Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of dear Cheryl Studer, and
those of you well acquainted with her innumerable performances, live
and from the studio, will understand my enthusiasm, since she
represents a link with the great singers in opera history.

Soprano Cheryl Studer, born 24 October 1955 in Midland, Michigan,
began at a very young age studying the piano and the viola. At the
age of twelve, after listening to the album "La Callas à Paris", she
decided that she wanted to be an opera singer and started voice
lessons in her hometown with Mrs. Gwendolyn Pike. She spent her
senior high school years at the Interlochen Arts Academy, before
studying for one year at Oberlin Conservatory, near Cleveland, Ohio.
She then moved with her family to Tennessee, where she continued her
studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. Her promising
talent caught Leonard Bernstein's attention and he offered her full
scholarships to study for three consecutive summers at the Berkshire
Music Center at Tanglewood (1975 to 1977), where she studied with
Phyllis Curtin. She debuted at Tanglewood in 1976 in Bach's St.
Matthew Passion (BWV 244) with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under
Seiji Ozawa, who invited her for a series of concerts with the
Boston Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Hall during the 1978-1979
season.

In the summer of 1979, she went to the Schubert Institute in Baden
bei Wien, Austria, where she attended a course for foreign students
on the art of the German Lied. Among her teachers at that summer
institute were Irmgard Seefried, Brigitte Fassbaender and Hans
Hotter. The great baritone persuaded Cheryl Studer to stay in Europe
for the year and study with him at the Hochschule für Musik und
darstellende Kunst in Vienna.

After a year in Vienna, and at Hans Hotter's urging, Cheryl Studer
auditioned for Wolfgang Sawallisch who hired her as a permanent
member of the Bavarian State Opera, where she spent two consecutive
seasons. At the end of the 1981-1982 season, she left the Munich
ensemble to join the Staatstheater Darmstadt for two seasons, before
going to Berlin to be part of the Deutsche Oper ensemble for the
1984-195 and 1985-1986 seasons.

She sang her first big role (Violetta) as a guest artist at the
Staatstheater Braunschweig in the spring of 1983. In the summer of
that same year, the Bayerische Staatsoper called her to their Summer
Festival to sing Irene (Rienzi) and Drola (Die Feen), under Maestro
Sawallisch. She made her North American opera debut in the role of
Micaela (Carmen) in 1984 for the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She caught
the world's attention for the first time at the 1985 Bayreuth
Festival, when the sang Elisabeth (Tannhäuser) under Giuseppe
Sinopoli. Since then, she has sung in the most prestigious houses in
the world: Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona (debut in 1986 in Das
Rheingold as Freia), Opéra de Paris (debut the same year in Die
Zauberflöte as Pamina), San Francisco Opera (debut in Die
Meistersinger as Eva, also in 1986), Royal Opera House, Covent
Garden (debut in 1987 in Tannhäuser as Elisabeth), La Scala
(operatic debut in Don Giovanni as Donna Anna in 1987), New York
Metropolitan Opera (debut in 1988 in Carmen as Micaela), Vienna
State Opera (debut in Elektra as Chrysothemis in 1989). She debuted
at the Salzburg Summer Festival that same year and in the same role.

Her repertoire reveals a soprano of exceptional versatility, perhaps
not encountered since the great Lilli Lehmann: from Mozart's Queen
of the Night, Donna Anna and Countess Almaviva, to Wagner's
Sieglinde, Elisabeth and Elsa, from Rossini's Mathilde and
Semiramide to Donizetti's Lucia, from Verdi's Odabella and Violetta
to Gounod's Marguerite and the great heroines of Richard Strauss,
Cheryl Studer's repertoire encompasses more than 70 roles.

In addition to her appearances in the most renowned opera houses of
the world, Cheryl Studer has never forgotten her first love: the
Lied. Although she has been singing Lieder since her early years,
she made her first big European tour in 1992; ever since, she has
been giving Lieder recitals in many European cities, as well as in
the USA and the Far East. Although an acclaimed interpreter of the
great Germanic Lieder composers (in particular Schubert, Brahms,
Mahler, Strauss and Hugo Wolf), she also loves Debussy's Ariettes
oubliées and Samuel Barber's songs.

