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The American baritone and music pedagogue, Brian Montgomery, was always exposed to music. His mother taught piano and required all four of her children to learn an instrument. He chose the violin, but became self-conscious as he got older and other boys teased him. Sprained fingers from ninth-grade football didn't help his violin playing, either. He dropped violin studies and began singing in choir his sophomore year. Central Washington State College offered him a voice scholarship, but Montgomery passed because it didn't cover all the expenses he couldn't afford. After high school, he lived in Bolivia for two years on a mission for the Mormon Church. Upon his return to Burien, he decided to pursue a singing career and began training with Robert Pettersen. He was accepted into the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists in Chicago. In 1985 he moved to New York and began free-lancing as a singer and word processor. With help from teacher Franco Bertacci, he saw his singing jobs grow and began traveling all over the world. Later he obtained his Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from University of Oklahoma (2003-2004).
Brian Montgomery lived in China for 12 years, during which time he appeared in lead baritone roles on the stages in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong, and where he was a sought after voice teacher. He was Head of Vocal Studies at Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts from 2004 to 2009, where he both adminstered the Vocal Department and produced operas. Since January 2010, he has been President of Classical Vocal Arts in Hong Kong. In January 2014 he founded the Summer Vocal Masterclass in Verona, Italy. He is known for his energetic and informative master-class series, where he provides students with timely and proper information through straight talk and encouragements. He has sent many students to professional careers in the classical music industruy.
Brian Montgomery has sung 15 years in international level opera houses. Linguistically sound, he speaks 5 Western languages plus some Mandarin Chinese. He has sung 4 seasons at the Metropolitan Opera, 3 at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and 8 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago among many other theaters. With over 60 leading roles in his repertoire, he can easily jump in on short notice for many productions. His repertoire is Verdi, Puccini and Verismo, but can easily dip into some Donizetti, W.A. Mozart, and German repertoire.
Brian Montgomery has performed to critical acclaim with important opera companies throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Opera (most notably Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor and Posa in Don Carlo), Lyric Opera of Chicago (Posa in Don Carlo, Germont in La Traviata, Guglielmo in W.A. Mozart's Così fan tutte, Mercutio in Charles Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, Marcello and Schaunard in La Bohême, and Malatesta in Don Pasquale), Arena di Verona (Iago in Otello), Bavarian State Opera (most notably Sharpless in Madama Butterfly, Marcello in La Bohême, Silvio in I Pagliacci, Ottokar in Der Freischütz, and Leander in The Love for Three Oranges), Hamburg State Opera and Stuttgart Opera (Marcello in La Bohême), Hungarian State Opera (di Luna in Il Trovatore), Basel Opera (Iago in Otello, Sharpless, Malatesta, and Junius in Benjamin Britten's The Rape of Lucretia), Atlanta Opera (title role of Verdi's Macbeth), Dallas Opera (de Bretigny in Massenet’s Manon), Manitoba Opera (Renato in Un Ballo in Maschera), Palm Beach Opera (Enrico and Germont), Tulsa Opera (Zurga in Les Pêcheurs des Perles), Opera Omaha (Sharpless), Utah Festival Opera (Jack Rance in La Fanciulla del West), Arizona Opera (Renato), Glimmerglass Festival Opera (Alfio in Cavalleria Rusticana), New Orleans Opera (Sharpless), and Madison Opera (the four villains in Les Contes d'Hoffman and the title role in Rigoletto). He created the role of Sloan in the world premiere of Dreamkeepers by David Carlson for the Utah Opera, and has subsequently returned as Iago in Otello and as the Music Master in Ariadne auf Naxos.
In the 2014-2015 season, Brian Montgomery appeared at The Metropolitan Opera for Georges Bizet's Carmen and in 2016 he relocated to the New York area. In early 2019 he created the role of Frederich in New York City Opera’s world premiere production of Dear Eric by Ted Rosenthal. March 2020 holds a debut with he Hudson Valley Philharmonic in W.A. Mozart's Requiem. |
