User:Lisaby/Sylvia Schwartz

Sylvia Schwartz is a European soprano of Spanish descent whose repertory includes operatic roles, sacred music, lieder and musical comedies.

Members of her family
She is the latest of her family to achieve international renown.

She was born in London, the daughter of Pedro Schwartz Girón and Ana Maria Bravo.

Her father, who was decorated Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE)in 1990 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England, is a well known professor of economics and political science. He is considered to be the leading advocate of the ideas of liberalism in Spain. He achieved broad international fame through a video recording of his debate on 3rd July 2012 with the Nobel Prize laureate economist, Paul Krugman.

Her maternal uncle, Gonzalo Bravo Zabalgoitia, is a well known neurosurgeon and member of the Real Academia de Doctores de España.

Her paternal grandfather, Juan Schwartz Díaz-Flores was Spanish ambassador to Austria. In the same way that Raoul Wallenberg did later at Budapest, he and other Spanish diplomats managed to save many Jews from persecution by the Nazis.

Her paternal grandmother, Carmen Girón Camino is a niece of the celebrated poet, León Felipe, and a first cousin of one of the outstanding Mexican bullfighters of the 20th c, Carlos Arruza (whose baptismal name was Carlos Ruiz Camino), known as "El Ciclón".)

Career highlights
Miss Schwartz began studying piano at the age of three, passing her first exam at age six.

In 1997, her parents moved to Madrid. Three years later, she began her studies of voice at the Escuela Superior de Canto Reina Sofía, from which she graduated with highest honors. Upon graduation, she received one of the 10 Hezekiah Wardwell Fellowships granted annually by the Alexander von Humbolt Foundation to young, highly-gifted Spanish musicians and musicologists for further training, primarily in Germany. With the scholarship, she studied at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler", from which she again received highest honors for her graduation concert.

Returning to Spain in 2004, she performed at the music festivals of Úbeda and Linares. She also sang the role of ... in Mozart's The Magic Flute, directed by Sir Colin Davis at the Capilla Real de Madrid. Later, she sang at the Edinburgh Festival under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

In 2011, along with Bernarda Fink, Michael Schade and Thomas Quasthoff and accompanied by Malcolm Martineau and Justus Zeyen, she toured the U.S. and Europe with three complete song cycles: Schumann's Spanische Liebeslieder and Brahms's Liebeslieder-Walzer and Neue Liebeslieder, as well as four of Brahms's earlier vocal quartets, culminating with a concert at Carnegie Hall.

On 8th September 2012, Miss Schwartz married Paul Freiherr von Kittlitz und Ottendorf, thereby becoming Baroness of the same name.

Opera
Il Postino by Daniel Catán

Discography
In June 2003, Miss Schwartz, accompanied by Julio Muñoz at the piano, issued her first CD, a compilation of Romantic lieder in Spanish.

Ten years later, she recorded another CD of songs by classical Spanish composers which was favourablly reviewed. She was accompanied by Malcolm Martineau at the piano. The composers are Enrique Granados, Jesus Guridi, Joaquin Turina, Eduardo Toldra and Xavier Montsalvatge