About
Coloratura soprano Megan Brunning is at home with demanding roles such as the Queen of the Night in Die Zauberflöte, Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and Olympia in Les contes d’Hoffmann. She has also enjoyed performing Norina in Don Pasquale, Adina in L’elisir d’amore, Cunegonde in Candide, and Gilbert & Sullivan damsels Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance and Gianetta in The Gondoliers.
This past year, Ms. Brunning has been spreading “Der Hölle Rache” throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans as a guest soprano with Princess Cruises. Previous engagements as the Queen of the Night include St. Petersburg Opera, Asheville Lyric Opera, Sugar Creek Opera, and touring educational outreach with Opera for the Young. In 2020, she makes her European debut as the Queen of the Night with Hamburger Kammeroper and returns to Sugar Creek Opera as Mabel in The Pirates of Penzance. In the summer of 2017, Ms. Brunning performed the Second Fairy and covered Hermia in Gramercy Opera’s The Fairy Queen. With one day’s notice and one rehearsal, she delivered both roles of Hermia and Second Fairy in the same performance. She has also appeared with Amore Opera, Opera Company of Brooklyn, Opera del West, Scenic City Opera, Capitol City Opera, the Atlanta Opera, Greensboro Light Opera and Song, Songfest at Colburn, Harrower Summer Opera Workshop, Greek Opera Studio, and the Festival of the Aegean.
As a concert soloist, Ms. Brunning has frequently accompanied the choirs of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, including performances of Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Arvo Pärt’s Passio, Bach’s Ein feste burg ist unser Gott, and Handel’s Dixit Dominus. She can be heard as a soloist with the Cathedral Choir and Schola on the albums Into the House and Gate of Heaven and American Canticle, available through Gothic Records and NAXOS. Other concert engagements include Handel’s Messiah with St. Bart’s NYC, Rutter’s Mass of the Children with the Athens Choral Society, excerpts from Bernstein’s Candide with University of Georgia orchestras, Mendelssohn’s Psalm 42 with UGA choirs and orchestra, and Corigliano’s Fern Hill with the Emory University Mastersingers.
Ms. Brunning was a 2019 Orpheus Vocal Competition Semifinalist, 2018 New Hampshire Opera Idol Finalist, the winner of the 2017 Elaine Malbin Vocal Competition, a finalist in the 2016 New Jersey Association of Verismo Opera Competition, and a semifinalist in the 2015 James Toland Vocal Arts Competition. Other awards include the Second Place Encouragement Award in the 2015 Pro-Mozart Society of Atlanta Competition, 2012 Opera Birmingham Competition Semifinalist, and 2012 University of Georgia Concerto Competition Winner. In 2013, Megan competed as a Regional Finalist in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions. She received an encouragement award from the 2014 MONC Georgia District Auditions.