Brittany Martin

An exceptionally expressive vocalist based in Columbia, SC, Brittany Martin is an active performer of opera, concert repertoire, chamber music, art song, new music, and choral works. She is committed to the performance of works by underrepresented composers and connecting communities through music.

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Opera

Brittany’s roles include Mary Warren in Robert Ward’s The Crucible (2022) with Opera at USC; Parteonis in Offenbach’s La belle Hélène (Opera at USC, 2022); La Musica in Murray State University Opera Theater’s filmed performance of Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (2021); Gretel (cover) in Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel (Murray State Opera Theater, 2020); Phoebe D’Ysquith in A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder with the award-winning Market House Theater in Paducah, KY (2019); and Third Knitter in Seymour Barab’s one-act opera, A Game of Chance, with Lee University’s Opera Theater (2017). Brittany is an alumna of Classic Lyric Arts: Italian Session (2021) and she attended the Milnes VOICExperience as a Studio Participant in 2020.

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Concert Works

Recently, Brittany performed alongside the University of South Carolina Wind Ensemble in John Adams’s Grand Pianola Music (2023) directed by Dr. Cormac Cannon. She sang “Domine Deus” from Vivaldi’s Gloria at Lee University’s Masterworks Concert in 2018. A winner of Lee University’s Student Concerto Competition in 2018, Brittany performed “O luce di quest’ anima” from Donizetti’s Linda di Chamonix accompanied by Lee University’s Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Robert Bernhardt. Brittany was the winner of the Advanced Treble Classical Category of the 2020 Kentucky NATS Student Auditions.

 

Chamber Music

Brittany is a co-founder of Some Strings Attached, a chamber music ensemble dedicated to creativity, flexibility, and diversity of programming that opens the borders of classical music traditions. Their concerts encompass a wide variety of sounds and genres and invite audience members to share in the creative process. Some Strings Attached’s 2023 summer concert tour will include school, library, and community performances and will conclude with a residency at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. In March, Some Strings Attached presented a benefit concert at the University of South Carolina for earthquake relief efforts in Turkey that raised over $400. 

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In March 2023, Brittany partnered with the Anne Frank Center at the University of South Carolina to present her recital, "I Never Saw Another Butterfly," to a sold-out audience. This recital featured chamber music by Bernstein, Hagen, Laitman, Roussel, and Tavener and centered around themes of grief, hope, and the human spirit. 

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Other recent chamber performances include Ravel’s Trois Poèmes de Stéphane Mallarmé (2023) and Peter Ablinger’s haunting Wiesse Litanei (2022). In chamber music and art song, she has worked directly with composers including Pulitzer Prize winner Raven Chacon, Alex Temple, and Lori Laitman. 

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Art Song

As an interpreter of art song, Brittany is committed to the performance of works by underrepresented composers. In 2022, she presented “Celebrating Women in Music,” a recital of art songs by Lili Boulanger, Judith Cloud, Fanny Hensel, Vitezslava Kaprálova, and Barbara Strozzi. Expanding this recital further, she performed Kaprálova’s songs in staged performances at the University of South Carolina with Opera at USC and the Castleton Festival in Castleton, VA (2022). 

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Brittany regularly commissions and premieres new works for voice. Most recently as part of the Gabriela Lena Frank Virtual Artist Partnership Program in 2023, she gave the world premiere Juhi Bansal’s “Vine (Women’s poems from Afghanistan).” Her collaboration with pianist and composer Jordan Knapp sparked him to compose “Three Poems for Voice and Piano” which was later arranged by the composer for voice and piano quartet, premiered by Some Strings Attached. As a student at the University of South Carolina, she regularly premiered compositions on USC’s New Voices Concert and student-initiated programs. She is an alumna of Longy’s Divergent Studio, a new music-focused chamber music intensive.  

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Choral Music

Brittany is a choral scholar at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Columbia, SC. Throughout her time at USC, she performed with the Graduate Vocal Ensemble and was a choral scholar at Main Street United Methodist Church. While residing in Paducah, KY, she sang with Paducah Singers, the region’s only professional choral ensemble, and the Paducah Symphony Orchestra Chorus. As a chorus member, Brittany has performed choral masterworks including Handel’s Messiah, Howell’s Requiem, Mozart’s Requiem, and Vivaldi’s Gloria. 

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Education and Training

Brittany received her Master of Music in Voice Performance with an emphasis in Community Engagement from the University of South Carolina in 2023 where she studied with Dr. Tina Milhorn-Stallard. As a student at USC, she received the Betty Ann Darby Music Endowment scholarship and a fellowship from Opera at USC. In 2020 and 2021, she completed post-baccalaureate coursework at Murray State University and studied with Dr. Randall Black. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Lee University in 2018 and was the recipient of the prestigious Undergraduate Presser Scholar Award and the Musicianship Studies Departmental Award.