Erin Brittain is a versatile artist, having performed over 30 different roles in opera, operetta, and musical theater and has sung for audiences both regionally and overseas. Often playing roles that go against the grain of the soprano archetype in her performances, Erin reveals a flair for quirky character roles like Miss Pinkerton, the histrionic neighbor in The Old Maid and the Thief and Carmen’s sidekick Mercédès, while bringing an extra dimension to her interpretation of leading roles like Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Serafina in Il Campanello di Notte, and Beatrice in Jake Heggie’s Three Decembers.

As a concert soloist and recitalist Erin is a similarly prolific performer. As an Artist in Residence with the Canton Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, she performed various works including Bach’s Jauchzett Gott and Mozart’s Missa Brevis in D. Erin made her Boston debut in a staged version of Schütz’s Christmas Oratorio, Weinachtshistorie, with The Weckmann Project/Musica Nuova. She has sung the Mozart Coronation Mass, Fauré’s Requiem and the Stanford Magnificat in G with the Festival Orchestra in Princeton, and overseas sang in performances of Mozart’s Laudate Dominum and the Stanford Magnificat at Howard Castle in York. She sang the Agnus Dei from the Mozart Coronation Mass at the Gendarmenmarkt in Berlin. In 2022, she was the soprano soloist in the Dvorak Gloria in  excerpts from Fredrik Sixten’s St. John Passion in Tallin and Stockholm. She most recently appeared with the Bard Music Festival, and was the featured soprano soloist in Benjamin Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb.

Many of Erin’s performances have received attention from critics. As a fellowship artist with Hubbard Hall Opera, Erin performed the role of Miss Pinkerton in The Old Maid and the Thief, and as The Countess Ceprano in Rigoletto, drawing praise from Berkshire Fine Arts for her “clear soprano and expressive acting.” While singing in concert with the Princeton Festival, Town Topics hailed Erin’s “warm, delicate tone” and “exquisite performance.” As the soprano soloist in Ernest Bloch’s Avodath Hakodesh with the Master Voices Chorus in 2023, Woman About Town commented, “Brittain’s crystal soprano ascends gorgeously, emerging from the chorus like a voice of purity.” 

Erin’s career has given her the opportunity to work with numerous companies and festivals, including the American Symphony Orchestra, the Bard Music Festival, the New York Virtuoso Singers, the Berkshire Bach Society, Opera Fayetteville, Princeton Festival Opera, ARE Opera (now City Lyric Opera), Opera Delaware, Dicapo Opera, Hubbard Hall Opera, Chelsea Opera, Garden State Opera, Eastern Opera of New Jersey, Liederkranz Opera, Opera Vivente and Opera Manhattan, appearing onstage in venues that include Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. 

An enthusiastic performer of contemporary and new music, Erin has appeared as the Mad Mermaid, one of three split personalities in Ophelia Forever, a chamber opera examining the tragic character from Shakespeare’s Hamlet by the award-winning composer Amy Beth Kirsten. In the role of Diana in Henry Mollicone’s Emperor Norton, she had the opportunity to work directly with the composer.  As a member of The Perspective Collective Ensemble (TPC), she has played an active role in commissioning and producing thought provoking works from composers, including Michael Leibowitz’s For Love of Country, Sunny Knable’s The Pride of Pripyat , and Stephanie Leotsakos’s adaptation of Young Goodman Brown.   On tour with the TPC in the UK, Erin again drew praise from critics for her performances in Young Goodman Brown (“Faith is also personified in the character and in the name of his wife, played by soprano Erin Brittain whose mastery of some of the more lyrical sections was a real pleasure,”) and in The Pride of Pripyat, (“Soprano Erin Brittain had a silver voice, and was particularly expressive with her characters. Sharp comedy as the neighbour Svetlana, desperate smiles as the Schoolteacher, and another cackling yet stubborn Babushka, she gave a series of delightful performances.”)

Erin received a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a master’s degree from the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, both in Classical Voice. Outside of music, she has a great enthusiasm for horror movies, afternoon tea, adventure video games (and all things Zelda), public radio, and The Great British Baking Show (she has a recurring nightmare in which she is a contestant, whose best efforts are met by Paul Hollywood’s raised eyebrow as he delivers the final blow: ”that icing looks a bit…informal”).

REVIEWS

“Soprano Erin Brittain had a silver voice, and was particularly expressive with her characters. Sharp comedy as the neighbour Svetlana, desperate smiles as the Schoolteacher, and another cackling yet stubborn Babushka, she gave a series of delightful performances.”

Number 9 Reviews (Svetlanta/Teacher/Babushka, The Pride of Pripyat)

“Faith is also personified in the character and in the name of his wife, played by soprano Erin Brittain whose mastery of some of the more lyrical sections was a real pleasure. ”

Fringe Theaterfest Blog (Faith, Young Goodman Brown) 

“Brittain’s crystal soprano ascends gorgeously, emerging from the chorus like a voice of purity.”

Woman About Town (Concert Soloist, O How Good, with MasterVoices, conducted by Ted Sperling) 

“Erin Brittain soprano…sang the text (from Ecclesiastes) with clean diction and lyrical melody…The centerpiece of the program was Ernest Bloch’s 1933 Sacred Service/Avodath Hokodesh…[she was] featured here as well and sang just as beautifully.” 

Broadway World (Concert Soloist, O How Good, with MasterVoices, conducted by Ted Sperling) 

“Erin Brittain is a soprano with a warm, delicate tone…she delivered an exquisite performance”

-Town Topics (Concert Soloist, Virtually Yours, Princeton Festival)

“…rousing vocalist had dynamic operatic range, reach, and a quietly theatrical éclat.”

-Broad Street Review (Art Song Concert Soloist, Philly Fringe Festival)

“Soprano Erin Brittain shone in Berta’s aria, lamenting her character’s loneliness. She has a fine clear tone and an expressive manner.”

–vocedimeche.reviews (Berta, Il barbiere di Siviglia)

“Erin Brittain…sings the role of the Countess in Rigoletto with a clear soprano and expressive acting”

-berkshirefinearts.com (Countess Ceprano, Rigoletto)

“Her Dew Fairy was suitably evanescent and beautifully sung as well as gracefully danced” Mozart to Motorhead Radio Show

-(Sandman/Dew Fairy, Hansel and Gretel)

“[She] showed good command of her alternately fragmented and lyrical part, incorporating the hissing of the text with disarming, rapid movements of her eyes.”

– Opera News (The Bat, L’enfant et les sortilèges)