The Daedalus Quartet has served as the University of Pennsylvania's resident string quartet since 2006. Internationally acclaimed as one of the foremost chamber ensembles performing today, the Daedalus Quartet has performed in many of the world's leading musical venues; in the United States and Canada these include Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center (Great Performances series), the Library of Congress, the Corcoran Gallery in Washington, D.C., and Boston's Gardner Museum, as well as on major series in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Abroad, the ensemble has been heard in such famed locations as teh Musikverein in Vienna, the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, and in leading venues in Japan. While at Penn, the Daedalus has also achieved renown for its investigations of the links between music and other fields of human endeavor, including neuroscience, literature, theater, and social dynamics. In addition to working closely with student performers and composers, the quartet also brings live music to the classroom at Penn, performing the great works of the repertoire and discussing their relevance to the modern mind.
For more information on the Daedalus Quartet, please visit their website.
Widely praised for her musical intelligence and “expressive virtuosity” (San Francisco Chronicle), Meg Bragle is quickly earning an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted mezzo-sopranos.
A frequent featured soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, she has made four recordings with the group, including Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios – the vehicle for her BBC Proms debut − and the October 2015 release of Bach’s Mass in B Minor. As a gifted early music specialist, Ms. Bragle has sung in North America and Europe with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Music of the Baroque, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Les Violons du Roy, Apollo’s Fire, and the Dunedin Consort.
Ms. Bragle has appeared with many symphony orchestras in the US and Canada including the Houston (Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor), Indianapolis (Mozart’s Requiem), Milwaukee (Mozart’s Requiem), Cincinnati (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), Pacific (Handel’s Judas Maccabeus), and Colorado (Mendelssohn’s Elijah) Symphonies; the National Arts Center Orchestra (Messiah) and a series of concerts with the Calgary Philharmonic including Handel’s Messiah and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9.
Highlights of her upcoming 2017/18 season include a return to Netherlands Bach Society for a tour of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and performances with Music of the Baroque (St. John Passion), Mercury Houston Orchestra (St. Matthew Passion), Arion Baroque Orchestra, and Tempesta di Mare. Other recent highlights include performances with the Winter Park and Carmel Bach Festivals, St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, Early Music Vancouver, multiple appearances as vocal soloist with New York City Ballet, and American Bach soloists.
Her opera roles include Idamante in Idomeneo, Dido and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi, Amastre in Handel’s Serse, Speranza in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Ippolita in Cavalli’s Elena, and Elpina in Vivaldi’s La Fida Ninfa.
Ms. Bragle is an accomplished recording artist. In addition to those with the English Baroque Soloists, she has made several recordings with Apollo’s Fire: Mozart’s Requiem (Koch), Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (Avie), and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (Avie), and L’Orfeo (Eclectra). Other recordings include Bach’s St. John Passion with Arion Baroque (ATMA Classique).