Soprano and Pianist to Perform at UW April 15

Guest artist Sarah Coburn, soprano, with Theresa Bogard, piano, will give a University of Wyoming Department of Music performance at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 15, in the Buchanan Center for the Performing Arts recital hall. The concert is free and open to the public.

The program will feature music by Rossini, Bellini, Rachmaninoff, Marx, Strauss and Charles Gabriel, as well as traditional American spirituals.

Noted in Opera News magazine as a coloratura singer with a “silvery, resonant soprano voice,” Coburn has performed on many of the world’s great stages, including The Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Boston Lyric Opera, Seattle Opera, Los Angeles Opera, the Wiener Staatsoper and Welsh National Opera.

She has received awards from the George London Foundation, the Richard Tucker Foundation, the Jensen Foundation, the Liederkranz Foundation and Opera Index, and was a national grand finalist in the 2001 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions.

Career highlights include the role of Amina in “La sonnambula” with the Wiener Staatsoper; Zerbinetta in “Ariadne auf Naxos” with the Seattle Opera; Marie in “La fille du regiment” with the Seattle Opera, Opera Carolina and Tulsa Opera; Juliette in “Roméo et Juliette” with the Tulsa Opera; and Adina in “L’elisir d’amore” with the Washington National Opera.

Coburn has performed the role of Princess Yue-Yang in the world premiere production of Tan Dun’s “The First Emperor” at the Metropolitan Opera opposite Placido Domingo and created the role of Kitty in “Anna Karenina” for Florida Grand Opera, with additional performances at Opera Theatre of St. Louis.

Bogard, a UW Department of Music professor, is a versatile performer dedicated to expanding the canon of traditional piano repertoire, especially focusing on performing works by women and other lesser-known composers. A world traveler with a passion for other cultures, Bogard has performed throughout the U.S. and in 16 countries on five continents. Her extensive discography includes recordings ranging from solo piano to chamber music collaborations, from music of living composers to her specialty in fortepiano and historical performance practice.

She received a coveted Fulbright grant that supported her study of historical performance practice and fortepiano at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the Netherlands. That same year, she was a top prizewinner in the International Mozart Fortepiano Competition in Bruges, Belgium.

For more information, call Kathy Kirkaldie, UW Fine Arts coordinator, at (307) 766-2160 or email kirisk@uwyo.edu.