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The American soprano, Susanna Raymond, was a student of Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox, whose seminar "The Art of Singing Wagner"was renowned throughout Europe. She was also coached with conductors Lucy Arner, John Balme, Elizabeth Hastings and Ted Taylor in New York, and Tomoko Okada in Munich. She currently coaches with James Harp, artistic administrator of Baltimore Opera, and with concert pianist Dan Franklin Smith.
In 1998, Susanna Raymond performed and recorded Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene in the Czech Republic with the Bohuslav Martinu Philharmonic. Her conductor was Martin Braun, the current conductor of the Olomouc Opera, and former music director of the Vienna Academic Festival Orchestra. Last year in New York, she performed the Walküre Brünnhilde with the West Side Opera. In addition, she has sung Brünnhilde excerpts with Potomac Valley Opera, St. Peter's Noontime Concerts, and New York Vocal Artists over the past two years, and for a program sponsored by the Wagner Society of Vienna, later broadcast on Austrian television, in 1995. Other Wagner performances include Isolde in the Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde with the Hradec Kralové Philharmonic in 1998, the Wesendonk Lieder for St. Peter's Noontime Concerts in 1999 and Senta in Der Fliegende Holländer with the West Side Opera in 1995.
Additional orchestral appearances include the title role in Aida with Brooklyn Lyric Opera in 1994 and the soprano solo in L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 with the Doctors' Orchestral Society of New York in 1993. She has also guested with the Slavic Arts Ensemble, premiering several songs by the group's pianist, Finnish-American composer Eero Richmond. In the summer of 1998, she was invited by Symphonic Workshops Ltd. to collaborate with student conductors in a workshop taught by Frantisek Vajnar and Ottokar Trhlik in the Czech Republic. Other recent activities include participation in Mannes College of Music's Wagner performance class in 1998 and in Wagner and Strauss master-classes offered through Potomac Valley Opera's Singer Development Program in 1997.
Now managed by CRS Artists, Susanna Raymond is preparing for the orchestral premiere in Europe of Token, a work for dramatic soprano by Doug Davis. She will record this work and Brünnhilde's Immolation Scene under the CRS label. Other upcoming performances include the Siegfried Brünnhilde for the West Side Opera next spring and a guest appearance singing Wagner's Wesendonk Lieder with the Auburn University Symphony on Memorial Day 2000.
Her operatic repertoire includes: Elektra in Strauss’ Elektra, Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Die Walküre, Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Siegfried, Brünnhilde in Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, Turandot in Puccini’s Turandot. Solo orchestral: L.v. Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, Wagner’s Liebestod, Wagner’s Immolation Scene; Wagner’s Wesendonk Lieder, Alban Berg’s Altenberg Lieder, Alban Berg’s Der Wein (concert aria), Alban Berg’s Three Fragments from Wozzeck, Arnold Schoenberg’ Erwartung, Doug Davis’ Token, Strauss’ Final Scene from Salomé. |
