Janna

Acclaimed for her refined singing (Schmopera) and “proved a wizard of Handel’s ornamentation” (DC Theater Scene), mezzo-soprano Janna Critz is both a passionate and versatile artist in the choral, early music, opera, and oratorio arenas. Her 2024-25 solo performances include Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses with IN Series, and BWV 96, BWV 5, and BWV 180 with Bach Festival Leipzig on tour with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.

Janna has performed with leading ensembles and organizations in the early music field, most notably: IN Series, Tempesta di Mare, American Baroque Opera Company, Mountainside Baroque, The Academy of Sacred Drama, Three Notch'd Road: The Virginia Baroque Ensemble, City Choir of Washington, Bach in Baltimore, and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem. Recent performances include Handel’s Alceste, Bonocini’s La Conversione di Maddalena, and Bach’s Mass in B Minor. In 2015, Janna was awarded The Virginia Best Adams Fellowship by The Carmel Bach Festival, and was a joint recipient of the 2015 American Prize in Chamber Music with vocal ensemble, The New Consort. Janna was also the first-place recipient of The 8th Biennial Bach Vocal Competition sponsored by The American Bach Society and The Bach Choir of Bethlehem.  

Other recent solo work includes Handel’s Messiah with Tempesta di Mare, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott with The Virginia Symphony Orchestra, Mozart’s Requiem with The Richmond Symphony Orchestra, and Richard Einhorn’s Voices of Light, a modern oratorio, with The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Some of her opera roles include Serse from Handel’s Serse, Ramiro from Vivaldi’s Montezuma, Geoffredo from Handel’s Rinaldo, and Ottavia from Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea.

Janna holds degrees in voice and early music from Furman University and The Peabody Conservatory of Music, and currently resides in Silver Spring, Maryland.