Lyric soprano Annie Picard is a soloist, chamber musician, and voice teacher who has been a vibrant and respected part of the Chicago music scene for more than two decades.
Annie has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, DuPage Opera Theatre, and Illinois
Opera Theatre, and has sung on concerts throughout the United States, including appearances with John Wustman for his Schubert Lieder recital series. Her most recent performances in Chicago include the Schubertiade, Fourth Presbyterian Concert Series, Musicians Club for Women Concert Series, and the Lasalian Lounge Concert Series. In October 2011 she will be singing on Live from WFMT, performing Liszt Lieder with George Ténégal. Ms. Picard has been performing as a duo with classical guitarist, Julie Goldberg, since 1999.
Annie has been a Metropolitan Opera Auditions Central Region finalist, and received a performance award in chamber music from the Crescendo Club in Boston. She has been a winner of both the Saint Louis Symphony and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign vocal concerto competitions.
A devotee of art song and chamber music, Annie Picard enjoys being musically adventuresome, dedicating herself to creating recitals that explore widely varying themes and genres. Her repertoire ranges from lute songs by John Dowland to Dominick Argento’s Letters from Composers, and she is as compelling in French, Italian, German and Russian as she is in English.
Annie Picard joined the music faculties of North Park University and Moraine Valley Community College in 1998. She teaches voice and vocal literature, and serves as mentor and supervisor for North Park’s MMVP vocal pedagogy clinical program. She was featured in “Teaching What They Practice” in the The North Parker, an NPU alumni magazine, in 2011 and was recognized as “Adjunct Professor of the Year” at Moraine Valley in 2008.
Her unique teaching style strikes a balance between the pedagogical and the “natural”: She instills in her students a thorough understanding of singing’s technical aspects and preparation, stressing the vital importance of developing a beautiful tone, achieved by singing freely, both bodily and with an integrated, authentic, and expressive interpretation.
Annie earned a Bachelor of Music as a Curator Scholar from the University of Missouri at Columbia; and a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received an Ethan Ayer Patron Award. She went on to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated summa cum laude and served as a graduate teaching assistant and music program coordinator for the Allen Residence Hall Unit One Music Program.
Her teachers include voice with Costanza Cuccaro, Susan Clickner and Nicholas Di Virgilio; coaching with George Darden, Margo Garrett, Louis Krasner, Eric Dalheim and John Wustman; opera with John Moriarty and Robert De Simone.
A member of the Musicians Club for Women since 2006, Annie Picard is also active in the Chicago Chapter of NATS, joining in 2008, and being named to the board in 2010. She is the CCNATS Vice President of Competitions, and is the co-advisor for the Chicago Chapter of Student NATS.
Annie was born in Montreal and raised outside of St. Louis. Her father, Noel Picard, was an all-star defenseman in the National Hockey League, primarily with the St. Louis Blues. Annie resides in the Chicago neighborhood of Galewood in a Chicago bungalow with her husband, Steve Graue, and their two cats, Chuck and Lucie. An avid gardener, she won the Chicago Tribune’s “Glorious Gardens Contest” in 2001 for Best Container Garden.
Annie has performed with Lyric Opera of Chicago, Opera Theatre Saint Louis, DuPage Opera Theatre, and Illinois
Opera Theatre, and has sung on concerts throughout the United States, including appearances with John Wustman for his Schubert Lieder recital series. Her most recent performances in Chicago include the Schubertiade, Fourth Presbyterian Concert Series, Musicians Club for Women Concert Series, and the Lasalian Lounge Concert Series. In October 2011 she will be singing on Live from WFMT, performing Liszt Lieder with George Ténégal. Ms. Picard has been performing as a duo with classical guitarist, Julie Goldberg, since 1999.
Annie has been a Metropolitan Opera Auditions Central Region finalist, and received a performance award in chamber music from the Crescendo Club in Boston. She has been a winner of both the Saint Louis Symphony and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign vocal concerto competitions.
A devotee of art song and chamber music, Annie Picard enjoys being musically adventuresome, dedicating herself to creating recitals that explore widely varying themes and genres. Her repertoire ranges from lute songs by John Dowland to Dominick Argento’s Letters from Composers, and she is as compelling in French, Italian, German and Russian as she is in English.
Annie Picard joined the music faculties of North Park University and Moraine Valley Community College in 1998. She teaches voice and vocal literature, and serves as mentor and supervisor for North Park’s MMVP vocal pedagogy clinical program. She was featured in “Teaching What They Practice” in the The North Parker, an NPU alumni magazine, in 2011 and was recognized as “Adjunct Professor of the Year” at Moraine Valley in 2008.
Her unique teaching style strikes a balance between the pedagogical and the “natural”: She instills in her students a thorough understanding of singing’s technical aspects and preparation, stressing the vital importance of developing a beautiful tone, achieved by singing freely, both bodily and with an integrated, authentic, and expressive interpretation.
Annie earned a Bachelor of Music as a Curator Scholar from the University of Missouri at Columbia; and a Master of Music and Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she received an Ethan Ayer Patron Award. She went on to earn a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where she graduated summa cum laude and served as a graduate teaching assistant and music program coordinator for the Allen Residence Hall Unit One Music Program.
Her teachers include voice with Costanza Cuccaro, Susan Clickner and Nicholas Di Virgilio; coaching with George Darden, Margo Garrett, Louis Krasner, Eric Dalheim and John Wustman; opera with John Moriarty and Robert De Simone.
A member of the Musicians Club for Women since 2006, Annie Picard is also active in the Chicago Chapter of NATS, joining in 2008, and being named to the board in 2010. She is the CCNATS Vice President of Competitions, and is the co-advisor for the Chicago Chapter of Student NATS.
Annie was born in Montreal and raised outside of St. Louis. Her father, Noel Picard, was an all-star defenseman in the National Hockey League, primarily with the St. Louis Blues. Annie resides in the Chicago neighborhood of Galewood in a Chicago bungalow with her husband, Steve Graue, and their two cats, Chuck and Lucie. An avid gardener, she won the Chicago Tribune’s “Glorious Gardens Contest” in 2001 for Best Container Garden.