User:Haymonc/sandbox

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Background
Sonja Bruzauskas is a German mezzo-soprano, classical singer, who lives in Houston, Texas. She has been singing ever since she was a child. She lives in Houston with her family. Sonja has released several CDs and performed in many different places, both inside the United States and out.

Personal Life
Sonja Bruzauskas lives in Houston, Texas. She moved to the United States after graduate school where she met her husband, Houston Haymon. She now has two daughters, the eldest, Clara Haymon, and the youngest, Emilia Haymon. She enjoys traveling, skiing, and fishing.

Early Life
Sonja Bruzauskas was born on May 18th, 1970, in Ansberg, Germany, to Georg Bruzauskas and Gisela Bruzauskas (maiden name: Elze). She has no brothers or sisters. When Sonja was a child, she played the violin and piano, while being part of children's choirs in her town. This was the spark that started her career as a singer. Sonja attended the St. Ursula Gymnasium in Ansberg, Germany, where she grew up. After St. Ursula, Sonja attended Folkwang Universität Essen, located in Essen, Germany. After graduating, she left the United States to attend the Manhattan School of Music, located in Manhattan, New York. Here was where her career officially began, and where she met her now husband, Houston Haymon.

Career
Sonja Bruzauskas is a classical singer. She sings as a mezzo-soprano, and sometimes an alto. She had wanted to be a singer since a young age. Sonja went to graduate school at the Manhattan School of Music where she learned more about the art. She now sings in Houston with many different companies.

Early Career
Sonja Bruzauskas began her career while she was a student at Folkwang Universität Essen, as Eliza in the popular musical, My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederich Loewe. She was originally the understudy in the musical, but after the initial Eliza became ill on opening night, Sonja stepped in as the lead role. After that first performance, the director asked her if she would like to play Eliza for the rest of the shows, which she happily agreed to. In 1997, Sonja moved to Monterrey, Mexico, where she sang in a small opera company. Later in Germany, Sonja became a lead soloist in the Staatsoperette Dresden. She became more well-known in the United States when she joined the Santa Fe Opera for a short time as a soloist.

Current Career
Sonja has sung in many places in Houston. Some places include the Houston Chamber Choir, Rothko Chapel, and Match theater. She has also released three notable CDs: Watercolors (2016) with Robert Nelson, Hour of Tranquility (2013) which contains Christmas music, and Broadway Bits (2009) in which she sung with Anita Kruse. She has performed with Ars Lyrica and Rice University as well. Once a year, Sonja performs at the Round Top Festival in Round Top, Texas, a small town located in Fayette County. Also, every summer Sonja is invited to the California State Summer School for the Arts, where she teaches a class on interdisciplinary collaborations for high school students. This takes place at CalArts, a university located in Valencia, California.

Sonja has been interviewed by Fanfare Magazine about her experience with her newest CD, Watercolors. In this interview, she spoke to Ronald E. Grames, and he asked her many questions about her career and her CDs. She spoke about how she decided to come to America and what she has done to come to where she is in her career now. Sonja also speaks about the poems which inspired Robert Nelson to originally compose the music for Watercolors, which were written by her own mother-in-law, Ava Leavell Haymon.

Successes
"The most eagerly anticipated will be the 25-minute Zoo Stories, in which Bruzauskas, hornist Brian Thomas and pianist Timothy Hester sing, narrate and otherwise engagingly carry on; but the original stories by Kate Pogue, each with a surprisingly serious moral and populated by complex characters, go on at such length that many children might consider this a tale for adults." © 2016 Gramophone-Laurence Vittes
 * Watercolors (2016) released by Naxos.