Janai Brugger

Janai Brugger (born January 3, 1983) is an American operatic soprano. In 2014, music critic F. Paul Driscoll described her in Opera News as "gifted with a supple, beautifully shaded lyric soprano." That same year, she pursued further studies at the Chautauqua Institution with Marlena Malas and appeared as a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra under conductor Raymond Leppard. In 2008, Brugger won a position in "The Song Continues" masterclass at Carnegie Hall, where she worked with Marilyn Horne. In 2009, she portrayed the role of Adina in The Elixir of Love for the Lyric Opera of Chicago's “Opera in the Neighborhoods” program.

In 2010, Brugger became a member of the San Francisco Opera's Merola Opera Program. From 2010 to 2012, Brugger was a member of the Young Artist Program at the Los Angeles Opera (LAO). She made her debut with the LAO as Barbarina in The Marriage of Figaro in October 2010. She has since appeared with the LAO as the page in Rigoletto (2010), Musetta in La Boheme (2012), and Pamina in The Magic Flute (2013). For the HBO television show Lovecraft Country, Brugger recorded an operatic setting of the poem "Catch the Fire" by Sonia Sanchez.