Patrice Michaels
A native of southern California, lyric soprano Patrice Michaels entered college believing that she wanted to become a flutist. Before she had graduated from Pomona College with a degree in theatre, however, she had determined that she wanted to train in composition. By the time she entered the University of Minnesota, she had already sampled the world of singing, both as a coach assisting in the preparation of operas and musicals and as a singer herself. At Minnesota, she sang a good deal, performing in such operatic staples as Carmen and Lehár's Merry Widow. In addition, she studied composition, most notably with Dominick Argento, under whose tutelage she wrote an opera. Not coincidentally, one of her critically acclaimed Cedille recordings features Argento's music.
When engaged in a post-graduate residency at the Banff Center for the Arts in Alberta, Canada, she found her voice increasingly able to manage the rapid passagework found in music of the Baroque period. Among other opportunities that opened to her there was the chance to tour the western provinces in a second opera of her composing.
A successful audition for Lee Schaenen of the Lyric Opera of Chicago's Center for American Artists led to the expectation that she would have a position there, but a student already in the program chose to stay another year and there was thus no slot. Michaels decided to stay in Chicago and work with Schaenen's wife, Nell, a well-known language coach.
Joining the chorus of Chicago's Music of the Baroque proved a stroke of good fortune. Under the supervision of Music Director Tom Wickman, she was given increasingly important responsibilities. She credits Wickman with putting the final gloss on her vocal technique, saying in print, "I didn't really know how to sing until I met Tom."
Opportunities came quickly as word of a quality singer with a shimmering, firmly focused, and agile voice spread first about Chicago and soon thereafter about the country. In 1991, she included in a recital a song cycle by Argento, his Six Elizabethan Songs. In the audience was James Ginsburg, the owner of Cedille Records. Ginsburg, son of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and trained as an attorney, had established his label two years before to pursue the recording of interesting repertory with artists of unassailable quality.
That first hearing of Michaels assured him that she was an artist with whom he wanted to work on a long-term basis. The musical relationship yielded rich results as nearly a CD per year emerged to critical acclaim in the national press. Among the recordings were several solo discs, some ensemble ventures, and an opera, namely Gian Carlo Menotti's The Medium in which Michaels sings the role of Monica.
Michaels, no doubt prompted by her own work as a composer, has been conscientious in searching out unusual repertory for her song recitals. An example of her unfailing good judgment can be heard in her recorded collaboration with fortepianist David Schrader, entitled Songs of the Classical Age.
© TiVo
Discographie
17 album(s) • Trié par Meilleures ventes
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Menotti: The Medium
Opéra - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs Of The Romantic Age
Patrice Michaels, Deborah Sobol
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs Of The Classical Age
Patrice Michaels, David Schrader
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 23 nov. 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The World Of Lully
Patrice Michaels, Chicago Baroque Ensemble
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Intersection: Jazz Meets Classical Song
Patrice Michaels, Kuang-Hao Huang, Zach Brock, Nicholas Photinos, Dedé Sampaio
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 12 août 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Divas Of Mozart's Day: Arias Written for Catarina Cavalieri, Nancy Storace & Others
Patrice Michaels, Classical Arts Orchestra, Peter Van de Graaff, Stephen Alltop
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Faure / Boulanger / Ravel / Debussy: Songs
Patrice Michaels, Rebecca Rollins
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Falla, M.: Concerto / Carter, E.: Sonata / Argento, D.: 6 Elizabethan Songs
Larry Combs, Patrice Michaels, Rembrandt Chamber Players
Musique concertante - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Michaels, Patrice: La Vie Est Une Parade
Patrice Michaels, Chicago Chamber Musicians, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Paul Freeman
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Monica's Waltz
Patrice Michaels, Chicago Opera Theater Ensemble, Lawrence Rapchak
Opéra - Paru chez Cedille le 16 nov. 2018
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Mozart: Requiem / Ave Verum Corpus / Haydn: Te Deum
Classique - Paru chez Amadis le 25 nov. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Songs Cycles
Patrice Michaels, Jeffrey Kust, Elizabeth Buccheri, Larry Combs, Elliott Golub
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 1996
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Notorious RBG in Song
Patrice Michaels, Kuang-Hao Huang
Classique - Paru chez Cedille le 8 juin 2018
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Convergence: Music of Laurie Altman
Clipper Erickson, Scott Lee, Patrice Michaels, Andrew Rathbun, Laurie Altman, Helen Rathbun
Classique - Paru chez NEOS Music le 18 oct. 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Michaels, Patrice: American Songs
Patrice Michaels, Elizabeth Buccheri, Matthew Duvall
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 26 sept. 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Virtuoso Händel (Georg Friedrich Händel)
Classique - Paru chez Cedille Records le 24 juil. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Vocal and Instrumental Works
Patrice Michaels, Chicago Baroque Ensemble
Musique vocale (profane et sacrée) - Paru chez Cedille le 1 janv. 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo