Photos by Ethan DePuy
Above and beyond her inimitable tone, DeFranco’s control in dynamics and subtlety of phrasing stood almost above the rest of the show.
Matthew Winkler, The Boston Musical Intelligencer - Les Illuminations with Emmanuel Music and Urbanity Dance
Described as “sunny”, “supple” and “soaring,” Carley DeFranco is a passionate soprano dedicated to giving committed and meaningful performances.
Her favorite onstage moments have been those that push beyond the assumed classical music experience and into something adventurous. Some of her notable performances include a fully staged Les Illuminations (Britten) with Urbanity Dance choreographed by Shura Baryshnikov, the Angel in a film version of La Resurrezione (Handel) with Emmanuel Music, singing and dancing onstage as a siren with Boston Ballet and Lorelei Ensemble in La Mer, the premiere of Lost Birds (Christopher Tin) with VOCES 8, a site-specific staging of Frauenliebe und Leben with Boston Opera Collaborative, and the premiere of Earth Symphony (Jake Runestad) with True Concord Voices & Orchestra.
Carley is the 2024-25 season Shrestinian Award Winner for her artistic contributions to the Boston Lyric Opera Chorus. She enjoys many performances with BLO this season, including in their community programming (Boston Public Library Concert in the Courtyard, Street Stage, donor events), covering the role of Ismene in Mitridate, and as a chorus member in Aida and Der Töde Stadt, a joint production with the Boston Symphony. Carley is a finalist in the Winter Park Bach Festival American Oratorio Competition and will sing in masterclasses and as a finalist at the festival in February, 2025. This summer, she will return to the Oregon Bach Festival for performances of Considering Matthew Shepard with Craig Hella Johnson and as a ripienist in Mass in B Minor with Jos van Veldhoven. She continues her tenure with Emmanuel Music and in addition to performing in the cantata series, she sings Fauré’s La bonne chanson in the Fall and the Mass in B Minor in the Spring. Her other collaborations this season include concerts with Musicians of the Old Post Road (Christmas Far And Wide - baroque music from around the world) and performances with the Handel & Haydn Chorus.
2023-24 brought performances with Worcester Chorus (Handel Messiah), Lexington Symphony (Beethoven 9), Back Bay Chorale (Rossini Giunone), Falmouth Chorale (Mozart Requiem), Boston Choral Ensemble (fully staged Fauré Requiem), Con Brio Choral Society (Zelenka Missa XIII and Vivaldi Dixit Dominus), MIT Choruses (Mendelssohn Psalm 42 and Reena Esmail This Love Between Us), Monadnock Music (Respighi Il tramonto), Sarasa Ensemble (selections from the Bolivian baroque), Aurora Ensemble (selections from the Swedish baroque), and her German debut at Bachfest Leipzig with Emmanuel Music. Carley is a regular chorister with Upper Valley Baroque, Handel & Haydn Society, Boston Baroque, True Concord Voices & Orchestra and Oregon Bach Festival.
Carley has sung about 100 cantatas with Emmanuel Music in their Bach Cantata Series and has been a soloist in Harbison’s Chorale Cantata, St. John Passion, St. Matthew Passion, Magnificat, Mass in B Minor and Christmas Oratorio and Lucy Lockit in The Beggar’s Opera.
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”. As a member of the Boston Lyric Opera Chorus, Carley has performed Cavalleria Rusticana and Champion (Terence Blanchard) and L’amant anonyme (Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges).
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, American University, and with Boston Art Song Society.
While all performing is founded in community, Carley finds special joy in singing at gatherings and community events. She has performed pop-up opera at the Roslindale Holiday Wander, sung from the back of a pick-up truck with Mass Opera, curated and performed concerts with Boston Opera Collaborative, hosted private Zoom concerts with Emmanuel Music’s Musical Conversations initiative and given many tailored programs at birthday parties, wedding celebrations and holiday affairs.
Carley is the founder of DeFranco Music LLC and partners with local schools to offer in-school music lessons. She is a Voice Instructor in Harvard University’s Holden Voice Program and offers private lessons (in-person or online) from her home in Brookline.