Winner of Placido Domingo’s prestigious Operalia competition in 2012 and a true standout in the What’s in a Song event that launched the UMS Song Biennial two years ago, soprano Janai Brugger has quickly become one of the Metropolitan Opera’s go-to singers, with four roles this past season.

The U-M alumna, who studied with the late Shirley Verrett, also won the Kennedy Center’s 2016 Marian Anderson Vocal Award and was identified by Opera News as one of their top 25 “brilliant young artists” in 2015. At the Metropolitan Opera competition in 2012, the New York Times wrote, “Only one singer inspired me to look forward to a full performance. Janai Brugger sang with poise and style, quiet intensity, and superb phrasing…The emotion was in her sound, which projected, with silvery ease, relaxed but focused bliss and then haunting melancholy.” Brugger, joined by pianist Martin Katz, makes her UMS recital debut with this performance.