Cheryl Studer also appears regularly as a concert soloist with the
world's most famous orchestras: the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berlin
Philharmonic, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the London Symphony, the
Philharmonia Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Boston
Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, to name but a few. Her concert
repertoire includes Beethoven's Missa solemnis, Mozart's concert
arias, Verdi's Requiem, Wagner's Wesendonk-Lieder and Strauss's Vier
letzte Lieder, as well as other orchestral Lieder.

For her third summer's work as a Vocal Fellow of the Berkshire Music
Center at Tanglewood, Cheryl Studer won the 1977 High
Fidelity/Musical America Prize. The following year, she competed in
the Metropolitan Opera Auditions Finals and won the Mrs. Frederick
A. Stoughton Award. In 1979, she won the Franz-Schubert-Institut-
Preis for excellence in Lied interpretation. She received the Grand
Prix du Disque - Prix Maria Callas, in 1989. Cheryl Studer was
particularly honoured to be chosen by an international jury as the
first recipient of the International Classical Music Award in 1993
(London) in the category Best Female Singer of the Year; in the same
year, she also received the Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize. One year
later, she was chosen as Musical America's Vocalist of the Year
(1994).

Such a list, abbreviated as it is, is indicative of the great
success Cheryl Studer has enjoyed and continues to enjoy.

In October 2003, Cheryl Studer was appointed professor at the
Hochschule für Musik Würzburg. Her schedule is flexible enough to
allow her to continue her singing career. Ms. Studer, who holds a
teaching diploma from the State of Bavaria, has always been
interested in teaching and helping young singers develop. She has
given master classes at the Interlochen Arts Academy, and at the
Beijing Central Conservatory, where she was awarded an honorary
professorship in November of 2001.

On 22 August 2004, the soprano participated in the 2004-5 opening
concert of the China Philharmonic Orchestra at the Poly Theatre in
Beijing, in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the birth of
Deng Xiaoping (1904–1997), the late leader of the Communist Party of
China. The repertoire for that evening, led by the orchestra's Music
Director Long Yu, was carefully chosen by the former leader's family
and included Franz Liszt's Les Préludes, Richard Strauss' Ein
Heldenleben and his autumnal Vier letzte Lieder, sung by Ms. Studer.

A great many recordings featuring Cheryl Studer have also received
numerous prizes, awards and distinctions. Among others: Tannhäuser
(Elisabeth - DG - G. Sinopoli): Gran Premio del disco Ritmo, Orphée
d'Or, CD Compact, Diapason d'Or; Attila (Odabella - EMI - R. Muti):
Diapason d'Or, Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, L'Opera-Città di
Mondovì, Musica Viva; Salome (Salome - DG - G. Sinopoli): Stella
d'Argento, Diapason d'Or, Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du
disque, Edison Award, Orphée d'Or; Faust (Marguerite - EMI - M.
Plasson): Diapason d'Or, 10 de Répertoire, Choc du Monde de la
Musique, FFFF de Télérama, Orphée d'Or de l'Académie du disque
lyrique, Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, Grand Prix de la Nouvelle
Académie du disque, Classic CD 5-Star Award; Lohengrin (Elsa - DG -
C. Abbado): FFFF de Télérama, 10 de Répertoirte, Timbre de platine
d'Opéra international, Outstanding from BBC Music Magazine; Samuel
Barber's Complete Songs (with Thomas Hampson - DG - John Browning,
piano): Caecilia Prijs, Diapason d'Or, 10 de Répertoire, First
Cannes Classical Awards, Vocal Recital, XIX/XX centuries category,
Hilary Finch's Record of the Year (BBC Music Magazine), Gramophone
Awards, Solo Vocal category; Susannah (Title role - Virgin Classics -
K. Nagano): Grammy Award; Hérodiade (Salomé - EMI - M. Plasson):
Choc du Monde de la Musique, Diapason d'Or.

