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The American soprano, Andrea Lauren Brown, studied piano and flute before turning to singing, studying with Joy Vandever and Laura Brooks Rice. She holds a Master of Music degree in Voice Pedagogy and Performance from Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey and a Bachelor of Music degree from West Chester University, in Pennsylvania, where she graduated summa cum laude. Studying under the sponsorship of the Austrian-American Society she was a summer academy prize-winner at the Internationale Sommerakademie of the Universitaet-Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria in 2002. Out of numerous prizes, her most recent and outstanding prize was second place at the International Competition of the ARD in Munich, Germany.
Andrea Brown made her debut on the opera stage at the age of seventeen, premiering the title role of Libby Larsen's opera A Wrinkle of Time, and has sung in many of the most important theaters and festivals of Europe, performing both opera and concert repertoire, working with conductors such as Thomas Hengelbrock, Adam Fischer, Tonu Kaljuste, Frieder Bernius, Kay Johannsen, Stefan Vlader, Christoph Poppen, Johannes Kalitzke, Rinaldo Alessandrini, and musicians such as Helmut Deutsch, Thomas Larcher, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Peter Kooy, Christoph Hammer, Robert Pobitschka and Norman Shetler. Extensive work in early music and classical repertoire led her to sing with members of the Freiburger Barockorchester, Freiburger Bachchor, Würzburger Bach-Chor and Münchener Bach-Chor, Barockorchester La Banda and Le Nuove Musiche, the Kammerphilharmonie Karlsruhe, Münchener Kammerorchester, Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, Bremer Philharmoniker, Weser Renaissance, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Orlando di Lasso Ensemble and La Chapelle Rhénane.
Since moving to Germany in 2003, Andrea Brown has sung at many European festivals, including Villa Ludwigshöhe, Utrecht, Schwetzingen, Mondsee, Lockenhaus and Helmuth Rilling's European festival in Stuttgart. Radio recordings include W.A. Mozart's Davide Penitente, early Baroque music with the Orlando di Lasso Ensemble under Detlef Bratschke, Purcell's King Arthur, solo programs of lute song and French chansons, chamber music of Beethoven, Schubert, Larcher, Paul Hindemith, Dmitri Shostakovich and Luciano Berio's solo Sequenza.
Recent roles include Norina in Don Pasquale at the Salzburger Landestheater, Belinda in Dido and Aeneas at Philadelphia“s Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Galatea in Acis and Galatea with Martin Haselböck and the Wiener Akademie and Musica Agenlica, and Simona in I hate Mozart at Theater an der Wien, a world premiere of Bernhard Lang, now available as DVD.
Andrea Brown is a featured soloist on numerous recordings, various of which have been recognised with awards such as Diapason d“Or, Deutsche Schallplatten Preis and Gramophone (Dixit Dominus, BMG, Heinrich Schütz with La Chapelle Rhénane, Larcher Ixxu (ECM). Newest releases, including Charpentier and Felix Mendelssohn are included at the bottom of the home page. 2008 recordings have included George Frideric Handel for radio ORF (Austria), Monteverdi for SWR2 as well as the world premiere of Justin Knecht's opera Die Aeolsharfe for SWR Stuttgart. Highlights in 2008 include Raffaele in Il ritorno di Tobia by Haydn for the Haydn Festspiele at Schloss Esterhazy, and F. Mendelssohn's Paulus at the Düsseldorfer Tonhalle.
Time and again Andrea Brown receives glowing reviews for the ease with which she sings the most varying styles of repetoire, including Verdi's Requiem, Francis Poulenc's Gloria, Engelbert Humperdinck's Hänsel und Gretel (Gretel), Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, F. Mendelssohn's Elias, W.A. Mozart's Davide Penitente, G.F. Handel's Messiah, Solomon, Semele (Semele, Iris), J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) and Johannes-Passion (BWV 245), Monteverdi's Marienvesper, L'Incoronazione di Poppea (Drusilla, Poppea), and L'orfeo (La Musica, La Ninfa, Euridice, La Messaggiera). Not least to mention is the arduous work on Ligeti's Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures in a production at the Reaktorhalle, Munich which she accomplished in November 2008. |
