Measha Brueggergosman

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her recent Extase album, a collection of French operatic arias and orchestral songs. Another source of Brueggergosman's vocal power comes from black gospel music, as was startlingly demonstrated by a hidden track on Extase: a soaring version of the Walter Hawkins classic "Goin' Up Yonder."

And then consider the attitude: a combination of diva-size personality and extreme playfulness (a big photo on her website shows her blowing bubble gum). She seems to have as good a shot as anybody of bringing classical vocal art to young people — she has a MySpace page, wears a nose stud, and thanks "mah killah peeps" in the booklet notes to Extase. So far (she's not yet thirty), Brueggergosman has seemed in control of her career, putting across the variety of her personality with a range of music extending from heavy operatic roles to songs influenced by the language of popular music, including those of Gershwin.

Ann Arbor audiences were among the first in the United States to realize that Brueggergosman was really something to see. She filled in for an ailing Audra McDonald at one of the concerts marking the reopening of Hill Auditorium in 2004, and her performance, which included a group of U-M composer William Bolcom's cabaret songs, had concertgoers in town buzzing. Brueggergosman will be performing these songs (with Bolcom again at the piano) and others like them (with pianist J. J. Penna) at Hill Auditorium on Thursday, April 12.