Marked as a “talent to watch” (John Von Rhein, Chicago Tribune), Baritone Evan Bravos has received critical acclaim for his “lovely lyric baritone” (Opera News).

The 2025-26 season kicked off with a return to Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago for their 15th Collaborative Works Festival in Ganz Hall alongside Grammy Award winning tenor, Nicholas Phan, soprano Vanessa Bacerra, tenor Eric Ferring, mezzo-soprano, Sophia Maekawa (current Ryan Opera Center at Lyric Opera of Chicago), and pianist Lisa Kaplan and percussionist Matthew Duvall (both of Eighth Blackbird). He performed works by Copland, Gurney and Geter.

In October, he reprised the role of Hannah Before in Kaminsky, Reed and Campbell: As One with Union Avenue Opera. Shortly thereafter, he made a debut with Haymarket Opera as Caronte/Shepherd IV/Radamanto in Peri: Euridice.

In the winter months, Bravos joins fellow Chicago College of Performing Arts Voice Faculty colleagues, Karim Sulayman (Grammy Award winner), and pianist Shannon McGinnis (Associate Dean of CCPA’s Music Conservatory) for a festive Schubertiad in which he and Sulayman sing, Schubert: Der Winterreise and Die Schöne Müllerin, respectively.

In March, he returns to his home company, Chicago Opera Theater, as Dritter Bursche/Ensemble in Kurt Weill: Der Silbersee. Shortly thereafter, he joins Chicago’s oldest musical organization, The Apollo Chorus (founded in 1872) as Jesus for respective performances of Bach: St. Matthew Passion, and later with St. James Cathedral for Sowerby: Forsaken of Man, marking their sesquicentennial celebration of its rebuilding after the great fire.

Additionally in recital this season, Bravos offers a curated program, Beyond Byzantium: It’s All Greek to Me!, at the National Hellenic Museum for its inaugural concert series. The museum, a pillar of Chicago’s historic Greektown, promotes the rich cultural traditions of ancient and modern Greece while highlighting the Greek-American immigrant experience. The recital brings to light classical Greek art song, and operetta of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He also returns to Glessner House for a recital featuring the music of La Belle Epoque with Rachel Blaustein, soprano and Nicholas Pontier, piano.

In May, he rounds out the season with a return to one of his dearest operatic “home away from home”, Opera Santa Barabra, where he performs the title role in Robert Aldridge and Herschel Garfein: Elmer Gantry.

In the 2024-25 season, Bravos had several featured performances, including the premiere of a song cycle The Pure and Impure by composer Elizabeth Doyle at Piano-Forte Studios in Chicago; a reprise of a role he premiered, Kenny Kincaid, in Okpebholo & Campbell: The Cook-Off with New Orleans Opera; a workshop of The Feast of the Hunger Moon, a new musical by Dori Erwin Collins; Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony with the Helena Symphony and several engagements singing Brahms: Ein Deutsches Requiem including with the Apollo Chorus (Chicago), The Grace Chorale (Brooklyn NY) and the Evanston Symphony.

Highlights for the 2023-24 season included revisiting the role of Count Almaviva, Mozart: Le Nozze di Figaro in Columbia, South Carolina (Christopher James Ray); Countess’ Lackey/Ivan Ivanovich, Shostakovich: The Nose with Chicago Opera Theater (Lidiya Yankovskaya and Francesca Zambello); a featured performance of Schubert: Der Winterreise for Opera Up Close; a debut with Helena Symphony on Rachmaninoff: The Bells of Ecstasy (Allan R. Scott) and Vaughn Williams: Five Mystical Songs (Joseph Welch) and two performances with Jake Heggie for the Chicago Opera Theater premiere of his and Gene Scherer’s new opera, Before It All Goes Dark.

In the 2022-23 season, saw Bravos in Boston for Let’s Celebrate! at WGBH studios (White Snake Projects), Silvio, I Pagliacci, (Opera Tampa) and Kenny Kincaid in Okpebholo & Campbell The Cook-Off (Chicago Opera Theater). In the 2021-22 season, he sang in Kaminsky, Reed and Campbell’s as Hannah Before, As One (Opera Santa Barbara), El Dancaïro, Carmen alongside Jamie Barton and Stephanie Blythe, and “sang winningly” (Opera News) in the world premiere of Matthew Recio and Royce Vavrek’s operas Clay, The Puppy Episode (COT). Other favorites include Riff, West Side Story (New Philharmonic Opera); Maximilian, Candide (Ravinia Festival); George Jones, Weill: Street Scene, and Masetto, Don Giovanni (Virginia Opera); Inman, Higdon: Cold Mountain (Music Academy of the West); and Tom Joad, Gordon: The Grapes of Wrath.

House credits include Sarasota Opera, San Diego Opera, Central City Opera, Aspen Music Festival, Opera Theatre of St. Louis, and Lyric Opera of Chicago. In concert, he has sung with the symphonies of Santa Fe, Milwaukee, Madison, Hawaii and Colorado. As a recitalist, he has sung as a Vocal Fellow at Ravinia Festival’s Steans Music Institute, the Collaborative Arts Institute of Chicago and Horto Music Festival in Pelion, Greece. Bravos earned the Doctorate of Musical Arts at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. He serves as Artist Faculty at Roosevelt University’s Chicago College of Performing Arts.