The worlds of Opera and of serious music, seriously delivered,
remain indebted to the soprano for her important and prestigious
documented legacy, a legacy which can comfortably be thought of as
Gold Standard. It will never happen again.

* Title role in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor, rec 8/90, London
SO, Marin

* Hanna Glawari in Lehar's Lustige Witwe, rec 1/94, Vienna PO,
Gardiner

* Countess in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, rec 1-2/94, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Countess in Mozart's Nozze di Figaro, rec 5/91, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Title role in Rossini's Semiramide, rec 7/92, London SO, Marin

* Florinda in Schubert's Fierrabras, rec 5/88, Chamber Orch of
Europe, Abbado

* Title role in R. Strauss' Salome, rec 12/90, Deutsche Oper Berlin,
Sinopoli

* Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto, rec 6/93, Metropolitan Opera, Levine

* Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto Act III, rec 9/91, Metropolitan Opera,
Levine

* Desdemona in Verdi's Otello, rec 5/93, Opéra Bastille, Chung

* Violetta in Verdi's Traviata, rec 1/91, Metropolitan Opera, Levine

* Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, rec '88, Philharmonia, Sinopoli

* Elisabeth in Wagner's Tannhäuser, rec '89, Bayreuth, Sinopoli

* Senta in Wagner's fliegende Holländer, rec 1/91, Deutsche Oper
Berlin, Sinopoli

* Gutrune in Wagner's Götterdämmerung, rec 5/89, Metropolitan Opera,
Levine

* Title role in Floyd's Susannah, rec 3/94, Opéra de Lyon, Nagano

* Marguerite in Gounod's Faust, rec 2/91, Toulouse, Plasson

* Salomé in Massenet's Hérodiade, rec 11-12/94, Toulouse, Plasson

* Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni, rec 9/90, Vienna PO, Muti

* Konstanze in Mozart's Entführung aus dem Serail, rec 4/91, Vienna
Symphony, Weil

* Queen of the Night in Mozart's Zauberflöte, rec 7/89, ASMF,
Marriner

* Giulietta in Offenbach's Contes d'Hoffmann, rec 87/88/89, Dresden
Staatskapelle, Tate

* Matilde in Rossini's Guglielmo Tell, rec 12/88, La Scala, Muti

* Madama Cortese in Rossini's Viaggio a Reims, rec 10/92, Berlin PO,
Abbado

* Title role in Spohr's Jessonda, rec '84, ORF Orchestra, Albrecht

* Chrysothemis in R. Strauss' Elektra, rec 1/90, Bavarian RSO,
Sawallisch

* Chrysothemis in R. Strauss' Elektra, rec 6/89, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Empress in R. Strauss' Frau ohne Schatten, rec 2-12/87, Bavarian
RSO, Sawallisch

* Empress in R. Strauss' Frau ohne Schatten, rec '92, Vienna PO,
Solti

* Title role in Verdi's Aida, rec 6/94, Covent Garden, Downes

* Odabella in Verdi's Attila, rec 6-7/89, La Scala, Muti

* Odabella in Verdi's Attila, rec 6/90, La Scala, Muti

* Elena in Verdi's Vespri Siciliani, rec 12/89-1/90, La Scala, Muti

* Drolla in Wagner's Die Feen, rec 7/83, Bavarian RSO, Sawallisch

* Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, rec 6/90, Bayreuth, Schneider

* Elsa in Wagner's Lohengrin, rec '90, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Eva in Wagner's Meistersinger, rec 4/93, Bavarian State Opera,
Sawallisch

* Irene in Wagner's Rienzi, rec 7/83, Bavarian State Opera,
Sawallisch

* Ortlinde in Wagner's Walküre, rec 8/81, Dresden Staatskapelle,
Janowski

* Sieglinde in Wagner's Walküre, rec 2-3/88, Bavarian RSO, Haitink

* Zemlinsky's Der Geburtstagder Infantin, rec 83, Berlin RSO,
Albrecht

* Coloratura Arias by Bellini (Sonnambula/Norma), Verdi
(Traviata/Trovatore), Donizetti (Lucia/Lucrezia Borgia), Rossini
(Barbiere/Semiramide), rec 4/89, Munich RSO, Ferro

