During HGO’s 2026-27 season, Janai Brugger performs the role of Pamina in The Magic Flute. Previously for the company, Brugger sang Mary Jane Bowser in the world premiere of the GRAMMY Award-winning opera Intelligence (2023). Elsewhere during the 2026-27 season, she appears as Mrs. Francis Hodge in the world premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Lincoln in the Bardo at the Metropolitan Opera and serves as the soprano soloist in Carmina Burana with the Philadelphia Orchestra. During the 2025-26 season, Brugger’s roles included Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni and Micaëla in Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera, and Mimì in La bohème with LA Opera. Concert engagements included singing in Poulenc’s Stabat Mater with Seattle Symphony and a collection of songs from Susannah, The Rake’s Progress, and Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Charlotte Symphony. Her many appearances at the Metropolitan Opera include her house debut as Liù in Turandot, covering Jemmy in a new production of Guillaume Tell, Micaëla in Carmen, Helena in The Enchanted Island, Pamina in The Magic Flute, Marzelline in Fidelio, and Clara in Porgy and Bess. In 2012, Brugger won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, as well as all three First Prizes at Operalia—the Opera Prize, the Song Prize, and the Audience Prize. She participated in the Merola Opera Program at San Francisco Opera and was a young artist at LA Opera for two seasons.