Widely praised for her musical intelligence, “memorable, raw-silk voice” (Toronto Star) and “expressive virtuosity” (San Francisco Chronicle), American mezzo-soprano Meg Bragle is quickly earning an international reputation as one of today’s most gifted interpreters of early music. Appearances in the 2011–2012 season include a debut with Bernard Labadie and Les Violons du Roy in Alessandro Scarlatti’s Stabat Mater; a debut with the Toronto Symphony in Handel’s Messiah; Bach cantatas with the Montreal-based Arion Ensemble led by Jaap ter Linden at the Bach Montréal festival; and a Bach St. John Passion in Geneva.
Recent highlights include a European tour of Bach’s Mass in B Minor with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists, including performances at the Bachfest Leipzig, the Prague Spring Festival, and the Aldeburgh and Brighton Festivals; debuts with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Houston’s Mercury Baroque Orchestra singing Mitrena in Vivaldi’s Motezuma, and Les Voix Baroques with Ensemble Arion; Messiah with the Dunedin Consort in France; the premiere performance of a new edition of Salieri’s Requiem in Washington, D.C.; and Pergolesi’s La Maddalena al Sepolcro in New York City.
Bragle has also appeared in Europe and North America with Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra, Apollo’s Fire, Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, as well as with the symphony orchestras of Memphis, San Antonio, Charlotte, Akron, North Carolina and Nova Scotia. She has collaborated with the Mark Morris Dance Group in music by Franz Schubert, Antonio Vivaldi, Johannes Brahms and Stephen Foster. Her opera performances include the roles of Dido and the Sorceress in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas, Dardano in Handel’s Amadigi, Amastre in Handel’s Serse, Speranza in Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo, Ippolita in Cavalli’s Elena, and Elpina in Vivaldi’s La Fida Ninfa.
Bragle has recorded Mozart’s Requiem with Apollo’s Fire (Koch), Cozzolani’s Vespro della Beata Vergine and Messa Paschale with Magnificat (Musica Omnia), Monteverdi’s Vespro della Beata Vergine (Avie) and L’Orfeo (Eclectra) with Apollo’s Fire, Music of Medieval Love with New York’s Ensemble for Early Music (Ex Cathedra Records), Toby Twining’s Chrysalid Requiem (Cantaloupe Music), Anthony Newman’s Requiem (Khaeon World Music) and Copland’s In the Beginning with John Scott and the Men and Boy Choir of St. Thomas Fifth Avenue and the Oratorio Singers of Charlotte on their own labels. A recording for ATMA Classique of Bach's St. John Passion with Les Voix Baroques and Arion Baroque Orchestra and for Koch of Handel’s Dixit Dominus and Ode for the Birthday of Queen Anne with Apollo’s Fire are forthcoming.
Bragle studied both violin and voice at the University of Michigan before earning a Bachelor of Musical Arts degree in Voice Performance and English. She also completed a Master’s degree in Choral Conducting from Michigan State University. She is the recipient of several awards and recognition from Symphony Magazine, the American Bach Society, the Carmel Bach Festival and the Bethlehem Bach Festival.