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!