Known for his “ability to engage deeply with any audience” (Herald Times) and his “warm, refined, and mature voice” (NUVO), Brazilian-American baritone Bruno Sandes earned his B.M. and M.M degrees from the Jacobs School of Music and currently is in the final stages of his doctorate in voice performance under the tutelage of Carol Vaness.
Sandes has sung a diverse number of operatic and traditional musical theater roles, including Figaro in The Barber of Seville, Giorgio Germont in La Traviata, Belcore in L’Elisir d’Amore, Don Giovanni and Leporello in Don Giovanni, Sergeant Sulpice in La Fille du Regiment, Ali Hakim in Oklahoma!, Doctor Falke in Die Fledermaus, Emile de Becque in South Pacific, Taddeo in L’Italiana in Algieri, and Sùng Ông in the world premiere of P. Q. Phan’s The Tale of Lady Thi Kính, among others.
Deeply engaged and committed to the art of song, and concert repertoire, Sandes has been seen and heard on stage singing a vast and rich repertoire, by composers from all over the world and from different eras.
In the concert and oratorio platforms, he has recently sung the role of Jesus Christ and the bass arias in Bach’s St John’s Passion (BWV 245), and has also been heard as the baritone soloist in Brahms’s Ein Deutsches Requiem (Columbus Philharmonic), Fauré’s Requiem (Christ Church Cathedral), and Duruflé’s Requiem (BCO). Other credits include Gustav Mahler’s Lieder eines Fahrender Gesellen, Serenade to Music and Five Mystical Songs by R. Vaughan Williams, Ravel’s Don Quichotte à Dulcinée, and as guest artist of the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir singing jazz and Bossa Nova, as well as songs from the Great American songbook.
Bruno also has recorded a unique album with pianist Shelley Hanmo called “Minha Terra: a collection of Brazilian Chamber songs based on love and folk themes.”
Sandes has been seen on stages and theaters in the United States, Europe and South America. He has received numerous awards and distinctions, including a Joshi International Fellowship from the Georgina Joshi Foundation, first place in the XI Maracanto International Voice Competition, a winner of the 2013 Indianapolis Matinee Musicale Competition, semifinalist in the IX Maria Callas International Voice Competition, and selected as one of six singers from around the world in the 42nd International Winter Festival of Campos do Jordão. He was chosen as the grand winner of the 2014 IU Latin American Music Center Recording Competition and was a semifinalist of the 2018 Liszt International Competition.
He is an energetic voice teacher, deeply invested in his students. Sandes focuses with his students on developing a solid and healthy voice technique, and on communication skills, aiming for vocal longevity and mastering of vocal abilities.
Mr. Sandes served as an Associate Instructor of Voice at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music and was the assistant director of both Carol Vaness’s and Heidi Grant Murphy’s Graduate Opera Workshops. Sandes currently is a professor of Voice at DePauw University, and a staff singer and choir conductor at Christ Church Cathedral (Indianapolis).