Artist description Soprano Rebekkah Hilgraves is gaining widening international recognition as an intelligent and vivacious interpreter of song and opera (you are invited to visit http://www.mp3.com/rebekkahhilgraves/ for a taste of her opera work!).

Music Style Classical Vocal -- soprano

Musical Influences Maria Callas, Leontyne Price, Renata Tebaldi

Similar Artists Maria Callas, Eleanor Steber, Leonie Rysanek

Artist History Rebekkah Hilgraves was born in Washington, D.C. and has traveled extensively through the United States; she currently resides in New York City. She has been training seriously for a vocal career from an early age. Studies in Voice Performance at Northern Illinois University included art song and opera, as well as early music performance practice and vocal pedagogy. Since completing her degree, Ms. Hilgraves has performed in many solo recitals in Illinois, North Carolina, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Seattle. As a member of the San Francisco Chamber Singers, she participated in a recording of Uses of Music in Uttermost Places, a work by San Francisco-based composer Elinor Armer (a Koch International CD). She has been named "Best Actress in a Musical" by the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics’ Circle for the leading role in an original work with the Lamplighters, itself an award-winning light opera company in San Francisco. She has also taken roles in several operas and light operas, including in L’Étoile by Chabrier (Princess Laoula) with Pocket Opera; the title role in Princess Ida by Gilbert and Sullivan (again with the Lamplighters); the Second Prioress (Madame Lidoine) in Poulenc’s Dialogues des Carmelites; Helen in Three Sisters Who Are Not Sisters by Ned Rorem; she has performed in numerous other smaller roles as well. Ms. Hilgraves' current solo repertoire covers a broad range of languages and styles, and includes such works as Samuel Barber’s Hermit Songs and Knoxville: Summer of 1915; Trois Chansons de Bilitis and other songs by Debussy, Four Fragments from the Canterbury Tales by Lester Trimble, Bachianas Brasileiras #5 by Villa-Lobos as well as many songs by Schubert, Wolf, Brahms, Rorem, Poulenc and others. Operatic repertoire, in addition to the roles she has performed, includes arias by Mozart, Puccini, Wagner, Délibes, Verdi, Gershwin and many others. She is also preparing the mélodies by French composer Charles Bordes (1863-1909) for recording, after having given many of them what are almost certainly their American premieres. During the 1998-99 season, Ms. Hilgraves was the soprano soloist for the Orchestra Seattle performance of Dvorák’s Stabat Mater, led by George Shangrow. She also made two solo appearances with the Seattle Philharmonic Orchestra, directed by Marsha Mabrey. She has performed the soprano solos in the Requiems of Brahms and Mozart this season; she recently appeared again as a soloist with Orchestra Seattle/Seattle Chamber Singers in R. Vaughan Williams' "Serenade to Music", and with the Seattle Philharmonic in February of 2000, performing Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915. Critics have said of Ms. Hilgraves "…a gorgeous soprano who can act." "…this vivacious soprano…" and "...ample and ringing. Lovely! … in your ecstatic transports the grasp of the scholar is transmuted into the lyric flair--the richly nuanced aperçus--of the artist.." Ms. Hilgraves continues to appear in recitals and as soloist with orchestras in the Seattle area and elsewhere.

Group Members Rebekkah Hilgraves, soprano; Violetta Decyatnik, piano

Instruments soprano

Albums "Extase" and "French Connection"

Press Reviews "Rebekkah Hilgraves proves that some people are simply born to perform the music of certain genres or composers. Without reservation I can say much the same about Ms. Hilgraves and French chansons, especially in her readings of the extraordinarily compelling works of Charles Bordes, a contemporary of Debussy. A lyric soprano with a silvery voice, impeccable diction and real interpretive savoir faire, she sings these -- as well as music of Debussy and the always charming Duparc -- divinely. Very much in the refined tradition of Claire Croiza, Yvonne Printemps and Suzanne Danco... How I would love to hear this splendid chanson interpreter as Melisande! Anyone casting at the moment?"-- John Bell Young, reviewer for OPERA NEWS and AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

Location New York, NY - USA

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