Luthien Brackett | Photo: Elizabeth van Os

Luthien Brackett

Born in California to parents who loved to read, Luthien Brackett was named after a character in J.R.R. Tolkien's legendarium. Praised by the press for her “lushness and delicacy,” and “silky tone among all registers,” she is in great demand as an alto soloist and professional chorister. Her recent solo appearances include the role of third Damigella in a film of Francesca Caccini’s opera La liberazione di Ruggiero for Brighton Early Music Festival in England, J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Spire Chamber Ensemble in Kansas City, Hildegard von Bingen’s Ordo Virtutum with Seraphic Fire in Miami, and Rachmaninoff’s All-Night Vigil with Skylark Vocal Ensemble in Boston. Other notable recent engagements include two performances with The Monteverdi Choir and Salzburg Camerata for the Salzburger Festspiele in Austria, and a televised concert for the BBC Proms with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardner. Her forthcoming solo performances include Arrows. Eros., a new work by Mark Morris Dance Group featuring two Italian duets by G.F. Handel; J.S. Bach’s Mass in B Minor with the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra; and Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Mozart’s Solemn Vespers with the North Carolina Master Chorale. Among her numerous commercial recordings are four GRAMMY-nominated albums: Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Choir of Trinity Wall Street and Trinity Baroque Orchestra (2013), Julia Wolfe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Anthracite Fields with the Bang on a Can All-Stars (2015), Maximilian Steinberg’s Passion Week (2017), and Alexander Kastalsky’s Memory Eternal (2019), both with The Clarion Society. Luthien loves baking, traveling, reading, and hiking in her home in the English countryside.