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The Austrian soprano, Angharad Gabriel, was born in Vienna to Welsh singer Susan Dennis and Austrian composer/conductor/ pianist Wolfgang Gabriel. This musical background resulted in Angharad’s singing long before she could speak and made a career as a singer inevitable - at least to her! She gave her first informal song recital in the Welsh town of Aberdare when she was just eight years old singing songs by W.A. Mozart, Johannes Brahms, Schubert, Purcell, Haydn and W.A. Mozart’s Alleluja. At the age of 11 she joined the Vienna Bach Choir (Bachgemeinde Wien) and remained their youngest-ever member until she left the choir in 2000 to concentrate more on solo work and intensive vocal training. She studied Musicology and French at the Vienna University, graduating with distinction in 2010 with a master’s thesis on the life and works of Wolfgang Gabriel.
Today Angharad Gabriel is delighted to join the Bachgemeinde frequently as a soloist, performing in works such as W.A. Mozart’s, J. Brahms’ and Gabriel Fauré’s Requiem, J.S. Bach’s Johannes-Passion (BWV 245) and numerous cantatas, and in George Frideric Handel’s Messiah (Konzerthaus Wien). Engagements with other ensembles have recently included performances of W.A. Mozart's Exsultate, jubilate and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi's Stabat Mater.
For the recital platform Angharad Gabriel has presented numerous recitals on diverse themes, such as “Nacht und Träume”, a programme of folk song arrangements in five languages, an evening of Scottish and Welsh folk song arrangements by Beethoven and Haydn and in 2007 she gave her Bösendorfersaal debut with a recital of various settings of the same poems, entitled “Poetic Metamorphoses”. Her latest recital project was a programme of Shakespeare songs from six centuries, including songs by Morley, Quilter, Schubert, Robert Schumann, Berlioz, Chausson, the Ophelia songs by Strauss and Wolfgang Gabriel’s Drei Shakespeare Sonnette.
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Since 2012, Angharad Gabriel is a member of the Arnold Schoenberg Chor, regularly appearing in concerts and operas at the Theater an der Wien, Lucerne Festival, Salzburg Festival, Styriarte and Vienna’s Musikverein. |
