Soprano Erica Strauss will present a guest recital on Saturday, February 24, at 8 p.m. in the Conservatory’s Warner Concert Hall. Pianist Jerome Tan will accompany her in a free concert featuring works by Dvorak, Ives, Strauss, Massenet, and Rachmaninoff.

The Plain Dealer recently praised the duo for their May 2006 performance at the Art Song Festival in Berea, Ohio, declaring they conveyed their varied program “with equal degrees of sensitivity and passion.”

Strauss, a recent alumna of the Lyric Opera Center for American Artists, made her Lyric Opera of Chicago debut as the Priestess in Aida and was also seen as the First Lady in Die Zauberflöte, Micaela in Carmen and Marianne Leitmetzerin in Der Rosenkavalier, among others.Additionally, she has performed with the Sarasota Opera, singing Echo in Ariadne auf Naxos and as principal soloist in the concert “An Evening of Verdi Choruses.” Other performances include Rosina in Paisiello’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Théâtre National d’Evreux, France, Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni with the Mannes College of Music, and recitals at the 92nd Street Y, Florence Gould Hall, and Merkin Hall in New York.

Strauss has won awards from the Marilyn Horne Foundation, the Liederkranz Foundation, Opera Index, the American Opera Society of Chicago and the Musicians Club of Women.  She is also a recipient of the Shoshana Foundation’s Richard F. Gold Career Grant.

A native of New York, Strauss received her training at the Mannes College of Music. She holds both a bachelor of music and master of music in voice from the school and was awarded the Marian Marcus Wahl Memorial Award in Performance at its 1999 commencement. She is an alumna of the Music Academy of the West where she studied with Marilyn Horne.