Operatic Soprano
Monica Schober as Siegrune in Virginia Opera's
"Die Walküre"
Dramatic Soprano Biographies and the Like
Bio for General Audiences:
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Ms. Schober made her debut as a dramatic soprano with the Virginia Opera as Siegrune in Wagner’s “Die Walküre” where she also covered the roles of Fricka and Sieglinde. She was the soprano soloist at Disney Concert Hall performing with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the program “Beethoven is in the House”, and also sang Gertrude in Humperdink’s “Hansel und Gretel” with Pacific Repertory Opera. She made her European debut singing Robert Pobitschka's “Kyrie gewidmet an die Natur” accompanied by the composer in the Haydn Saal at Schloss Esterhazy. She is currently incorporating Ariadne, Senta and Turandot into her repertoire.
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Her performance of Wagner’s “Wesendonk Lieder” and songs of Strauss, Wolf and Brahms at Steinway Hall, New York City with pianist Dr. Michael Schober has been featured in NHKTV specials. They have performed their site specific performance pieces featuring German Art Song at the New School/Parsons School of Design in New York and in Los Angeles - most recently at “Live at the Lounge".
Celebrating her family’s Viennese roots, she has specialized in Viennese operetta programs and Classic Song recitals of the Viennese emigre composers that came to Los Angeles. She speaks a dialect of the 1940’s and 1950’s (that’s likely as close as we can now get to the cadence and melody of the language spoken by the composers themselves). Her operetta sensibilities are informed by the Viennese waltz itself.
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Her musical preparation includes vocal training with Giuseppe Bergamo, Judith Natalucci, and Sylvia Greenberg. She coaches with Armen Guzelimian in Los Angeles, David Aronson in Vienna, and Oresta Cybriski in Munich. Master classes, mentors and coaches Have included: FKS Christa Ludwig, Jeanine Altmeier, Mani Meckler, FKS Brigitte Fassbänder and Marilyn Zschau.
A native German speaker, she has taught German and Viennese dialect diction for stage and song, and has studied stage German with Wolfgang Schilly of the Vienna State Opera.
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She is the founder of ResonanceandLight.com, where she works with people who use their voice to tell their story, sing their song and make their point, helping them find the physical support for their speaking and singing voice and working with their internal voice so it can support all that they want to manifest.
Bio for Younger Audiences:
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Monica grew up in a Viennese household in the heart of Los Angeles. Her first language was a Viennese dialect of German. Her father was a builder who loved classical music. He played Beethoven, Schubert and Wagner really loud so he could hear it over the hammering and sawing. And he sang along.
Her mother sang Austrian folk songs with her children every time they were in the car.
Monica’s house is full of books of music. When the Los Angeles Philharmonic asked her to sing a folk song Beethoven might have heard, all she had to do was go to her shelves and look in her grandmother’s books!
In high school, one of her teachers told her she'd never sing more than a little light musical theater and Monica believed her teacher. So she quit trying to be a soloist and she sang in choirs instead – very good ones. It worked out all right. Years later she decided to find out for herself if she could sing opera. And Monica has sung with the world famous Los Angeles Philharmonic, Virginia Opera, Pacific Repertorie Opera, and in Austria at the gorgeous Haydn Saal. In additional to singing the really BIG stuff, she loves to sing light musical theater and operetta.
A bio is a collection of the dry remnants of what I have done. It says nothing about the experience of a performance. Even the recordings scattered throughout this website don't speak to what happens in a room in a live performance. I am particularly grateful for the audience responses below for they are an indicator that I am on the path upon which I want to travel.
"Where do I get to hear Wagner done like that again? I understood what was going on! I understood every sentence. I understood my own language. I didn't know Wagner had a sense of humor."
"I was sure I didn't want to come to a Lied Concert. I hate them. I never know what's going on. But I made myself come because it's part of the series I subscribe to. I didn't expect to laugh and I didn't expect to cry. I loved Michael and your presentation - I knew what you were singing about. When will you do this again?"
From the wife of a German Consul at a Schubert gala: "I didn't know the poetry was so beautiful! You sang in sentences. I understood my own language and the quality of sound wasn't compromised! If I hear Lieder done like this, I think I would like them."
After performance of Viennese American Composer Walter Jurman's most popular composition:
"I am a San Franciscan. I have heard "San Francisco" done a thousand times if I've heard it once. I have never heard it done like that. That is how it should be done."
Those with whom I collaborate inform my work. How they breath...how I breath...a lift of a shoulder, a waggle of a finger, the onset of a note...gives so much information about how we will travel through the music together. I may have intended we be a bit urgent in a phrase. My collaborator may "feel it" in the moment as much more languid. Between us we may just end up with a tension and anticipation that electrifies us and an audience. It's a glorious moving target. And if we engage with each other with curiosity and joyful anticipation, the results can be unexpectedly exhilarating.
I try to live my life exploring the fear and love within myself and turning these into experiences of wonder and awe. This way of living is enriched by the guidance of a composer and a poet/librettist, and by the collaboration with other musicians and audiences. When I sing or act, I hope to discover and reveal something of myself, the composer, the poet, the playwright and I invite you, my audience collaborators to join me on this path of discovery.