Lyric Opera 2025-2026 Issue 5 - BLAC

11 | Lyric Opera of Chicago ANGELA BROWN SOPRANO Brown has appeared on leading opera and symphonic stages on six continents including Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, National Opera of Paris, Vienna State Opera, Cape Town (South Africa) Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Edmonton Opera, Calgary Philharmonic, Shanghai World Expo, Moscow Performing Arts Center, the Metropolitan Opera, Bilbao Opera, Teatro La Fenice, Hamburg Opera, Opera Philadelphia, Cincinnati Opera, Pittsburgh Opera, and more. She has been presented in solo recital throughout the United States, Canada, Spain, New Zealand, China, and Africa. She is a featured artist on the two-time Grammy winning recording Ask Your Mama , and originated the roles of Addie Parker/ Charlie Parker’s Yardbird and Cilla/ Margaret Garne r. Brown’s repertoire includes the roles of Tosca, Aida, Amelia/ Un Ballo in Maschera , Elisabetta/ Don Carlo , and Leonora/ Il trovatore . She is the founder of Morning Brown, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to the development of multicultural role models and audiences in the performing arts, and serves as the Artistic and Educational Ambassador of Indianapolis Opera. ALYSON CAMBRIDGE SOPRANO The soprano has made numerous appearances on the world’s leading opera and concert stages for more than two decades, including the Metropolitan Opera, Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center, Washington National Opera, London’s Royal Albert Hall, Deutsche Oper Berlin, and New York’s Broadway Theatre, among others. She made her debut at Lyric as Giulietta/ Les contes d’Hoffman , followed by Julie LaVerne/ Show Boat (both 2011/12). Cambridge is particularly known for her diverse vocal range and repertoire. Her most frequently performed operatic roles in recent seasons include the title roles of Tosca and Carmen, as well as Bess (Porgy and Bess), as well as both Mimi and Musetta ( La Bohème ), Donna Elvira ( Don Giovann i), and Hanna Glawari ( The Merry Widow ). Equally at home in musical theater, jazz, and modern works, Cambridge has made Julie La Verne in Show Boat, a signature role, and has portrayed both Baroness Elsa Schraeder and Mother Abbess in various productions of The Sound of Music. She recently took on the title role in the new opera-play hybrid The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson. She has three albums including: From the Diary of Sally Hemings, a song cycle by William Bolcom and Sandra Seaton; Until Now, jazz and musical theater standards; and Sisters In Song, opera, song, and African-American spiritual duets with soprano Nicole Cabell. Also an active producer, model, and actress, she has created multiple cross-genre musical productions, been featured in ad campaigns for fashion and beauty brands, and currently stars in Bravo and Peacock’s new series, Kings Court. Cambridge serves as the Executive Director of B.L.A.C., the Black Leadership Arts Collective, and on artistic advisory boards for The Glimmerglass Festival, Daniel’s Music Foundation, and Sing for Hope. JACQUELINE ECHOLS SOPRANO Recent highlights for Echols include a reprisal of the role of Julie in Rhiannon Giddens Omar with the Quad City Symphony (a role she first sang with LA Opera) as well as the world premiere of She Who Dared at Chicago Opera Theater in the role of Rosa Parks. Other recent engagements include the role of Juliette in Roméo et Juliette with both Arizona Opera and Opera San Antonio and the role of Mary Dee in the Liverpool Oratorio with Cincinnati Opera. This season, she will be featured at Virginia Opera as Mary Jane in Jake Heggie’s Intelligence, and appear with the Reno Chamber Orchestra. Echols has been featured at the Metropolitan Opera as Clara in Porgy and Bess, Noémie in the family adaptation of Cendrillon, Poussette in Manon, and Musetta in La Bohème. She has also appeared as Clara with The Atlanta Opera and in her company debut with Des Moines Metro Opera. At Washington National Opera she sang Violetta in La traviata , Sister Helen in Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, and Woglinde/Forest Bird in Der Ring des Nibelungen. She has also sung Violetta with Palm Beach Opera and has performed the role of Pip in Heggie’s Moby Dick with LA Opera, The Dallas Opera, and Pittsburgh Opera. LAQUITA MITCHELL SOPRANO Mitchell was recently nominated for a Grammy for her contribution as the soprano soloist in the world premiere of Paul Moravec’s Sanctuary Road at Carnegie Hall with Oratorio Society of New York. Last season, she made her début as Aida with Dayton Opera. She also joined California Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Charleston Symphony for Sanctuary Road, the Bilkent Symphony in Turkey for a concert of American songs, Cleveland Orchestra for their 45th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Concert, and Austin Symphony as Bess in a concert production of Porgy and Bess. In concert this season, Mitchell will perform Strauss’s Four Last Songs with Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, Dvorak’s Te Deum and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasy with Charleston Artist profiles