Showing posts with label john brandon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label john brandon. Show all posts

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Barihunk John Brandon featured for male nanny service

John Brandon
We recently ran a feature highlighting John Brancy and Tobias Greenhalgh, who were featured on a PBS segment about people in the arts and their entrepreneurial endeavors. Now we found a feature about 27-year-old barihunk John Brandon who has created a company for male nannies called NYC Mannies (you really can't make stuff up this great!).

The company is actually thriving and Brandon works as a manny for a celebrity couple on the Upper East Side. You can read the entire feature HERE.

You can enjoy Brandon's operatic skills HERE.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Upcoming FREE Barihunk Concerts of Interest

Southern Heat: Tennessee native John Brandon
Barihunk John Brandon will be part of a free afternoon of opera at the University of Tennessee in Chattanooga on Sunday, April 15, at 3 p.m. in the Roland Hayes Hall.

An Afternoon of Opera sponsored by the Connor Society will be held on , UTC Fine Arts Center, located at the intersection of Vine and Palmetto Streets.  He will be joined by soprano Cherry Brendel, tenor Ron Brendel and mezzo Rosella Ewing in selections from Carmen, Rigoletto, La traviata, Lakme, The Pearl Fishers, Samson & Delilah, The Elixir of Love, and The Magic Flute.
 
For more information, call 425-4627 or email verbie-prevost@utc.edu.

Apple of our eye: Christopher Dylan Herbert
Christopher Dylan Herbert is breaking away from his role as the baritone/bass member of New York Polyphony to perform a free concert on Monday, April 16 at 1pm at St. Paul's Chapel near Ground Zero. Herbert will be performing Johann Sebastian Bach's Cantata 56, "Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen," one of only two solo cantatas for baritone written by the German baroque master.

Also on the program is mezzo Luthen Brackett performing Bach's Cantata 54, and organist Renée Louprette performing Bach's Fugue in Eb Major (BWV 551b). Click HERE for additional information. The concert will be broadcast live on WWFM.

Seattle's Best: Joseph Lattanzi & David Krohn
Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" is generally not a barihunk opera, but the Seattle Opera is featuring two of its hottest young artists in a free simulcast on Saturday, May 5th. David Krohn will sing Prince Yamadori and Joseph Lattanzi will sing the Registrar in the opening night performance that includes the Cio-Cio-San of Patricia Racette.

The live HD simulcast from McCaw Hall will be broadcast onto a 50' x 80' screen at KeyArena. Tickets are free, but are expected to go fast, so reserve your tickets by clicking HERE.  Door will open at 6:00 PM and the broadcast will begin at 7:30 PM.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com


Thursday, March 1, 2012

Hey Ya'll, Tennessee Ain't Just For Country Singers Anymore: Seth Mease Carico & John Brandon

Tennessee natives and barihunks Seth Mease Carico and John Brandon

We recently featured John Brandon, who is performing Morales with Opera Brimingham. We subsequently learned that he's from the same Tennessee town as one of our favorite barihunks, Seth Mease Carico. In fact, the two singers were recently profiled in Chattanooga's CityScope magazine in a piece about four Tennessee natives who have gone to have careers in opera.

Chattanooga natives emerge as Illustrious Performers
By Christy L. Luellen

Mention Tennessee music and the mind easily races to any one of Nashville’s many famous country artists. But Chattanooga has produced several internationally recognized opera singers, who credit, among others, teachers from Harrison Elementary, Ooltewah Elementary School, Baylor School and McCallie School for their start in musical careers. What follows are profiles of four opera professionals who are proud to call the Scenic City home.

John Brandon from www.johnbrandonbaritone.com

John Brandon
McCallie School, 2004

Twenty-six-year-old John Brandon, a McCallie School graduate, has been emerging as an opera professional in the United States for the past two years, with engagements at North Carolina Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Columbus, Opera Naples and Opera Birmingham. While Brandon’s baritone voice is most often noted by critics for its lyrical quality, others have praised it for its “fine abandon and style” and “abundant heft and color.”

