Susan Graham, one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of our day, will perform with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra on January 16 and 17, in one of this season’s don’t-miss concerts.

You can get a preview of Graham’s style and voice when she makes her second TV appearance in a week on January 6 (she was also featured in the New York Philharmonic’s New Year’s Eve gala, broadcast on “Live from Lincoln Center) on the Martha Stewart Show.

Here’s the complete release:

SUSAN GRAHAM TO BE “MARTHA STEWART SHOW’S” FIRST CELEBRITY GUEST OF 2009 TOMORROW, TUESDAY, JAN 6

Tomorrow morning, on Tuesday, January 6, the Grammy Award-winning mezzo Susan Graham will appear on the Martha Stewart Show as its first celebrity guest of 2009. Susan Graham and Martha Stewart will cook a healthy dish to start off the New Year, and discuss Un frisson français, Susan Graham’s newest recording of French songs on the Onyx label.

Graham’s appearance with Martha Stewart follows her highly successful appearance with Maestro Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic for the orchestra’s New Year’s Eve gala, which was broadcast nationally on PBS TV’s Live From Lincoln Center. Susan Graham sang, among other items, the two principal arias from Bizet’s Carmen, the “Habanera” and “Seguidilla”. Ms. Graham also sang arias from two of her signature roles, Sesto in Mozart’s La clemenza di Tito and The Merry Widow of Lehár’s popular operetta of the same name. In a review of the gala performance, the New York Times praised Ms. Graham for her “glorious vocal tone, keen intelligence, outsize personality and, as appropriate, sparkling wit”.

When not singing, Susan Graham acts as host for many broadcasts and live events. She was the host for the Emmy Award-winning Live From Lincoln Center telecast of Madama Butterfly from the New York City Opera, and elegantly hosted the opening night of the Met’s 125th anniversary season for local movie and open-air audiences in the season’s first Live in HD transmission. She also hosted the HD broadcasts of John Adams’s Dr. Atomic and last season’s Tristan und Isolde. Ms. Graham opened this season as host of both the National Endowment for the Arts Opera Honors and the Opera News Awards.

Susan Graham’s newest CD, Un frisson français, earns high praise
Susan Graham’s latest CD, Un frisson français, was recently featured in a BBC Music cover story for the magazine’s “Special Issue on French music.” London’s Sunday Times named the disc one of the “Best CDs of 2008,” calling it “one of the most delicious surprises of the year,” while the Denver Post selected it as one of the “10 Classical Albums That Mattered In 2008.”

“The program I have recorded with Malcolm Martineau is a really rich variety of French mélodies over a hundred-year span, from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. It’s a rich tapestry – from Bizet to Poulenc – and it provides a delicious variety of romantic, saucy, lush, humorous, and offbeat songs,” explains Susan Graham. “I wasn’t familiar with many of them before I learned them for my recital tour in 2007, including Fauré’s rarely heard “Vocalise-étude”, but I have truly fallen in love with each one. Some are heartbreaking; some are dramatic – almost operatic – in scope, like Bachelet’s “Chère nuit”. Some are little brush-strokes, and some create a whole landscape. There are animal songs, nature songs, love songs, songs about love manqué, and some subtle French humor thrown in for fun. They make up a varied and rich program. If they were food and you were in a restaurant, these songs would be the entire appetizer menu, and you’d have to order them all.”

For further information about Susan Graham’s appearance on the “Martha Stewart Show,” please check local listings and visit www.MarthaStewart.com

In New York City, the “Martha Stewart Show” can be seen on WNBC, Channel 4, at 11am on Tuesday, Jan. 6

For more information about Un frisson français, please visit: onyxclassics.com.

For more information about Susan Graham and a full performance schedule, please visit:
www.SusanGraham.com.