* Mozart Arias
(Entführung/Zauberflöte/Idomeneo/Nozze/Giovanni/Clemenza/Cosi), rec
9/89, ASMF, Marriner

* R. Strauss' Vier Letzte Lieder/Wagner's Wesendonck-Lieder/Isolde's
Liebestod, rec 1/93, Dresden Staatskapelle, Sinopoli

* Isolde's Liebestod, rec 1/88, Bavarian RSO, Tate

* Wagner Gala (Tannhäuser/Lohengrin/Meistersinger/Walküre), rec
12/93, Berlin PO, Abbado

* First Europakonzert - in Prague (Mozart: "Non mi dir"/"Ch'io mi
scordi di te-Non temer amato bene"), rec 5/91, Berlin PO, Abbado

* Covent Garden Gala (Otello/Traviata/Fledermaus), rec 7/88, Covent
Garden, Barker

* Sacred Works
(Bach/Schubert/Mendelssohn/Handel/Mozart/Gounod/Faure/Poulenc/Bernste
in/Bruch), rec 3/91, London SO, Marin

* Samuel Barber Songs, rec 9/92, Browning (R.I.P.), Emerson String
Quartet

* Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, rec 8/91, Vienna PO, Levine

* Beethoven in Berlin (Ah! Perfido/Choral Fantasy/Egmont), rec
12/91, Berlin PO, Abbado

* Brahms' German Requiem, rec 10/92, Berlin PO, Abbado

* Schubert Lieder, rec 1/90, Gage

* Salzburg Recital (R. Strauss/Schubert/Debussy), rec 8/92, Gage

* Mahler's Klagende Lied, rec 11/90, Philharmonia, Sinopoli

* Mahler's Symphony No. 2, rec 11/92, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Mahler's Symphony No. 8, rec 11-12/90, Philharmonia, Sinopoli

* Mahler's Symphony No. 8, rec 1/94, Berlin PO, Abbado

* Verdi's Requiem, rec 6/87, La Scala, Muti

* Verdi's Requiem, rec 11/91, Vienna PO, Abbado

* Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, rec 4/89, Philadelphia Orchestra, Muti

* Bruckner's Mass in F Min/Mozart's Vespers, rec 3/77, MIT Choral
Society, Oliver

* Donizetti's Requiem, rec 1/84, Bamberg SO, Gómez-Martínez

* von Schweinitz's Messe Op. 21, rec 7/84, RSO Berlin, Albrecht

* R. Strauss Choral Works, rec 9/84, RIAS Kammerchor, Gronostay,
Creed

Cheryl Studer appears in a new recording (her second) of Ludwig van
Beethoven's 9th Symphony:
http://www.justus-
frantz.de/207/de/0/a/0/vol_37_ludwig_van_beethoven.html
http://www.unesco-heute.de/0303/beethoven.htm
Live Recording
12 January 2003
Berlin, Konzerthaus, Großer Saal
Philharmonie der Nationen
Justus Frantz -Conductor
Cheryl Studer -Soprano
Anke Vondung -Mezzosoprano
Christian Elsner -Tenor
Johannes Schwärsky -Bass

In December, the soprano will be heard as Sieglinde in concert
performances of Richard Wagner's Die Walküre Act 1:
Paris, Cité de la musique, Salle des concerts, 10 December 2004,
8:00 p.m.
Rouen, Opéra de Rouen / Haute-Normandie, Opéra Léonard de Vinci, 9 &
12 December 2004, 8:00 p.m.
http://www.operaderouen.com/sommaireopera.php
http://www.cite-musique.fr/francais/spectacles/_database/S00993.htm
Sieglinde: Cheryl Studer
Siegmund: Alan Woodrow
Hunding: Jyrki Korhonen
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen/Haute-Normandie
Conductor: Oswald Sallaberger
In the first part of the program:
Tristan und Isolde - Vorspiel
Siefried-Idyll
Tannhäuser - Overture

Brava Diva!