SOPRANO

Bronwen Forbay Color.jpg
“At once powerful, radiant, timbrally beautiful, and balanced throughout the range, her soprano is that of a singer at the top of her game.” - OPERA Magazine ”

Durban-born soprano Bronwen Forbay, a Fulbright Scholar and the first South African woman to earn a DMA in Voice Performance, has earned international acclaim across opera, concert, recital, competition, and academic stages.

Operatic & Concert Highlights

Her standout operatic roles include:

  • Mozart’s Queen of the Night (The Magic Flute) with Wolf Trap Opera, Eugene Opera, and Tulsa Opera

  • Lucia (Lucia di Lammermoor, Cape Town Opera)

  • Violetta (La Traviata)

  • Orasia in Telemann’s Orpheus (U.S. premiere, Wolf Trap Opera Company)

  • Adina (L’Elisir d’amore)

  • Velmyra in Mary Alice Rich’s Wading Home (World premiere)

  • Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro)

  • Micaëla (Carmen) where OPERA Magazine hailed her as “the revelation…in ravishing voice, and showing singing of great subtlety, nuance and depth.”

Scott Cantrell (Dallas Morning News) praised her Velmyra as “a soprano that bloomed and blazed thrillingly on high,” while News24 acclaimed her Violetta as “magnificent, full of expressive power, with a varied timbre spectrum.”

On the concert stage, Forbay performs masterworks from Bach (B Minor Mass) and Handel (Creation) to Orff (Carmina Burana) and modern works like Philip Miller’s REwind Cantata (Royal Festival Hall, London) and Phelelani Mnomiya’s Ingqai sivele we-Africa (Durban, FIFA World Cup). She’s appeared with leading orchestras including the Johannesburg, KwaZulu-Natal, Cape Town, and Greenville Symphony Orchestras, and has toured Northern Italy with Mozart’s Requiem—Venice, Verona, and Vicenza.

A devoted recitalist, she has appeared in settings such as the American Cathedral in Paris (Les Arts Georges V Recital Series) and the University of Southern California with Dr. Stephen Pierce. Recent highlights include the renowned Hartness Recital Series with Dr. Charles Tompkins (organ) and Contessa Almaviva in Le nozze di Figaro with the Greenville Symphony Orchestra.

Awards & Recognition

  • Standard Bank Young Artist Award for Music (South Africa’s top annual national arts award)

  • Wolf Trap Opera Company’s Catherine Filene Shouse Career Grant

  • Top prizes in UNISA International Voice Competition, Opera Birmingham, and the SMU Concerto Competition

Academic & Pedagogical Leadership

As an Associate Professor of Voice at Furman University (Greenville, SC), Dr. Forbay mentors award-winning students who excel in TMTA, MTNA, and NATS competitions, with many advancing to national levels. She has also taught at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (during her Fulbright homestay), University of Mary Hardin–Baylor, Sam Houston State University, McLennan Community College, and served on the voice faculty at the renowned 2025 Schmidt Vocal Arts Summer Voice Institute. She was selected for the prestigious NATS Intern Program in 2013.

Scholarship & Publications

Forbay co-authored Afrikaans Art Song Literature: A Translation and Pronunciation Guide with Dr. Christian Bester—a 2025 Oxford University Press release that opens up Afrikaans art songs to English-speaking audiences through IPA transcriptions, translations, cultural context, and lyric diction resources: Oxford University Press Link.

Leadership & Service

  • President, Furman University’s Black Faculty & Staff Association (2024–2025)

  • Treasurer & Founding Member, South Africa Chapter of NATS (since 2022)

  • TMTA Voice Contest Chair (2018–2021)