Courtney Ellen Bray made her debut in Germany in the title role of Cenerentola in Rossini’s “La Cenerentola”. As a singer under contract in Germany, Ms. Bray performed a large and varied repertoire including opera, operetta, orchestral concerts and art song recitals. In addition, she has appeared as a leading lyric mezzo soprano in Greece, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Mexico and the United States. Roles include Suzuki in “Madame Butterfly”, Giulietta in “Tales of Hoffmann”, Rosina in “The Barber of Seville”, Maddalena in “Rigoletto”, and more recently, the role of Mistress Quickly in Verdi’s “Falstaff”, Iphigénie in Gluck’s “Iphigénie en Tauride” and scenes as Azucena in Verdi’s “Il Trovatore” and Amneris in “Aida”.

In 2006 Ms. Bray made her American concert hall debut on the main stage of Carnegie Hall, as a soloist in Mozart’s “Requiem” and Bruckner’s “Te Deum”. She returned to New York to sing at Carnegie Hall again in the United States premiere of Cherubini’s “Medee” in the original French version. She was the featured soloist with the Guanajuato Symphony Orchestra in Mexico, singing Mozart, Rossini and Tchaikovsky. This led to invitations by both the Silesian Philarmonic’s and Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic’s Orchestras to appear as featured soloist in festival opera concerts. She performed Erda from Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” in Teatro Goldoni in Livorno, Italy and Waltraute’s Narrative from “Götterdämmerung” in Oklahoma.

She recently performed the concert repertoire of of Alban Berg’s “Sieben frühe Lieder” and contemporary Cambodian composer Chinary Ung’s “Still life after death”, and is currently preparing the role of Isabella in Rossini’s “Italiana in Algeri”, Bizet’s Carmen, and Santuzza in “Cavalleria Rusticana”. As the two-time first place winner of the Benton-Schmidt Vocal Competition, she completed her Masters Degree at the University of Oklahoma in May of 2013