Artist Biography
Susan Graham
Born in New Mexico and raised in Texas, Susan Graham studied at Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music; she was awarded an honorary degree by the Manhattan School of Music in 2008. She won the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and the Schwabacher Award from the San Francisco Opera’s Merola Program, as well as a Career Grant from the Richard Tucker Foundation. Ms. Graham made her debut with the San Francisco Symphony in 1991, when she performed in scenes from Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier with Edo de Waart conducting. She last sang the Mahler Rückert Lieder with the San Francisco Symphony in 1998, and returned most recently to Davies Symphony Hall in 2007, performing Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été with Michael Tilson Thomas conducting.
Last season, Ms. Graham sang works by Berlioz in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina; performed works by Bernstein and Rorem at Carnegie Hall; and Massenet in Munich and Paris. Ms. Graham performed recitals in Berlin, Copenhagen, London, Vienna, and Brussels; and gave her first Metropolitan Opera performances as Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This season, she sings Ravel’s Shéhérazade under Seiji Ozawa at Japan’s Saito Kinen Festival. After an October return to the Metropolitan Opera as Octavian in Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Ms. Graham will perform the role of Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Other season highlights include the role of Marguérite in Berlioz’s Damnation de Faust with the Lyric Opera of Chicago, and the title role of Handel’s Xerxes with the Houston Grand Opera. Ms. Graham also performs Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer with the New York Philharmonic. In November, Ms. Graham will host the fifth annual Opera News Awards in New York.
Susan Graham’s most recent recordings include Un frisson français with pianist Malcolm Martineau and La Mort de Cléopatre by Hector Berlioz, with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle. Earlier solo CDs include Poèmes de l’amour, with Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Chausson’s Poème de l’amour et de la mer. Ms. Graham won a Grammy award for her recording of Charles Ives songs with pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and she received a Grammy nomination and the Maria Callas Award from the Académie du Disque Lyrique for her performance as Dido in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. Her complete opera recordings include Handel’s Alcina, Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride, Barber’s Vanessa, and Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking. In Heggie’s opera, she portrays Sister Helen Prejean, a role written for her and which she performed in the work’s world premiere at the San Francisco Opera. Ms. Graham was Musical America’s 2004 Vocalist of the Year, and she is a Commandeur dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France.