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Shudong Braamse, soprano
International performer and coloratura soprano, Shudong Braamse, has appeared on stages in Can-ada, Italy, Austria, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Latvia, Singapore, Taiwan and China. She has per-formed as Lucy in The Telephone, Sally in Thomas and Sally, and Josephine in H.M.S. Pinafore. As a recitalist, she has premiered a number of works by Asian and American composers, including Huaihua’s I Wish I Were a Little Light Boat, Dr. Gary Nash’s song cycle - Peace, Love and Pros-perity, and Michael Bulychev-Okser’s Spanish art song Romance de la Luna. Critic Carol Cohan of Orlando’s The Villages Daily Sun praised Dr. Braamse’s powerful upper register and described her technique as fluid and true, flowing from top to bottom effortlessly. Dr. Braamse has been in-vited to judge the George Gershwin International Music Competition in NYC. She was a guest artist and faculty member at the Alion Baltic International Music Festival in Tallinn, Estonia. She taught at the InterHarmony International Music Festival in Acqui Terme, Italy in the summer of 2019.
Shudong has a passion for sharing the traditions of Western vocal music with her native China and sharing developments in Chinese concert music with audiences and students in America. She has given numerous concerts and master classes in China. The books she translated – Complete Prepa-ration: A Guide to Auditioning for Opera by Joan Dornemann and Basics of Vocal Pedagogy by Dr. Clifton Ware, have been published by the People’s Music Publishing House in Beijing. They are kept in most university libraries and sold in major book stores in China. Her recording, Silvery Night, in collaboration with Dr. Charles J. Hulin, introduces American listeners to the songs of Yao Qi, a composer from Singapore. Her albums, Voix Suprême: French Art Songs by Jules Mas-senet, was praised by reviewer Gerald Fenech in the publication Music and Vision: Shudong Braamse has the perfect voice for this repertoire, and her performances are excellent throughout — faultless…... Voix Suprême was a top digital album on the Navona label in spring of 2017, re-ceiving high numbers of streams and downloads. The album also received airplay from radio sta-tions such as KALX (UC Berkeley), WRUV (Vermont), and KMUN (Oregon). Shudong’s Span-ish album, Sueños de España, was released by Navona Records in February of 2019. Ken Meltzer, a critic writing reviews for FANFARE, wrote: Braamse has an attractive, bright lyric soprano voice that maintains its tonal beauty throughout the registers. A coloratura soprano, she easily negotiates melismatic passages, and has a fine trill as well. She sings with a beautiful legato, a keen sense of phrasing, and clear diction. All of these qualities serve her well in the featured reper-toire. Midwest Records wrote: Loaded with grace as well as passion, the international classical fan has a winner on their hands with this discovery. Some songs from the album have received airplays from WCNY Syracuse in NY, and WRUV Burlington in Vermont. Shudong received a gold medal in March of 2019 from Global Music Awards for her album Sueños de España.
Dr. Braamse received her B.A. from Fuyang Teacher’s College, M.M. and D.M.A. from Michigan State University. She has studied with Zhang Wei, Claritha Buggs Jacobs, Meredith Zara and Pa-tricia Green. After teaching as a full-time voice professor at Southeastern University for 18 years, currently Dr. Braamse is an adjunct professor of voice at Southeastern University in Lakeland, Florida. She is also a member of the College Music Society and the National Association of Teach-ers of Singing (NATS).