Gwendolyn Bradley (Bradley-Willemann) is an American soprano who performed on many opera and concert stages. Mrs. Bradley grew up in Bishopville (South Carolina) and was trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts [1] in Winston-Salem and the Academy of Vocal Arts [2] in Philadelphia. Her debut was as Nannetta in Verdis's opera Falstaff at the Lake George Opera [3] in 1976. After a very successful concert in New York in 1979 she established herself at the Metropolitan Opera, starting in 1981 as Nightingale in L'Enfant et les sortilèges (Ravel) [4] and continuing for the next seven seasons singing such roles as Fiakermilli in Arabella, Blondchen in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos, Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffmann, the title role of Stravinsky's Le Rossignol, Clara in Porgy and Bess and especially as Gilda in Rigoletto [5]. She performed also in other American opera houses like the Memphis Opera, the Michigan Opera Theatre or the Central City Opera. Mrs. Bradley was a frequent guest on the stage of the Los Angeles Opera as Oscar, Blondchen, Zerbinetta, Romilda, Zerlina, and in the 1997-98 season as Pamina in Die Zauberflöte [6]. She made her European debut in 1983 with the Netherlands Opera in the title role of Handel's Rodelinda. On European opera stages she performed beside other roles as Zerbinetta in Paris, Montpellier, Nice, Monte Carlo, as Susanna and Pamina in Madrid, as Blonchen in Munich, as Adina, Blondchen, Susanna, Zerbinetta in Hamburg, as Despina in Barcelona, as Oscar in Vienna, as Rodelinde in Amsterdam, and as Fiakermilli in Arabella at the Glyndebourne Opera Festival which was released as DVD from a recording of the 1984 season [7]. In 1988 she became a member of the Deutsche Oper Berlin where she made her debut in 1987 as Gilda in Verdi's Rigoletto. With her bell like voice, she was successful not only in female roles such as Gilda, Susanna, Nannetta, Sophie or Pamina but also the pert Blondchen, as capricious Zerbinetta and Musetta or the androgynous Oscar. As an accomplished concert singer, she has worked with such conductors as Zubin Mehta (New York Philharmonic/Israeli Symphony), Riccardo Muti (Philadelphia Orchestra), Mstislav Rostropovich and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos (Washington National Symphony Orchestra), Charles Dutoit (Montreal Symphony/Philadelphia Orchestra), Andre Previn (Pittsburgh Symphony), Michael Tilson Thomas (Los Angeles Philharmonic), Marek Janowski, Hans Graf, Christopher Hogwood, Ralf Weikert, Victor Pablo Perez, and Lorin Maazel among others. Her concert repertoire encompasses important works from the Baroque to the 20th century and as a recitalist she performed in Paris, Tokyo, Lisbon, San Sebastian, Los Angeles and New York. Gwendolyn Bradley has recorded Fiakermilli in Arabella with Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Jeffrey Tate conducting for Decca Records [8], Virgil Thomson's Four Saints in Three Acts for Nonesuch records [9] and a live concert recording of Mozart concert works, with members of the Orchestre Symphonique Français.
