Biography Cora Burggraaf
Stage director Cora Burggraaf creates multidisciplinary performances. In these projects she creates a link between living stories around today’s issues, and classical or newly composed music.
In 2021 she founded SPINTHOUT (sapwood), an organisation dedicated to creating productions and events around the relevance of classical (vocal) music in our modern society. With Spinthout she recently created Coming of Age, about the beauty of older voices and the need for us to (continue to) hear them. Her projects have been presented at Festival Boulevard in Den Bosch, O. Festival, Wonderfeel, Oranjewoud Festival and many venues throughout The Netherlands. Other recent productions were Inner Voice, Egmont (a retelling of Beethoven/Goethe’s Egmont for Philharmonie Zuidnederland), The Music is Present and Miroir de peine et d’amour.
As a mezzosoprano she has sung all over the world in leading opera houses such as Royal Opera House (London), Bayerische Staatsoper (Munich), Nationale Opera (Amsterdam), San Francisco Opera and the Salzburger Festspiele. Some of her roles were Cherubino (Le Nozze di Figaro), Hänsel (Hänsel und Gretel) and Stéphano (Roméo et Juliette). She has performed with many outstanding orchestras and conductors, such as Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Marc Albrecht, Ed Spanjaard and Steuart Bedford – until a severe hip problem got in the way. Particularly happy projects were Poulenc’s La voix humaine with Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Roaring Twenties with Calefax Reed Quintet.
She also sang numerous recitals and chamber music concerts with some of the most wonderful pianists and instrumentalists, and she still does. She was heard in halls such as the Wigmore Hall (London), the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), Frick Collection (New York), and wonderful intimate settings such as the little Protestant Church (Limmen), a local community centre (in Bleckede, Germany, for instance), many many festivals and in living rooms.
Cora very much enjoys teaching the next generation of singers and instrumentalists. As a vocal coach she has her private studio at home. She also works as a coach and stage director at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam, Utrecht and The Hague.
During the pandemic she co-established the non-profit online platform www.samenuitthuis.nl – a bookingsite for concerts at home by topnotch musicians.
www.coraburggraaf.com | www.spinthout.org | www.samenuitthuis.nl
