Canadian soprano Measha Brueggergosman brings her recital, Night & Dreams, to Zankel Hall in New York this coming Thursday in a concert that ends a busy period of performances around the US. Night & Dreams is a recital, performed with pianist Justus Zeyen, which focuses on a large variety of song repertoire chosen, as Measha explains, because she "wanted beautiful music ... we wanted something that was languid, sexy, romantic, different." The Deutsche Grammophon recording of this recital was released on October 19, 2010 and Measha has since then performed the repertoire in a number of cities in North America and Europe.
This season Measha has perform
Ed Mahler with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, given recitals from San Francisco to Georgia, taken a role in
Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking opposite
Joyce DiDonato and
Frederica von Stade in Houston, been profiled, and now returns to New York for a recital of Ravel, Schubert, Duparc, Turina, R. Strauss and Berg. This past season also saw Measha nominated for a Grammy for her recording of Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder recorded with the Cleveland Orchestra as well as the release of her solo recital album (her second on Deutsche Grammophon), Night & Dreams.
Of Measha's recent recital in Baltimore,
Tim Smith of The Baltimore Sun commented: "In Schubert's "Nachstuck," Brueggergosman soared wonderfully in the verse about the "holy night" that brings the comfort of death. Her long-breathed shaping of the lines about the earth's embrace in the same composer's "Die Mutter Erde" likewise hit home, as did Zeyen's eloquent playing of the piano coda." More praise comes from New York's WQXR which has chosen Night & Dreams as its "Album of the Week."
Born in 1977 in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the daughter of an employee of the Canadian Broadcasting Company, Measha grew up listening to classical music on CBC radio. When her remarkable sense of pitch and fearlessness as a performer were recognized by her first-grade teacher, her parents were encouraged to sign her up for both piano and singing lessons. At the age of fifteen she decided in favor of a singing career and subsequently studied at the University of Toronto with soprano
Mary Morrison and after graduation continued her musical education with soprano and Lieder expert Edith Wiens in Germany. She later also worked with such distinguished musicians as
Margaret Baker-Genovesi, Christoph Eschenbach, Brigitte Fassbaender, Margo Garrett, Håkan Hagegård,
Jessye Norman, Rudolf Piernay, Thomas Quasthoff and Jean-Yves Thibaudet.
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