Carley Defranco

Praised as “sunny”, “supple” and “soaring,” Carley DeFranco is a soprano whose voice and spirit defy genre.

Carley is proud to have sung more than 60 cantatas with Emmanuel Music in their weekly Bach Cantata Series as well as the Mass in B Minor, St. Matthew Passion, St. Mark Passion, Easter Oratorio, John Harbison’s Supper at Emmaus, Abraham, Handel’s Ode for St. Cecilia’s Day and Angelo in the staged recording of La Resurrezione. Her solo cantata highlights from Emmanuel Music include Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen! BWV 51, Selig ist der Mann BWV 57, and Ach Gott wie manches Herzeleid, BWV 58.

An avid performer of oratorio, Carley has appeared as soprano soloist with the Eastern Connecticut Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem), North Carolina Master Chorale (Handel’s Alexander’s Feast), American Bach Soloists Academy (Laß, Fürstin, laß noch einen Strahl, BWV 198), and Arlington Philharmonic Orchestra (Gounod’s Messe Solenelle, Saint Saëns’ Oratorio de Noël, Schubert’s Mass in Eb Major).

Carley’s operatic credits include Susanna (Le nozze di Figaro) with Boston Opera Collaborative and Greater Worcester Opera, Lucy Lockit (The Beggar’s Opera) with Emmanuel Music, The Rose (The Little Prince) with NEMPAC Opera Project, the title role in Alcina with Opera del West, Yvette (La Rondine) with Boston Opera Collaborative, Nannetta (Falstaff) with Emerald City Opera and many world premieres in Boston Opera Collaborative’s critically-acclaimed annual festival of ten-minute operas: Opera Bites. She is known for her committed dramatic portrayals; Boston Musical Intelligencer called her performance as Lucy Lockit “a joy to watch and hear” and her performance in Boston Opera Collaborative’s staged Frauenliebe und Leben “almost filmic in its realism”.

In demand for her performances of new music by American composers, Carley has given premieres at the Kennedy Center, Fog X FLO on the Emerald Necklace, New England Conservatory, Middlesex Community College, Mount Holyoke College, Longy School of Music, and American University.

Carley was the 2018-19 Lorraine Hunt Lieberson Fellow with Emmanuel Music, a 2019 Fellow with American Bach Soloists, and a finalist for the American Prize (Professional Division) in Oratorio/Art song. She received her Master’s in Music (Vocal Performance) from The Longy School of Music at Bard College.