Bryce McClendon
VOICE TEACHER | PERFORMER | PLAYWRIGHT
Voice Teacher
Bryce's students have performed with prestigious companies and orchestras worldwide. This rapidly growing list includes Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, Glyndebourne Opera, Chateau de Versailles, Opéra national de Montpellier, American Bach Soloists, Boston Baroque, Boston Lyric Opera, Bard Music Festival, Michigan Opera Theater, Opera Grand Rapids, the New York Philharmonic, Apollo's Fire, L'Arpeggiata, Florida Grand Opera, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Portland Baroque Orchestra, Teatro Nuovo, Wolf Trap Opera, St. Petersburg Opera, Sarasota Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, Tanglewood Music Festival, BANFF Summer Arts Festival, Danish National Opera, the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, and Washington National Opera. Her students have received honors from the Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition, the Handel Aria Competition, the Gerda Lissner Vocal Competition, the Froville International Baroque Singing Competition, the Camille Coloratura Competition, the Oratorio Society of New York, and others. Bryce is a longtime student of Haus of Shmizzay.
Performer
Praised for singing "gorgeously" (New York Times) and for her "staggering vocal control" (Poison Put to Sound), Bryce recently made her Off-Broadway debut in the world premiere of figaro/faggots, a play with opera by Kevin Carillo about the life and work of playwright and activist Larry Kramer, featuring the music of Mozart. She has performed in numerous operas from the Baroque to the contemporary — including the title role in the world premiere of Being Ariodante by Johnathan Dawe — and has performed in concerts at prestigious venues throughout New York City, including Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Mercury Store, Baryshnikov Arts Center, and Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre. A playwright, Bryce also develops roles in her own projects, including her solo show The Eyes of Texas, presented twice by The Vino Theatre, and her operatic play The Last Opera, with music by composer Omar Najmi. Bryce was a Regional Finalist in the 2020 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and a 2019 Eva & Marc Stern Fellow at SongFest in Los Angeles.
Playwright
Bryce's work encourages artists and audience members to forge deep connections, identify and question normalized forms of harm, and engage in radical, liberatory thinking. In March 2023, her play with opera (or plopera, if you prefer) The Smallest Sound, in the Smallest Space premiered at Nancy Manocherian's the cell theatre to fully sold-out houses (including an added performance). In May of 2024, a staged reading of Smallest Sound... was presented at the Clark Studio Theater at Lincoln Center, produced by The Why Collective and directed by Katy Early. She performed her solo project, The Eyes of Texas, twice to sold out houses at The Vino Theatre in Williamsburg. Her operatic play The Last Opera, a collaboration with composer Omar Najmi and director-developer Katy Early, received an initial libretto reading at Oberlin College in the Spring of 2025.