Russell Braun

Russell Braun became one of North America's most promising young baritones in the 1990s. The son of baritone Victor Braun, he was born and raised in Frankfurt, Germany. He moved to Canada and continued his education, and is a graduate of the Opera Division of the University of Toronto. In 1994, he won a leading Canadian competition, the George London Award. He has equal interest in operatic and song recital performance. He has sung at many major opera houses, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Opera de Monte Carlo and the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto. In 1997, he debuted at the Opéra de Paris in the title role of Debussy's Pélleas et Mélisande in an acclaimed Robert Wilson production, repeated with great success in the Salzburg Festival. He has sung in concert at the Salzburg Festival and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, and at New York's Lincoln Center Great Performers Series. He frequently appears on major recital stages. He appears with the CBC, and his performances have been released on CBC Records, including Shattered Night, Shivering Stars, a prize-winning selection of music by composer Alexina Louie, on which he sang her Obsessions (In Their Own Words). He has also appeared on the U.S. label Dorian Records in Handel's Apollo e Dafne. He is married to pianist Carolyn Maude. They live in the Toronto area with their children.