The Music Department is delighted to announce the appointment of distinguished mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle as Resident Artist and Director of Vocal Studies. Ms. Bragle will direct Penn's Opera Scenes (during the spring semester) and the new Collegium Musicum (formerly Ancient Voices). She will also lead masterclasses, offer coachings, perform recitals, and visit classes.
Bio
Widely praised for her musical intelligence and “expressive virtuosity” (San Francisco Chronicle), American mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle is quickly earning an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted and versatile mezzo-sopranos.
Frequently a featured soloist with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, she made her BBC Proms debut with them singing Bach’s Easter and Ascension Oratorios, has performed with them at the Leipzig Bachfest and the Prague Spring, Luzerne, Aldeburgh and Brighton festivals, and has made four recordings with the group including the recently released Bach B Minor Mass.
Watch YouTube video of Agnus Dei!
Ms. Bragle has sung in North America and Europe with the 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. She has also appeared with many symphony orchestras in the US and Canada including the Houston (Beethoven’s Mass in C Minor), Indianapolis (Mozart’s Requiem), 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 recent seasons include appearances with Milwaukee Symphony (Mozart’s Requiem), Cincinnati Symphony (Bach’s Mass in B Minor), St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater), American Bach Soloists (Handel’s La Resurrezione), Dunedin Consort (Handel's Messiah), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Bach Lutheran Masses), and Early Music Vancouver (Bach’s Magnificat). Bragle also performs this season at the Winter Park, Carmel Bach and London Baroque Festivals, with Voices of Music, and Catacoustic Consort. Other recent highlights include Bruno Moretti’s Vespro with New York City Ballet, tours of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion and Christmas Oratorio with the Netherlands Bach Society and Bach's Lutheran Masses with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.
Her recent opera roles include Idamante in Mozart's 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 Dominusand Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne (Avie), and Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (Avie), and L’Orfeo (Eclectra). Other recordings include Cozzolani’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Messa Paschale with Magnificat (Musica Omnia), Music of Medieval Love with New York’s Ensemble for Early Music (Ex Cathedra), Toby Twining’s Chrysalid Requiem (Cantaloupe), Anthony Newman’s Requiem (Khaeon World Music) and Copland’s In the Beginning with the late John Scott and the Men and Boy Choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte on their own labels.
For Ms. Bragle's website please see here.