Artist Bios
Patrice Michaels, Soprano
"Like the Romantic ideal of art, Patrice Michaels' voice is both natural and passionate" says Classical CD Digest. "A formidable interpretative talent"(The New Yorker), Ms. Michaels receives raves for her "poise, musicianship and impressive fioratura" (Los Angeles Times), "a voice that is light, rich and flexible" (Opera News), and "pinpoint accurate...bravura" (Boston Globe).
Recent seasons have included engagements with the Shanghai, Czech National, St. Louis, Omaha, Atlanta, Phoenix, Milwaukee, and Minnesota Orchestras, the Maryland Handel Festival, Dallas Bach Society and Charlotte, Kansas City and Virginia Symphonies, as well as New York's Concert Royal and Chicago's Music of the Baroque. Ms. Michaels has sung the Great Mass in C Minor with Skrowaczewski, Christmas Oratorio with Shaw, Mahler 4 with Zdenek Macal, Mozart Arias with Andrew Parrott and Nicolas McGegan, Carmina Burana with Joanne Falletta and Beethoven 9 with Andreas Delfs and Victor Yampolsky.
Ms. Michaels includes in her operatic credits the Hal Prince production of Candide at the Lyric Opera of Chicago. She made her debut in the 1990-91 season with the Cleveland Opera as Marzelline in Fidelio and has sung with Central City Opera, Tacoma Opera, The Banff Centre, Canada and Chicago Opera Theater. Her recording as Monica in Menotti's The Medium (Cedille Records) continues to receive international critical acclaim.
Recital appearances for Ms. Michaels include three consecutive seasons at the Festival of Contemporary Music in Havana, Cuba and tours of Japan, Venezuela, Barbados and Belize. She performs frequently in the United States and Canada, including a recital with pianist John Browning for Music at the Supreme Court, as guest artist with the Chicago Chamber Musicians, for the Schubert Club of St. Paul and for many academic institutions, including Harvard, Roosevelt and Northwestern University.
This season, Ms. Michaels will be heard in concert with pianist Ana Cervantes as they tour Mexico City, Veracruz, Guanajuato and Guadalajara; in master classes at the University of Tel Aviv, in recital in Istanbul, and with Bach Week in Evanston.
A Mozart specialist, Patrice Michaels can be heard on the Amadis recording of the Requiem and on Music of the Baroque's Great Mass in C Minor. Divas of Mozart's Day on Cedille Records was released in 2002 and continues to garner international acclaim. She has received consistent critical enthusiasm for her other recordings on the Cedille label, including Songs of the Classical Age; A Vivaldi Concert; The World of Lully; To Be Sung Upon the Water; Songs of the Romantic Age; 20th Century Baroque; Clearings in the Sky; The Virtuoso Handel; The Vorisek Mass in B Flat; and La vie est une parade. Her next release will be American Songs, scheduled for July '06.
Ms. Michaels serves as Associate Professor of Opera Theater and Studio Voice at Lawrence University Conservatory of Music in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Peter Van De Graaff, Bass-Baritone
Hailed by the critics as possessing a "resplendent voice" and "rich, burnished sound" with "formidable skill" and a "commanding grace and strength", bass-baritone Peter Van De Graaff has sung to great acclaim throughout the world. In Europe, he performed and recorded a Mass by Jan Vorisek with the Czech State Symphony under Paul Freeman and has also sung Beethoven's Missa Solemnis throughout the Czech Republic and Poland with the Czech Philharmonic. He appeared in Berlin with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in Schoenberg's Moses und Aron. In Budapest he sang with the Budapest Concert Orchestra in Verdi's Requiem and in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Chamber Orchestra joined him in a Mozart Mass. As a recitalist he appeared in Tokyo. His singing has also taken him throughout the United States, where his appearances include engagements with the Houston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Utah Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, Syracuse Symphony, Louisiana Philharmonic, Omaha Symphony, Wichita Symphony, Colorado Springs Symphony, Richmond Symphony and many, many others. Conductors with whom he has worked include Pierre Boulez, Christopher Wilkins, Paul Freeman, Bernard Labadie, Paul Hillier, Joseph Silverstein, Robert Page, Thomas Wikman, Jane Glover, Klaus-Peter Seibel, Victor Yampolsky, James Paul, Daniel Hege and Nicholas Kraemer, among many others.
Mr. Van De Graaff has made a specialty of the baroque repertoire and this has brought him as soloist to the San Luis Obispo Mozart Festival, Costa Rica International Music Festival, Chicago's Music of the Baroque, Pittsburgh Bach Choir, Grand Teton Music Festival, St. Louis Early Music Festival, Boulder Bach Festival and many other festivals and concert series throughout the country. He and his soprano wife have been responsible for the modern premieres of several early 18th century chamber operas called "intermezzi."
He has also been active in the opera house and has performed with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Florentine Opera, Milwaukee Opera, Rochester Opera, Chicago Opera Theater, Cedar Rapids Opera and many other companies.
Peter is recognized nationwide as a leader in classical music broadcasting. After beginning his radio career in 1984 at KBYU, he came to WFMT as a staff announcer in 1988. For the past 17 years he has been the host of the Beethoven Satellite Network, a nationally-syndicated daily program carried on 150 stations. Since 1996 he has been the program director of the service as well. He has also hosted such nationwide broadcast series as Opera from the European Broadcasting Union, Music of the Baroque and the Vermeer Quartet. He is presently the host of the LaSalle Bank Tuesday Night Opera and the local broadcasts of Music of the Baroque. His daily program LaSalle by Night can be heard every day from midnight until 6:00 on WFMT, 98.7 FM
