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Joshua Banbury is an emerging singer and librettist working in opera and jazz. Most recently, Banbury made his solo debut at Lincoln Center in 2022 with members of The New York Philharmonic performing selections from “The Singing Prophet” by eden abhez.
Joshua was formerly a fellow with The American Lyric Theatre in New York City, considered to be the country’s premier mentorship initiative for promising operatic writers. Additionally, Banbury served as the first Julius Eastman Fellow at Looking Glass Arts in the summer of 2022.
Banbury was born and raised in Austin, Texas, and began writing plays and performing locally at the age of ten. He began classical voice lessons as a teenager and proceeded to win top prizes from competitions such as YoungArts, in both opera and music theatre, along with a full scholarship to study classical voice at The Austin School for Performing and Visual Arts. In 2014, he appeared in his first opera, “Qadar” under the direction of Denyce Graves, with music by Tony Smalls, under the royal commission from the Sultanate of Oman.
Since graduating from The New School in 2020, Joshua has enjoyed a blossoming career as a vocalist, with opportunities to sing at venues such as Lincoln Center, The National Black Theatre, The Glimmerglass Festival, Minton’s Playhouse, National Sawdust, The YoungArts Foundation, Soho House Austin, Google NYC, and The Carver Museum.
His opera libretti have been presented by Washington National Opera, The American Lyric Theater, The Kennedy Center, Fort Worth Opera, The National Symphony Orchestra, and The Coalition for African Americans in the Performing Arts.
In 2022, his ten-minute opera “The Burning Bush”, composed by Jasmine Barnes, premiered at The Washington National Opera, and was celebrated as “surrealist, clever, and precisely imagined” by The Washington Post.
In the spring of 2023, Joshua will present a sold-out recital at The Phillips Collection with pianist, Aaron Diehl. Additionally, the premiere of his first song cycle for celebrated tenor, Russell Thomas, “Annunciation” will debut at his Los Angeles Opera recital, with music by Damien Geter in February 2023.
More information for Joshua Banbury can be found here: https://www.joshuabanbury.com/
