Christopher Grundy, bass-baritone, and pianist William Braun: Franz Schubert’s Die Winterreise
Thursday, October 16, 2025 at 7:00pm
Memorial Chapel, 221 High Street
Free and open to the public
Christopher Grundy, bass-baritone, and pianist William Braun perform Franz Schubert’s Die Winterreise.
Hailed by Opera News as “the likeable baritone,” Christopher Grundy is equally at home in opera, oratorio, and song recital. He received Doctor of Music and Master of Music degrees from Indiana University, studying with the celebrated German baritone Wolfgang Brendel. He completed his Bachelor of Arts at Yale University, where he was the assistant conductor of the Yale Glee Club and the Yale Russian Chorus. A champion of new music, Christopher has premiered numerous works in collaboration with contemporary composers. He sang the role of Dr. Gachet in the original production of Bernard Rands’s Vincent. As a recording artist Christopher can be heard on the BIS Records, Naxos Records, and Parma Records labels. He is currently engaged to record an album of songs by Neely Bruce for Neuma Records. His opera credits include title roles in Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Mozart’s Don Giovanni, as well as such diverse roles as Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier; Count Danilo in The Merry Widow; Vicar Gedge in Albert Herring; Mr. Alfieri in William Bolcom's A View from the Bridge; and Dr. Falke in Die Fledermaus. Christopher has performed as a soloist with many local ensembles including Orchestra New England, New Haven Oratorio Choir, Charis Chamber Voices, Cappella Cantorum, Amor Artis, the Taconic Chorale, Bronx Opera, and Connecticut Lyric Opera, among others. Recently he has performed Beethoven’s Mass in C with the Greenwich Choral Society, Duruflé’s Requiem with the Fairfield County Chorale, Fauré's Requiem with the Mendelssohn Choir of Connecticut, Handel’s Messiah with the Danbury Concert Chorus, and Mozart’s Vespers with Con Brio Choral Society. This summer he performed the title role of Don Giovanni, as well as Dulcamara in Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore at the Winter Harbor Music Festival. Christopher is Assistant Professor of Music and Director of Choral Programs at Sacred Heart University, and Director of Music at the Unitarian Society of New Haven. In 2024 he made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut with renowned violinist Alexander Markov on the Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. He is also a commercially licensed helicopter pilot and flight instructor.
Pianist William Braun has appeared as concerto soloist with the New World Symphony in Miami and the Florida West Coast Symphony (Sarasota) on multiple occasions. He has been the pianist of the New Haven Symphony for thirty-eight years, performing as soloist in concertos by Ròsza, Lambert and Gershwin. For twenty years he was the pianist of the Wall Street Chamber Players, and he teaches opera and lieder at the Hartt School. He has also written more than three hundred articles for Opera News magazine, including cover profiles of Lise Davidsen, John Adams, Ian Bostridge, Thomas Adès and Nina Stemme, overviews of the operas of Michael Tippett and Giacomo Meyerbeer, and analyses of Britten’s Peter Grimes and Gloriana, Verdi’s Macbeth and Don Carlos, and Messiaen’s Saint Francis of Assisi. He wrote the keynote essay for the program book of the Salzburg Festival production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and for one season contributed program notes at the New York Philharmonic. He earned his doctorate in music from Yale. For the past ten summers he has been performing at the Castello di Sorci in Anghiari, Italy and the Casa Monteripido in Perugia. He has recorded the Griffes ballet The Kairn of Koridwen for Koch Classics, and he recorded soundtracks for the PBS television show American Masters, including episodes about Charles Ives and Thomas Eakins.
Images (from left): Christopher Grundy, William Braun, photo of winter landscape by Marcin Szala courtesy of Wikimedia Commons