Baritone Brian Mextorf’s 2018/19 season included a role debut singing Raphael in Creation, a recital with the Brooklyn Art Song Society singing Barber’s Despite and Still, op. 41, four iterations of the bass solos in Mozart’s Requiem including a performance at Alice Tully Hall, a return to Carnegie Hall as bass soloist in Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli, and additional performances with the New York Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, The Choir of Trinity Wall Street, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, Sacred Music in a Sacred Space, and Musica Viva NY. His 2017/18 season featured solo debuts at Carnegie Hall (Schubert’s Mass No. 2), Lincoln Center (La traviata) and National Sawdust (AIDS Quilt Songbook). Additional 2017/18 engagements included baritone soloist in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem, recitals with pianists Seymour Bernstein and Brent Funderburk, and performances with the Brooklyn Art Song Society, New York Philharmonic, Choir of Trinity Wall Street, and New York City Ballet.
Brian has performed operatic roles such as Aeneas in Opera Saratoga’s innovative outdoor production of Dido and Aeneas, Marcello in a Virginia Opera’s production of La bohème performed in various non-traditional venues, and the title role in a staged production of Handel’s Saul in Russell, Kansas. Other recent highlights include Giorgio Germont in La traviata, a concert with the Richmond Symphony, and first prize in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions North Carolina District and second prize in the Southeast Region. As a member of the Opera Theatre of St. Louis and Virginia Opera young artist programs, Brian has sung performances of Captain Corcoran and Bill Bobstay in HMS Pinafore, Anthony Hope (cover) in Sweeney Todd, Paris in Roméo et Juliette, and three roles in the North American Premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland.
A native of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Brian is an alumnus of The Oberlin Conservatory of Music and Westminster Choir College.