Baritone, Mel Braun
Baritone Mel Braun is a versatile performer, equally at home in oratorio, recital, and opera, always open to new collaborations. He is well-known to Canadian audiences for his frequent performances and broadcasts in the Masterworks of Bach and Handel. These include performances with Tafelmusik, Calgary Bach Festival, Pro Coro Edmonton, Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra. New Music, another of Mel’s interests, has seen him premiere works with Banff Centre, Manitoba Opera, Winnipeg’s New Music Festival, Groundswell, and Toronto’s New Music Gallery. As a recitalist, he is renowned for his creative approach to Song, whether singing Schumann’s Liederkreis while on stage with Winnipeg’s Q Dance, staging Wolf’s Italienisches Liederbuch, or tracing the life of Schubert among his friends as he completed his final work, Die Winterreise. His ongoing duo partnership with pianist Laura Loewen is at the heart of many of these collaborations.
As a teacher, Mel heads up the Vocal Program at the Desautels Faculty of Music, a program renowned for its collaborative and holistic approach to training singers, He has seen many of his students go on to significant careers as performers and teachers. Among Mel’s many initiatives at the Faculty are the annual Opera Theatre School Tour, the Contemporary Opera Lab, and the Professor Bach Project.
As a music director, Mel looks after the operatic ensembles at the Desautels Faculty, as well as working with Dead of Winter (formerly Camerata Nova), a choir devoted to exploring new approaches to Indigenous choral music. He is much in demand as an Adjudicator and choral clinician, and also enjoys teaching many of the young rock singers that make up Winnipeg’s ever-burgeoning Indie Music scene. You’ll find him wherever young singers need mentoring.