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SHORT BIOGRAPHY
For Program Booklets and Publicity

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco, Mezzo Soprano

Gigi Mitchell-Velasco is among emerging artists of the world’s opera and concert stages. With a voice ideally suited to the German romantic repertoire, she has been praised by the critics, colleagues and public alike for her interpretations of Mahler, Strauss and Wagner. She was personally invited by her mentor, Christa Ludwig, to sing in the Carnegie Hall Mahler & Brahms Song Workshop/Recital. Of her Mahler Kindertotenlieder, New York Times’ Anthony Tommasini wrote that she sang with a “dark-hued sound and elegance,” and the Wall Street Journal called her “the most finished artist, sensitive to every nuance of the text.” Her extensive concert engagements include Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Ural State Philharmonic, Russia (Sarah Caldwell), Oak Ridge (John Welsh), and Boston Philharmonic (Benjamin Zander), Second Symphony in Calgary (Hans Graf), Third Symphony in Santa Barbara (Gisele Ben-Dor), Boston (Zander) and West Virginia (Grant Cooper, 2008) and Eighth Symphony in New York (John Daly Goodwin), Philadelphia (Robert Page) and Boston (Zander); Verdi’s Requiem at Avery Fisher Hall, New Philharmonia, Ural State, Charleston (David Stahl), Florida (Jahja Ling), Houston (Graf, 2006), Syracuse Symhony (Daniel Hege, 2006) and New Hampshire Music Festival (Paul Polivnick, 2006); Bach’s Weihnactsoratorium in Saint Paul and Matthäuspassion in Milwaukee (Andreas Delfs) and Carnegie Hall (Rilling, 2007); Brahms’ Alto Rhapsody in West Virginia, Mendelssohn’s Elijah in San Diego (Ling, 2006) and Boston’s Back Bay Chorale (Scott Allen Jarrett, 2008), Mozart’s Requiem in Prague & Vienna (Martinú Philharmonic), Dvorak’s Requiem (Prague Autumn Festival) and Stabat Mater; Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in Minnesota (Eiji Oue), Houston, Brooklyn Philharmonic (Michael Christie, 2005), San Francisco (Tilson Thomas, 2005), Milwaukee (2006 & 2007) and Honolulu (Delfs, 2007), and Missa Solemnis in Boston (Jarrett, 2006), Milwaukee (2007) and Phoenix (Christie, 2007); Bernstein’s Jeremiah Symphony in Dallas (Litton, 2008), Berlioz’ Romeo et Juliette in San Antonio and L’Enfance du Christ in Boston (Jeffrey Rink), Handel’s Messiah and Judas Maccabeus with Orchestra of St. Luke’s (Judith Clurman, 2005), Ravel’s Shéhérazade and Chansons Madècasses, de Falla’s Amor Brujo and Siete canciones populares españolas, Berg’s Sieben Frühe Lieder, Wagner’s Wesendoncklieder. In opera, she portrayed Brangæne (Tristan und Isolde) at Florentine Opera (Rescigno), which she sang with Opera Orchestra of New York (Queler) and Charleston. Others are Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier, Minnesota), Carmen (Prague State Opera), Maddalena (Rigoletto, Braunschweig Staatstheater), Dorabella (Così fan tutte, Toledo), Composer (Ariadne auf Naxos, New York), Fricka (Rheingold, New York), Witch and Mother (Hansel and Gretel, Florentine Opera & Opera New England), Elizabeth Proctor (Crucible), Orlovsky (Fledermaus), Federica (Luisa Miller, Opera Boston), Parséïs (Esclarmonde, Washington Concert Opera, 2005) and Suzuki (Madama Butterfly, Toledo, 2005). Well versed not only in German but in many other languages, she has sung many song recitals in English, French, Italian, Spanish, Russian and Filipino from New York to Manila and Singapore to Russia, including a number of them with her tenor husband, Noel Espíritu Velasco. Summer 2003 saw her debut at Newport Music Festival in Mahler’s Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen and 14 other concerts of various works, mostly by Poulenc. She has given master classes in Columbus OH, Binghamton NY and Little Rock AR, and adjudicated the 2004 Canadian Music Competitions in Toronto and the 2006 Bel Canto Vocal Scholarship Awards. An ASV recording artist, Ms. Mitchell-Velasco can be heard singing E. Wolfgang Korngold’s Tomorrow, Einfache Lieder and Abschiedslieder on ASV’s CD DCA 1131. Visit her at www.BravaDiva.com.

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