Biography

Mezzo-soprano Sandra Graham has established a worldwide reputation after winning top prizes in the International Vocal Competitions of s'Hertogenbosch in Holland, the Montreal International Competition, and the Toulouse, France International Vocal Competition. She also received first place in the Canadian Opera Company Mozart Competition and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra Competition, and was the first singer to receive the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council for these accomplishments.

Miss Graham has appeared in concert and on the operatic stages of Germany, Canada, United States, Holland and China. She has performed and recorded with Helmut Rilling, Christoff Penderecki, Charles Dutoit, and Vladimir Ashkenazy, appearing with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony, the Montreal Symphony, the National Arts Centre Symphony Orchestra, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Canadian Opera company, the Welsh National Opera, the Arizona Opera, and the Deutsche Oper am Rhein.

Sandra Graham has performed extensively in Germany (most often with the Staatstheatre Stuttgart where she was a guest artist for 14 years) appearing in Hansel und Gretel, Cenerentola, La Vie Parisienne, Idomeneo, Tristan und Isolde, Ariadne auf Naxos, and Cavalleria Rusticana. The distinguished mezzo's recordings include Raminsh's Songs of the Lights with the CBC Vancouver Symphony, Mozart's Requiem and Haydn's Lord Nelson Mass with the Slovak Philharmonic, Harry Somer's The Fool, and Prevost's Ahimsa. She is featured in a DVD of Jon Vickers, and the PBS biography special about Vivaldi in which she performs the lead role in the opera Orlando Furioso.

Miss Graham teaches voice and directs the Opera Productions at the University of Ottawa. Recently, Miss Graham sang the role of "Diane" in the world premiere of Pastoral (by Paris composer Gerrard Pesson) with the Stuttgart Opera (Germany). Each summer she is invited to perform with the Incontro Chamber Music Festival in southern Italy which was filmed by BRAVO!. Sandra Graham and her husband Ingemar Korjus have toured China where they were invited to give concerts and masterclasses.

Sandra has volunteered hundreds of hours of her time to Choirs Ontario, the Ontario Youth Choir and NATS Ottawa.