Photo: Ethan DePuy
Carley DeFranco
SOPRANO
Soprano Carley DeFranco gives performances that are “sunny,” “supple,” and “soaring.” A passionate communicator and dynamic presence onstage, she brings emotional clarity and vocal nuance to repertoire ranging from Baroque oratorio to 21st-century opera.
The 2024–25 Boston Lyric Opera Shrestinian Award Winner, Carley’s favorite projects reach beyond the assumed classical music experience. Memorable performances include Les Illuminations with Urbanity Dance and Emmanuel Music, choreographed by Shura Baryshnikov, La Mer with Boston Ballet and Lorelei Ensemble, a concert in the courtyard of the Boston Public Library with Boston Lyric Opera and the premiere of Lost Birds by Christopher Tin with VOCES8.
A longtime member of Emmanuel Music and former Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow, Carley has sung more than 100 cantatas in the Sunday Bach Cantata Series. She has appeared as soloist and ensemble member in many concert and staged works. She was a soloist in Emmanuel Music’s recent performance at Bachfest Leipzig. This season, she sings the title role in Dido’s Ghost by Errolyn Wallen.
More of Carley’s recent and upcoming performances include Mass in B Minor with Jos van Veldhoven and Considering Matthew Shepard with Craig Hella Johnson (Oregon Bach Festival), Knoxville: Summer of 1915 and Mahler 4 (Symphony NH), Messiah (Music Worcester), Beethoven 9 (Lexington Symphony) and Rossini’s Giunone (Back Bay Chorale). In the world of chamber music, she has performed multiple programs of lesser-known baroque music with Sarasa Ensemble, Musicians of the Old Post Road and Silentwoods Collective. She performs frequently with Monadnock Music and ALEA III.
Carley is a chorister with Handel and Haydn Society, True Concord, Oregon Bach Festival, Upper Valley Baroque, and Boston Lyric Opera. She is the founder of DeFranco Music LLC and teaches voice at Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program.