Opera Singer & Concert Artist
She was on my list of Outstanding
Canadian Men and Women. Last evening watching Vision's TV channel, she is
presenting a 4-part series...Songs of Freedom...which was superbly
entertaining. On Wednesday evenings, I've been following the...Book of
Negroes. Her biography relating to
four generations ago depicted her ancestors being part of that era in United States. With great pleasure, I introduce her to you.
She was born, Measha Gosman to Anne
Eatmon and Sterling Gosman of Fredericton, New Brunswick on June 28, 1977. Today, she is a Canadian
soprano who has has performed
internationally and won numerous awards.
Her recordings of both classical and popular music have also received
awards.
Life and Career: As a
child, Gosman began singing in the choir of her local Baptist church, where her
father served as a deacon. She studied
voice and piano from the age of seven.
At a teen, she took voice lessons in her home town...and spent summers on
scholarships at the Boston Conservatory and at a choral camp in Rothesay, New
Brunswick. She
studied for one year with New Brunswick soprano, Wendy Nielsen, before moving on to
studies at the University
of Toronto, where she
obtained a B. Mus. She went to Germany for five years, where she pursued a
Master's degree at the Robert Schumann Hochschule in Dusseldorf, Germany.
She married Markus Bruegger, born
in Switzerland. They first met in high school, when he was an
exchange student in New Brunswick.
When they married, they combined their last names to Brueggergosman.
Her Ancestral History: In 2007, Measha discovered her family's
deep history in Canada and United States. Her paternal 4xgreat-grandparents were John
Gosman and his wife, Rose, African Americans who each escaped from slavery in New England colonies during the American Revolution by
going to the British lines. John was
from Connecticut and Rose from Rhode Island. They probably met in New York City, then occupied by the
British. The British gave freedom
to American slaves who left rebel slaveholders and sought refuge with
them. Tens of thousands of slaves,
mostly in the South, took advantage of the war's chaos to escape; so many, that the plantations were disrupted
in South Carolina and Virginia, especially.
After the war, the British
arranged transport to Nova Scotia
for nearly 3500 Black Loyalists from the former Thirteen Colonies. John and Rose Gosman and their 5-month-old
daughter, Fanny, born free in British lines, were recorded in the British
embarkation record known as the...Book of Negroes. They had passage in
1783 on one of the last ships to leave New York
for Nova Scotia. Measha's 4xgreat-grandparents first lived in
Shelburne, but later settled in Fredericton.
Her Goodwill: In 2007,
Brueggergosman became the Goodwill Ambassador for the African Medical &
Research Foundation (AMREF), a
charity working for Better Health in Africa. In June of that year, she travelled to the
war-affected village of Patongo in East Africa
to share her voice as a form of musical therapy for children. Brueggergosman described herself after the
trip as 'never the same' and continues
her work with AMREF today.
Suffering a heart condition in
June 2009, Brueggergosman took some time off to recover from open heart
surgery. She returned to the stage in
September 2009 for a performance at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2012 Brueggergosman was a
judge on the short-lived Canadian reality show...Canada's Got Talent.
The show was subsequently
cancelled after one season.
Performances
At age 20, Measha played the lead
in the premiere of the opera...Beatrice Chancy...by James Rolfe and George Elliott Clarke. Produced in Toronto in 1998 and in Nova Scotia
the following year, the opera tells the story of a slave girl in the 19th
century rural Nova Scotia
who murders her abusive father, the man who is also her master. The
opera and Brueggergosman were well received by critics and
audiences. In 2000, it was filmed for
the CBC.
Brueggergosman has appeared
throughout Canada, where she
has performed with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony Orchestra,
the Thunder Bay Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Geoffrey Moull, National
Arts Centre Orchestra under the direction of Pinchas Zukerman and at Roy
Thomson Hall in Toronto.
She has performed
internationally, as well, in the United States,
Germany
and other nations. She was in Elektra,
Dead Man Walking and Turandot with
the Cincinnati Opera. She has also
performed the Verdi Requiem with Sir Andrew Davis and the Toronto
Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Helmuth Rilling at the International
Beethoven Festival in Bonn.
In 2005, Brueggergosman was a
soloist in recording William Bolcom's Songs of Innocence and Experience...which
won 3 Grammy awards, including Best Classical Album.
In July 2007, she was a new
performer at the Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo, singing in the 'Phanton
of the Opera' medley and closing the show with 'Ave Maria'.
In the fall of 2009 she performed
with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in their performance of Michael Tippett's
oratorio A Child of Our Time.
She performed the Olympic Hymn
at the Opening Ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, British Columbia..
She brilliantly performed an arrangement of the English sung version of the
hymn in both English and French to reflect Canada's official languages.
Recently she performed Bess in
Gershwin's Porgy and Bess for the Cincinnati Opera.
Awards and Recognition: These
are numerous including recipient of the prestigious Canada Council and Chalmers
Performing Arts grants...twice nominated for Juno Awards winning in 2008 for
Classical Album of the Year.
Of herself, she states, “I feel I
was groomed for great things...whether it was great success or great loss. I have a capacity for extremes. I've had my
crossroads. There is no happy without sad; there's no good without bad. I know
now there is a balance in life ~ it eventually finds its way. Everything has
merged to make me a better person and a better artist.”
Merle
Baird-Kerr...scripted February 7, 2015
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