A Musical Feast: All-Strauss Thanksgiving

Internationally-renowned Swedish soprano Miah Persson has worked all over the world as a recitalist, concert, and operatic artist.

Throughout her distinguished career, she has performed Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte, Gretel in Hänsel und Gretel and Pamina in Die Zauberflöte at the Metropolitan Opera; Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro and Zerlina in Don Giovanni at Covent Garden; the title role of L’incoronazione di Poppea and the Governess The Turn of the Screw at Teatro alla Scala; Fiordiligi, Sophie, and Susanna at the Wiener Staatsoper; several roles at the Glyndebourne Festival; Donna Elvira at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées  and with the Liceu Opera Barcelona; Fiordiligi at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Staatsoper Hamburg, New National Theatre Tokyo, in Stockholm and for a Deutsche Grammophon recording at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden; and L’incoronazione di Poppea at Carnegie Hall. She sang Michel van der Aa’s Blank Out, a chamber opera for solo soprano, for Netherlands Opera with performances in Amsterdam, Rome, Aix-en-Provence, and New York.

In concert, Miah has sung Bach’s Mass in B minor at Teatro la Fenice; Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; Beethoven’s Ninth with the London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Vladimir Jurowski at the BBC Proms; Brahms’s Requiem with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia and the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Peer Gynt with the Vienna Symphony; Mahler 2 with the MDR Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, London Symphony Orchestra, Teatro alla Scala, and the Philharmonie Luxembourg; as well as recitals at London’s Wigmore Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Spivey Hall, the Schubert Club of St. Paul, Cal Performances at Berkeley, Vancouver Playhouse, and Carnegie Hall.

Engagements in 2019-20 include role debuts as Elettra in Idomeneo at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Cleopatra Giulio Cesare at the New National Theatre Tokyo; Countess Almaviva at Staatsoper Berlin; Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni on tour with Kammerorchester Basel at the George Enescu Festival and Theater an der Wien; Donna Elvira at the Verbier Festival; Les nuits d’été on tour with the Budapest Festival Orchestra; Mahler 2 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National de Lyon, and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic; Vier letzte Lieder with the Houston Symphony and National Taiwan Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Mass in C minor with the New York Philharmonic; Beethoven’s Ninth at the Prague Spring International Festival; the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm; and Mozart’s Concert Arias on tour with the Freiburger Barockorchester.

Appointed First Associate Concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 2005, Canadian violinist Juliette Kang enjoys an active and varied career. Previously Assistant Concertmaster of the Boston Symphony and member of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, Juliette’s solo engagements have included the San Francisco Symphony, l’Orchestre National de France, the Baltimore Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Omaha Symphony, the Syracuse Symphony, and every major orchestra in Canada. Internationally, she has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Singapore Symphony, the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and the KBS Symphony in Seoul. She has given recitals in Philadelphia, Paris, Tokyo, and Boston. In 1994 she won the gold medal of the International Violin Competition of Indianapolis and was presented at Carnegie Hall in a recital that was recorded live and released on CD. She has also recorded the Schumann and Wieniawski violin concertos with the Vancouver Symphony for CBC Records.

In 2012, Juliette was again a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall for the visit of her hometown orchestra, the Edmonton Symphony, and she is a regular soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, most recently featured in the Bruch Scottish Fantasy conducted by music director Yannick Nezet-Seguin.

Juliette has been a chamber musician since studying at the Curtis Institute of Music. Festivals she has participated in include Bravo! Vail Valley, Bridgehampton, Kingston, Marlboro, Moab, Skaneateles, and Spoleto USA. In New York, she has performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center; at the Mostly Mozart Festival with her husband, cellist Thomas Kraines; and at the Bard Music Festival. With Philadelphia Orchestra violist Che Hung Chen, pianist Natalie Zhu, and cellist Clancy Newman, she is a member of the Clarosa Quartet, which is dedicated to exploring and enriching the piano quartet repertoire.

After receiving a Bachelor of Music degree at age 15 from the Curtis Institute of Music as a student of Jascha Brodsky, she earned a Master of Music degree at the Juilliard School under the tutelage of Dorothy Delay and Robert Mann. She was a winner of the 1989 Young Concert Artists Auditions and received first prize at the Menuhin Violin Competition of Paris in 1992. She serves on the Board of Trustees at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School. One of the oldest and largest community schools of the arts in the country, the Settlement School has served more than 300,000 students since its founding in 1908.