 American Prize in Chamber Music. His experience as a musical director ranges from serving as chorus master for Stinney, Frances Pollock’s widely-acclaimed new opera, to serving as associate conductor (in addition to soloist & cantor) of the Choir of Christ Church New Haven.
Brian holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music from Yale University, where he served as the musical director of the Whiffenpoofs, America’s oldest collegiate a cappella group, for their Centennial year. He recently completed a Master of Music in Voice at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with William Sharp and received the George Castelle Memorial Award in Voice. Brian looks forward to beginning further graduate work in choral conducting at Trinity College Cambridge next fall.