ABOUT THE ARTISTS

J’Nai Bridges (BM ’09)

Two-time Grammy Award winner J’Nai Bridges, known for her “plush-voiced mezzo-soprano” (New York Times) and “calmly commanding stage presence” (The New Yorker ), has been heralded as “a rising star” (Los Angeles Times). She made her Metropolitan Opera debut in the Grammy-winning production of Akhnaten, co-starring her fellow MSM alumnus Anthony Roth Costanzo. She has performed on the world’s top opera and concert stages, including in her signature role as Carmen, with engagements at the Arena di Verona, Canadian Opera Company, Dutch National Opera, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In December 2022, J’Nai performed with the Catalyst Quartet at 92NY in a world premiere by Jimmy Lopez. Her recital engagements continued in 2023 with performances at Washington University, the Cliburn, and the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts. A native of Tacoma, Washington, she made her Seattle Opera debut as Delilah in a concert performance of Samson and Delilah in January 2023. One of the Kennedy Center Next 50, “leaders who are lighting the way through art and action,” J’Nai is a leading figure in classical music’s shift toward conversations of inclusion and racial justice. Her work breaking down barriers was explored in PBS’s American Masters series In the Making. A 2012 Marian Anderson Award winner, she was a recipient of the Richard Tucker Career Grant in 2016 and the Sphinx Medal of Excellence in 2018. She earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Curtis Institute.

Le Bu (BM ’22)

A 2022 Grand Finals Winner of the Met’s Laffont Competition, Le Bu, a bass baritone from Yancheng, China, is in his first year in the Metropolitan Opera’s Lindemann Young Artist Development Program. This season, he made his Met debut as a Flemish Deputy in Don Carlo and sang the Second Guard in the holiday production of The Magic Flute. He will make his company debut this summer at Santa Fe Opera as a member of the Apprentice Artist Program, where he will sing Second Spirit in L’Orfeo and study the role of Daland in Der fliegende Holländer. Recent operatic engagements include Dr. Bartolo in Le nozze di Figaro at Aspen Opera Theater and the Speaker in Die Zauberflöte with the Merola Opera Program. He will appear as Rodomonte in a concert production of Furiosus, a new opera by Roberto Scarcella Perino, in collaboration with New York University’s Casa Italiana under the baton of Robert Tweeten. He has previously performed at the Manchester Music Festival, the Art Song Festival at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and iSING! International Young Artists Festival. In 2022, Le was also a winner of the Opera Index Vocal Competition and a recipient of the Hildegard Zadek Foundation Scholarship. He began his vocal training at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music before transferring to Wichita State University. Le completed his Bachelor’s degree at Manhattan School of Music, where he was awarded the Hugh Ross Commencement Award.

Thomas Lausmann (PS ’00)

Thomas Lausmann was appointed Director of Music Administration at the Metropolitan Opera at the beginning of the 2019–20 season. He was previously Head of Music at Vienna State Opera from 2013 to 2019 and an assistant conductor/coach with the company for the preceding three seasons. Thomas is a regular pianist with the Vienna Philharmonic, playing piano, celeste, harpsichord, and organ. He has performed under the baton of Daniel Barenboim, Mariss Jansons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Christian Thielemann, and Franz Welser-Möst, among many others. Thomas has been a Principal Coach at Bayreuther Festspiele since 2008. He has assisted Christian Thielemann in productions of the Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, and The Flying Dutchman, and served as Head of Music for the Ring cycle conducted by Marek Janowski. Thomas has also worked as Principal Coach at the Salzburger Festspiele, recently assisting Franz Welser-Möst on Salome and Elektra. Previous positions include Associate Head of Music at Komische Oper Berlin, Assistant Head of Music at Hamburg State Opera, Assistant Conductor at Washington National Opera, and Assistant Conductor for seven seasons at New York City Opera.

Daniel Rich (MM ’19)

Originally from Baltimore, Maryland, baritone Daniel Rich is in his first year in the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at the Metropolitan Opera. This season, he covered the Count of Lerma in the company’s revival of Don Carlo and he makes his Met debut as a Waiter in Der Rosenkavalier. Later this season, he will make his role and company debuts as Masetto in Don Giovanni with Wolf Trap Opera and as Valentin in Faust with Opera Baltimore. In 2022, he performed in both the workshop and world premiere of Omar, a new opera by Rhiannon Giddens and Michael Abels at the Spoleto Festival USA. On the concert stage, he has been a featured soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, a concert featuring works by Duke Ellington and Mary Lou Williams with the Los Angeles Master Chorale, and two performances of Carmina Burana with Berkshire Choral International and Richmond Symphony in collaboration with Wolf Trap Opera. In 2023, he was named a winner of the inaugural Duncan Williams Voice Competition for Black and Latinx classical singers presented by New York City Opera and Manhattan School of Music. He is a past winner of the Harlem Opera Theater Vocal Competition, the Mario Lanza Institute Vocal Competition, the Opera Ebony Benjamin Matthews Vocal Competition, and the Black Brilliance Art Song Competition. In addition to performing, Daniel has worked as a musical consultant and choral librarian, as a public school teacher, and as an adjunct professor of voice at University of Maryland. He holds degrees from Morgan State University and Manhattan School of Music, where he was a recipient of the Edgar Foster Daniels Scholarship in Voice.

Ted Rosenthal (BM ’81, MM ’83)

Acclaimed jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal has performed worldwide as soloist, with his trio, and with jazz greats, including Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, and James Moody. Winner of the Thelonious Monk International Competition, Ted has released 15 critically acclaimed CDs as a leader. His latest, Rhapsody in Gershwin, reached number one on iTunes and Amazon. He has been a featured soloist with major orchestras, including the Detroit Symphony and Phoenix Symphony, and has performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. An active composer, his jazz opera, Dear Erich, was commissioned and premiered by New York City Opera in 2019. The recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Ted has also been commissioned by Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, and Dallas Black Dance Theatre. He is an author and is active in jazz education. He has served on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music, where he earned Bachelor and Master of Music degrees, since 1999 and is a former faculty trustee of the School. Ted is also on the faculty of the Juilliard School and presents jazz clinics throughout the world.

Bernie Williams (BM ’16)

Growing up in Puerto Rico, Bernie Williams discovered baseball and music as a boy at roughly the same time. At the age of eight, he fell in love with the sounds of a flamenco guitar his merchantmarine father brought home from Spain and felt the same exhilaration when he first picked up a baseball bat. The young student-athlete quickly excelled in both pursuits, going on to attend the Escuela Libre de Música and becoming both a track and field standout and one of Puerto Rico’s most sought-after young baseball prospects. Signed by the New York Yankees in 1987, Bernie worked his way through the farm system and made his Major League debut with the Yankees in 1991. He became a four-time World Series champion and a five-time All Star during his professional baseball career. Bernie is the author of the book Rhythms of the Game: The Link Between Music and Athletic Performance (2011), which examines the symbiotic relationship between musical artistry and athletic performance through the eyes of a man who has mastered both. Moving Forward, his second album as guitarist and songwriter, earned a Latin Grammy nomination. He proudly graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Guitar from Manhattan School of Music in 2016 and now serves on the School’s Board of Trustees. He continues to perform at concert venues, music festivals, and special events.

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