​​Juno and Latin Grammy nominated soprano Martha Guth’s recital and concert highlights include Wigmore Hall, Lincoln Center, The National Cathedral, St. John Smith Square, The Toronto Symphony Orchestra, The Chicago Philharmonic, Voices of Ascension, and many more.  Her longtime recital and touring partners include Graham Johnson, Spencer Myer, and Erika Switzer.

Her recitals have been recorded and broadcast for the CBC Radio/Radio Canada, the BBC Radio in the U.K and the WDR in Germany and she is proud to have worked under the batons of Maestro’s Seiji Ozawa, Robert Spano, Helmut Rilling, John Nelson, Richard Bradshaw, and Alan Gilbert among many others.

Her discography includes Summer Night, a JUNO nominated disc of songs by Healy Willan on Centrediscs for The Canadian Art Song Project with Allyson McHardy, Helen Becqué and Peter Barrett; Das Ewig Weibliche a solo disc of Schubert songs with Penelope Crawford on fortepiano; Roberto Sierra’s Beyond the Silence of Sorrow with the Orquesta Sinfonica de Puerto Rico for Naxos (nominated for a 2016 Latin GRAMMY); John Fitz-Roger’s Magna Mysteria for the Innova label; Go by Contraries, songs of Andrew Staniland with Baritone Tyler Duncan and Pianist Erika Switzer released on Centre Discs, The Brahms Liebeslieder Waltzes for Sparks & Co., and The Five Boroughs Song Book for GVR records.

 With Erika Switzer, she is co-founder and co-director of Sparks & Wiry Cries, a non-profit dedicated to art song spanning publication, live performance, and commission of new works. Sparks is the force behind the popular regional songSLAM’s that are presented in partnership with other art song organizations and Universities and presents its own songSLAM Festival every January in NYC. Martha is Assistant Professor of Voice at Ithaca College, and on faculty at the Collaborative Piano Institute and the administrative team at SongFest, residing at the Colburn School in Los Angeles.

Listen to Martha’s presentation on contemporary American song from our 2020 Auf den Airwaves zu Singen: The United State of American Song.

Erika Switzer is an accomplished collaborative pianist who performs regularly in major concert settings around the world, including at New York’s Weill Hall (Carnegie), Geffen Hall, Frick Collection, and Bargemusic, at the Kennedy Center, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, the Spoleto Festival (Charleston, SC). Her performances have been called “precise and lucid” by the New York Times, and Renaud Machart of Le Monde described her as “one of the best collaborative pianists I have ever heard; her sound is deep, her interpretation intelligent, refined, and captivating.”

From 2000-2007, Switzer performed and studied in Germany, an experience that profoundly inspired and shaped her work. During that time, she appeared at Festspielhaus Baden-Baden and in the Munich Winners & Masters series and won numerous awards, including best pianist prizes at the Robert Schumann, Hugo Wolf, and Wigmore Hall International Song Competitions.

Switzer has long been a leader in envisioning and promoting the future of art song performance. In 2009, in collaboration with soprano Martha Guth, she founded the organization Sparks & Wiry Cries, which commissions new works, presents the songSLAM festival in New York City, and publishes The Art Song Magazine. She is also devoted to new music, and has recently premiered new compositions at the 5 Boroughs Music Festival, Brooklyn Art Song Society; and Vancouver’s Music on Main. 

Switzer collaborates with a range of top singers. A frequent collaborator is baritone Tyler Duncan, and as a duo, Switzer and Duncan have performed in major concert halls and music festivals around the world. She is also an active teacher, serving on the music faculty at Bard College and Conservatory of Music. Switzer holds a doctorate from The Juilliard School and lives in New York’s Hudson Valley.