At the age of nine, Brandon started his singing career as a member of the Chattanooga Boys Choir before going on to receive training in music and voice by teachers at the McCallie School. His education continued at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, N.J., where he earned a Bachelor of Music in Vocal Performance in 2008. Shortly after, Brandon toured eight different European countries, performing with some of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, including the Kammerchor Stuttgart in Germany and English Voices in London.

Even with his extensive vocal training and experience, Brandon believes that his acting is just as important as his singing.

“It is important for me to not only give a performance that is beautifully sung, but one that is convincing. So I’m internally motivated by what my character wants and needs, and externally motivated by what the audience wants and needs,” he says.

One of Brandon’s all-time favorite roles has been Gaylord Ravenal in Showboat, performed with Opera Naples in November of last year. “I loved the fact that we were both from Tennessee,” he says. “Plus, it was a romantic lead, which does not always happen for baritones.” When his voice matures into Verdi repertoire, Brandon said he would also love to play the title role in Macbeth or Rodrigo in Don Carlo.

Brandon just finished a role in Carmen in Opera Birmingham. This summer, he will perform a private concert in Copenhagen, Denmark, as well as audition for several European opera companies.

Seth Mease Carico as seen in the Barihunks charity calendar

Seath Mease Carico
Baylor School 2000

Described by Opera News as “powerful in voice and bearing,” 30-year-old bass-baritone Seth Carico—a 2000 Baylor grad—is quickly distinguishing himself as an accomplished singer both nationally and abroad. Last year, Carico made his European debut as a young artist at the Deutsche Oper in Berlin and the Teatro Regio Torino in Turin, playing roles in Tosca, Carmen, Le nozze di Figaro and La Traviata among other operas.

However, Carico’s first performance venue was a little closer to home. At nine years old, Carico appeared on stage for the first time in Signal Mountain Playhouse’s 1991 production of The King and I. Gifted in both acting and singing, he would continue performing at Baylor School in both musical and non-musical productions, a combination that he believes still continues to give him a competitive edge.

Claiming his voice is not suited for light romantic roles, Seth now prefers to play “complicated, not always happy, characters.” One of his favorite memories is helping to create the role of Victor in the world premiere of Cuban-American composer Jorge Martín’s Before Night Falls at the Fort Worth Opera in 2010. Victor was the oppressor of the central character, and according to Carico, a particularly nasty villain. Continuing in this vein, one of Carico’s goals is to play Sweeney Todd in Stephen Sondheim’s dark, semi-operatic musical. “I do love playing the tortured souls!” he says.
But while Carico knows how to enjoy himself on stage, he also takes his art very seriously. Although only 30, Carico aspires to be part of an operatic production team when he retires from singing.

“Opera is a unique art form,” the bass- baritone says. “The stories—while often ridiculous—tend to say great things about life and the human experience. The emotions exhibited in opera are so grand that there is really no way to express them sufficiently other than through the use of music and the spectacle of epic productions.”

The summer of 2012 will find this graduate of Middle Tennessee State University and the University of Michigan as a young artist at the Merola Opera program at the San Francisco Opera Center.

To read about Janel Frazee and Richard Cox, the other singers featured in the article, click HERE.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Reader Submission: John Brandon

Two shots from John Brandon's website

Barihunk John Brandon is our latest reader submission. He opened in Carmen on Sunday at Opera Birmingham, where he is singing Morales. The 6' 3" singer has recently performed Enrico in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor with Opera Vivente and Antonio in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro with both Nashville Opera and Opera Columbus.

The 26-year-old has toured and recorded with Kammerchor Stuttgart, English Voices and the Westminster Choir. He can next be seen in the St. John Passion as Jesus with the Chattanooga Bach Choir in his home state of Tennessee.

You can listen to audio clips of John Brandon on his website.

CONTACT US AT Barihunks@gmail.com