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Measha Brueggergosman (b Gosman). Soprano, b Fredericton 28 June 1977; B MUS (Toronto) 1999, honorary D MUS (Acadia) 2009, honorary D LITT (St Thomas) 2009. Brueggergosman began singing in the choir of her local Baptist church, and with the director of that choir, studied piano and voice from age seven. As a teen, she took voice lessons in Fredericton with Mabel Doak and spent summers on scholarships at the Boston Conservatory.
She studied for one year with New Brunswick soprano Wendy Nielsen before studying with Mary Morrison at the University of Toronto (1995-9). In her last year there, she played Madame Lidoine in the university's production of Dialogues des Carmélites, and at a masterclass caught the attention of Edith Wiens, with whom she pursued a master's degree in music at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf, Germany. As Performer At age 20 Measha Brueggergosman created a signature lead role in the premiere of the opera Beatrice Chancy by James Rolfe. Produced in Toronto in 1998, and in Nova Scotia in 1999, the opera portrayed the tale of a slave girl in 19th-century rural Nova Scotia who murdered her abusive father and master. The opera and Brueggergosman won praise from critics and audiences, and in 2000 it was filmed for CBC-TV. Her career rapidly gained momentum, and her charisma, dramatic ability, mature musicianship and powerful voice have placed her in demand both in concert and on the operatic stage. She has appeared throughout Canada, and has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, and at Roy Thomson Hall. She has also sung for Queen Elizabeth II (2002), in the US at Carnegie Hall's Weill Recital Hall (2001), and in London at Royal Albert Hall (2003). Brueggergosman's repertoire also expanded quickly; it includes Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; Britten's War Requiem; Dvorak's Te Deum; Janàček's Glagolitic Mass; Penderecki's Credo; Strausss Vier Letzte Lieder; Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder; and Verdi's Requiem, which she has performed in Germany with Helmuth Rilling (2001), in Ottawa (2001), in Toronto (2002-3), and in London (2003-4). In 2002 she was featured in Cincinnati Opera productions of Elektra, Jake Heggie's Dead Man Walking, and Turandot. In addition, she has continued to develop her concert repertoire, often combining songs by Schumann, Ravel, Duparc, and Gershwin with her own arrangements of black spirituals. In 2003-4 she performed in recitals in Vancouver, Ottawa, Quebec, and Helsinki, and made debuts at festivals in Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and in Germany, Norway, and Edinburgh.
Awards and Honours
Brueggergosman has been the recipient of a number of national and international awards, including prizes at the Wigmore Hall International Song Competition in London (2001); Jeunesses Musicales Montreal International Competition (2002); Oslo's Queen Sonja International Music Competition (2003); and the ARD Music Competition (Munich, 2003). In 2002-3 she was awarded the prestigious Canada Council and Chalmers Performing Arts grants. Brueggergosman was featured in the CBC-TV documentary Spirit in Her Voice (2003). She sang on the Grammy-winning William Bolcom: Songs of Innocence and of Experience (2004, Naxos), and won a 2008 Juno award for the album Surprise (Deutsche Grammophon, 2007).
Author
Sarah Church
Bibliography
Domet, Stephanie. "The soprano Measha Brueggergosman gets made in the European opera world," Reverb, Sep 2000 Eatock, Colin. "Hitting the high notes from Fredericton," Globe and Mail, 12 Feb 2000 So, Joseph. "Measha Brüggergosman," Opera Canada, Summer 2000 Citron, Paula. "Measha Brueggergosman," University of Toronto Magazine, vol 28, no 4, Summer 2001 Mazey, Steven. "Big voice, and some big roles," Ottawa Citizen, 14 Feb 2002 "Measha Brueggergosman: soprano," Contemporary Canadian Biographies, Mar-Apr 2002 Everett-Green, Robert. "Measha factor: never the diva, this hot young soprano from New Brunswick is taking fame in stride," Globe and Mail, 26 Oct 2002 Littler, William. "Soprano's spirit," Toronto Star, 16 Oct 2003 Crory, Neil. Making Measha, Opera Canada, vol 49, no 1, Feb-Mar 2008
Links to Other Sites
Measha Brueggergosman
The website for Canadian classical soprano Measha Brueggergosman. Features a biography, performance schedule, audio and video clips, and more.
CBC Concerts on Demand
From country to calypso and the classics, the “Concerts on Demand” website offers hundreds of online recordings of outstanding concerts originally broadcast on CBC Radio 2. Search this site to find and listen to recordings of your favourite musician, group, or music genre.
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