Measha Brueggergosman

»Brueggergosman has the voice, the personality, and the charisma – that elusive quality called star power.« Die Welt am Sonntag (Berlin) Born in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in 1977, the daughter of a Canadian Broadcasting Company employee, she listened to a lot of classical music on CBC radio in her youth. Her elementary school teacher noticed her remarkable musical ear and uninhibited delivery, whereupon her parents arranged for her to take piano and singing lessons. At fifteen, she decided on a career as a singer and then studied at the University of Toronto with soprano Mary Morrison. After graduating, she continued her musical education with soprano and Lieder specialist Edith Wiens in Germany. Later, she also worked with renowned musicians such as Margaret Baker-Genovesi, Christoph Eschenbach, Brigitte Fassbaender, Margo Garrett, Håkan Hagegård, Jessye Norman, Rudolf Piernay, Thomas Quasthoff, and Jean-Yves Thibaudet. 1998 Sings the title role in the premiere of James Rolfe's Beatrice Chancy in Toronto 1999 Performance with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at the Millennium Opera Gala 2000 Award winner at the International Robert Schumann Competition in Zwickau 2001 Wins the Kirsten Flagstad Memorial Award at the George London Foundation Competition in New York and first prize at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London. Sings Verdi's Requiem at the Bonn Beethovenfest, the European Music Festival in Stuttgart, and in Berlin 2002 Grand Prix at the Jeunesses Musicales International Competition in Montreal. Participates in the gala performance for Queen Elizabeth II in Toronto. Appearances at the Cincinnati Opera as Sister Rose in Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking and as Fifth Maid in Richard Strauss's Elektra 2003 Award winner at the ARD International Music Competition in Munich and the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo. Appearance at the Cincinnati Opera as Liù in Puccini's Turandot 2004 Award winner at the International Vocal Competition in 's-Hertogenbosch. During the 2004/05 season, she performs for the first time with the Boston Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony at the Tanglewood Festival, with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin in Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs, and with the Cologne Philharmonic Orchestra in Britten's War Requiem. Recital tour through North America and concerts in Canada. Recitals in Europe, including Verbier, Edinburgh, and Bergen. Other highlights of the season include appearances at the Canada Day celebrations on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, at the Juno Awards ceremony (broadcast live across Canada), and a series of recitals – spanning opera to jazz – at the Stratford (Ontario) Summer Music Festival 2005 Beethoven's Ninth with the San Diego and Detroit Symphony Orchestras. First time with Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in Janáček's Glagolitic Mass. Role debut as Madame Lidoine in Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Vancouver Opera, among others 2006 Concert appearances in Mahler's Symphony No. 2 with the Orchestre philharmonique du Luxembourg, Beethoven's Ninth with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl, Mozart's Requiem with Itzhak Perlman and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs in Quebec, and Barber's Knoxville in London. At the opening concert of the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, she sings Villa-Lobos' Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 with the New World Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas. Also under Tilson Thomas, she performs in Mahler's Symphony No. 4 and Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. Opera appearances include Juno in a new production of Joseph Martin Kraus's Aeneas in Carthage at the Staatstheater Stuttgart. First recital at London's Wigmore Hall. Measha Brueggergosman becomes an exclusive artist with Deutsche Grammophon 2007 Beethoven's Ninth with the Cleveland Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra of Washington; Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra; under the direction of Gustavo Dudamel, Mahler's Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and Gershwin songs with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Measha Brueggergosman participates in a "Black and White Opera Soirée" at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. Recitals with pianists Roger Vignoles (including at Carnegie Hall), Jean-Yves Thibaudet, J.J. Penna, and William Bolcom. Songs and arias (many of which are featured on her first solo album Surprise, released in 2008) with the New York Philharmonic in Central Park in New York, with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Philharmonia Brasileira. Release of her first recording with orchestra for Deutsche Grammophon: Beethoven's Ninth with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst 2008 Janáček's Glagolitic Mass in London, Messiaen's Poèmes pour mi in Germany and Amsterdam, Vaughan Williams' A Sea Symphony in the USA, Strauss's Four Last Songs in Spain, and Mendelssohn's Elijah and Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été in Canada. Appearances at the festivals in Verbier, Stratford (Canada), Aspen, Schleswig-Holstein, and Berlin. Recitals with Roger Vignoles in Ireland and with Justus Zeyen in Austria and Germany. Successful stage debut in a Mozart opera in Toronto as Elettra in Idomeneo. International release of her first solo album, Surprise: newly orchestrated songs by Grammy® and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer William Bolcom, Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder, and songs by Erik Satie (Juno Award, Canada, for "Best Classical Album," Diapason d'or 2008) 2009 Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder, Janáček's Glagolitic Mass, Tippett's A Child of Our Time, and Berg's Seven Early Songs in the USA; Strauss's Four Last Songs in the USA and Canada; Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in the USA, Montreal, and Madrid; Schoenberg's Brettl-Lieder in Berlin; Barber's Knoxville and cabaret songs by Bolcom in Sweden; Debussy's L'Enfant prodigue in Belgium. Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été at the Salzburg Festival Begegnungen and role debut as Bess in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess at the Styriarte festival. Recital with Jean-Yves Thibaudet in New York. Measha Brueggergosman participates in the opening concert of the YouTube Symphony Orchestra (the world's first orchestra assembled exclusively based on online auditions) under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas at Carnegie Hall in New York 2010 Berlioz's Les Nuits d'été and Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder in the USA; Ravel's Shéhérazade in Amsterdam and Toronto; Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Canada and Das klagende Lied in the Netherlands; Heggie's Dead Man Walking in Houston under the direction of Patrick Summers. In Great Britain, Germany, Luxembourg, France, and Spain, Measha Brueggergosman, accompanied by Justus Zeyen, sings the program of her new album, Night and Dreams, featuring familiar and lesser-known songs by Duparc, de Falla, Hahn, Liszt, Schubert, and others. The recording will be released at the beginning of the year