Born: January 5, 1915 - Karlsruhe, Germany
Died: February 17, 1995

The German lyric soprano, Uta Graf, studied with Ria Ginster, Helene Schlusnus and Anna Bahr-Mildenburg.

Uta Graf made her professional debut in 1940 in Düsseldorf. Between 1941 and 1943 she performed at the Aachen Opera. During 1943-1944 she was a member of the Cologne Opera and was a guest artist at the opera houses in Dresden and Stuttgart. The great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau invited her to perform in the USA and she made her North American debut as Sophie in Strauss’s Rosenkavalier at the San Antonio Opera in 1948. She remained in the USA until 1954 at the San Francisco Opera and guested at the Toronto Opera. She also undertook appearances and concert tours in South America. Graf appeared at Covent Garden (1950-1951), the Netherlands Opera (1955-1958) and during this period guested at the Vienna State Opera and the Munich State Opera. On several occasions she participated in the Holland Festival, and was a cast member of the first performance of Henri Tomasi’s opera Sampiero Corso in 1958.

Later Uta Graf returned to the USA where she concentrated her activities on the concert hall and teaching. She became a member of the music faculty at the Peabody Conservatory in Boston between 1958-1966 and was appointed a Professor at the Manhattan School of Music, New York.

Married to the concert master Pierre Breyer, Uta Graf worked with musicians such as Leopold Stokowski, Josef Krips, Paul Hindemith and Fritz Lehmann.

Uta Graf's records appear on the Allegro Elite, Concert Hall and Columbia labels and include The Tales of Hoffmann, Missa Solemnis, Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben, Schoenberg’s Quartet no. 2, op. 10 (with the Juilliard Quartet), Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Bach’s Mass in B Minor (BWV 232) and Don Giovanni.

Sources: Wiener Singakademie; Operissimo; The Critical Discographies from Choral Music On Records - Mass in B Minor
Contributed by Eric Spicer (February 2002)

Recordings of Bach Cantatas & Other Vocal Works

Conductor

As

Works

Arnold Block

Soprano

BWV 211

Günther Ramin

Soprano

BWV 232

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