Janna

Janna Critz is a passionate and versatile artist, recently earning praise from Gramophone for her debut album I saw my lady weepe, “Critz is sprung poise personified...draws blood without overstatement.” Noted for her refined singing (Schmopera) and having, “proved a wizard of Handel’s ornamentation” (DC Theater Scene), her recent performances at Bachfest Leipzig were praised for having, “infused the sheer beauty of Buxtehude’s writing...with singing of ecstatic accuracy” (Laurence Vittes, Seen and Heard International). Recent solo performances include Monteverdi’s Return of Ulysses with IN Series, and BWV 96, BWV 5, and BWV 180 with Bach Festival Leipzig presented with The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This season she is appearing as a soloist with IN Series, and Washington Bach Consort.

“A wizard of Handel’s ornamentation”

DC Theater Scene

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.  

"infused the sheer beauty of Buxtehude’s writing...with singing of ecstatic accuracy"

Bachfest Leipzig
Laurence Vittes, Seen and Heard International

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.