Faculty Recital: Tanya Blaich, Piano, and Laura Choi Stuart, Soprano | Rituals

Artist(s)

Tanya Blaich

Tanya Blaich is a pianist and teacher with particular sensitivity for and expertise in the song and collaborative piano repertoire. A faculty member of New England Conservatory's collaborative piano and voice departments since 2006, Blaich is co-coordinator of NEC’s Liederabend Series and teaches classes dedicated to the performance of song repertoire and in language diction and expression. Blaich has been praised for her “unfailingly expressive and finely judged” playing (The Guardian) and her “distinct and refined palette and textures” and “unwaveringly attentive” ensemble (Opera Today).

Blaich has performed in concert venues and festivals throughout the United States and Europe with such recitalists as Thomas Hampson, Paula Murrihy, Heidi Stober, Randall Scarlata, Laura Stuart, Klemens Sander, and Sari Gruber. Recent highlights include song recitals at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Frankfurt Opera with Paula Murrihy, at the Oxford International Song Festival with Heidi Stober, and as part of the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Beethoven & Romanticism Festival with Randall Scarlata. Blaich and Murrihy’s first album, I Will Walk With My Love: Folk-Inspired Songs and Myths, was released on Orchid Classics in 2020 to great acclaim.

As a guest artist, Blaich has given song recitals and master classes at universities and colleges throughout the U.S. In addition to her collaborations with singers, she has performed as a chamber music partner with members of the Colorado, Lydian, and Miro string quartets. She has also served as a coach and rehearsal pianist for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Handel and Haydn Society, and Odyssey Opera.

Tanya Blaich attended the University Paris-Sorbonne and graduated from Walla Walla College in Washington. She moved to Vienna to pursue her passion for the German Lied repertoire, earning a diploma in performance from the Vienna Conservatory in vocal accompaniment and chamber music. She subsequently earned both her M.M. and D.M.A. from New England Conservatory.

Laura Choi Stuart

Hailed as “a lyric soprano of ravishing quality” by the Boston Globe, Laura Choi Stuart appears this season as a soloist in Handel’s Messiah, as well as in St. John Passion, B Minor Mass, Brahms Requiem. An album of Art Songs of Charles Ives, Reynaldo Hahn and William Bolcom with pianist Tanya Blaich will release in early 2026.

Recent season highlights include Mozart Requiem with Washington Bach Consort, Beethoven Missa Solemnis with Handel Choir of Baltimore, Elijah with Baltimore Choral Arts, Dona Nobis Pacem with Washington Master Chorale, Poulenc Gloria, Mendelssohn Lobgesang, Mozart Requiem, Bach Christmas Oratorio and the Monteverdi Vespers, as well as regular appearances with Washington Bach Consort, Bach Vocal Artists of Winter Park, and Seraphic Fire.

In opera, she has appeared on the mainstage with Boston Lyric Opera, Opera Boston, Annapolis Opera, Lake George Opera, the In Series, and Opera North in roles including Musetta, Adina, Gilda, Pamina, and Frasquita, and in premieres of new American works with Washington National Opera as part of the American Opera Initiative.

Laura was honored for art song performance at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards and the Art Song Discovery Series for the Vocal Arts Society.

Laura is a passionate teacher, and serves as Head of Vocal Studies at Washington National Cathedral, and as a visiting clinician at Bridgewater University, Towson University, the Maryland AGO, and many choirs in the DC region.

She shares clear (fun) voice education for choral singers at TheWeeklyWarmUp.com She received her training at The Santa Fe Opera Apprentice Program for Singers, Opera North, and Berkshire Opera, as well as New England Conservatory (Presidential Scholar) and Dartmouth College (Summa Cum Laude).