MARTHA HERR has performed in recitals, operas and recordings in Brazil, the United States and Europe as soloist and as a member of several chamber groups. Her performance specialties include contemporary and Brazilian music. Her extensive list of artistic premiers include Morton Feldman’s opera Neither (Rome Opera) and John Cage’s Europera 5 (American New Music Festival – recorded for Mode Records) as well as four Brazilian operas. Her many recordings include the Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 by Hector Villa-Lobos with the Rio Cello Ensemble, songs by Virgil Thomson and many works by contemporary Brazilian composers. In 2005, she participated in the first Brazilian production of Wagner’s Ring during the IX. Festival de Amazonas in Manaus and in 2006 she premiered in the title role of the opera Olga by Brazilian composer Jorge Antunes. She has received several awards for her work as a performer in Brazil. With a DMA from Michigan State University and defense
of a post-doctoral thesis at the State University of São Paulo (UNESP) on the performance of contemporary Brazilian music. In 2009 she participated in the Symposium on the Pronunciation of European Portuguese for Singing, representing Brazil in that meeting, and was on the organizing committee for the congress The Portuguese Language in Music, held in Lisbon in 2012.
