Carley defranco

Soprano

A passionate communicator and dynamic presence onstage, soprano Carley DeFranco brings emotional and vocal clarity to repertoire ranging from Baroque oratorio to 21st-century opera. Her favorite projects include performing the roles of Anna/Dido/Dido’s Ghost in the east-coast premiere of Dido’s Ghost (Errolyn Wallen) with Emmanuel Music, a fully staged Les Illuminations (Benjamin Britten) with Urbanity Dance, singing and dancing onstage as a siren with Boston Ballet and Lorelei Ensemble in La Mer and the premiere of Lost Birds (Christopher Tin) with VOCES 8.  

A longtime member of Emmanuel Music and former Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow, Carley has sung over 100 Bach cantatas in their weekly series and has been a soloist and chorister in all of their recent concert and staged productions. An intrepid concert singer, Carley’s engagements include solo and choral appointments with symphonies, choruses, chamber and new music organizations throughout the United States. Recent performances include Bach’s Mass in B Minor and secular cantatas BWV 201 and BWV 207 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 (Ensemble Altera), Haydn’s Die Jahreszeiten (Chorus Pro Musica), Beethoven 9 (Lexington Symphony), Brahms Requiem and Jonathan Bailey Holland’s The Nature of Lost Time (Masterworks Chorale, Concord Chorale and Pro Arte Orchestra), Rossini’s Giunone (Back Bay Chorale), recitals with Monadnock Music Festival and programs that explore lesser-known baroque repertoire with Sarasa Ensemble, Musicians of the Old Post Road and Silentwoods Collective. Additionally, this season, she performs with Boston Lyric Opera, the Harvard Choruses, and with Bach Charlotte in the title role of Theodora, among others. In demand for her performances of new music, Carley has given premieres with the Kennedy Center, Fog X FLO on the Emerald Necklace, New England Conservatory, Middlesex Community College, Mount Holyoke College, Longy School of Music, American University and Boston Art Song Society.

A dedicated and loving teacher, Carley is the founder of DeFranco Music LLC and partners with local schools to offer in-school music lessons. She is an Instructor of Voice with Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and maintains a voice studio at her home in Brookline.