Glass Shatterers! Beverly Hoch in all her High F glory

The "Glass Shatterers!" series focuses on sopranos who sustain High F, or sing higher. THE SONGBIRD: Beverly Hoch is one of those singers whose name fits her voice well since "hoch" means "high" in German. She was born in Kansas in 1951 and her music studies included a Bachelor of Music from Oklahoma City University in 1975 and a Masters of Music from Wichita State University in 1978. Hoch won the regional division of the The Met national auditions in 1977 and the Young Concert Artists contest in 1979. Her professional debut was at the Santa Fe Opera in "La Grande-Duchesse de Gerolstein.” Other U.S. opera engagements included the Dew Fairy at Wolf Trap, Tiny in Britten's "Paul Bunyan" in Saint Louis, Olympia in Hawaii, Lakme in Arizona, and Ann Page in Washington D.C. Internationally she sang Adele in Strasbourg, Philine at the Wexford Festival, Queen of the Night at Glyndebourne, Lucia in Stockholm, Blonde in Lyon, and Zerbinetta in cities throughout Germany. I heard Hoch as the soprano soloist in "The Messiah" in Seattle in 2001. THE MUSIC: Mozart wrote the concert aria “Ma che vi fece, o stelle … Sperai vicino” (K.368) in January, 1781 for soprano Elisabeth Wendling, who also sang Elettra in the premiere "Idomeneo" during this same time period in Munich. K.368 is a beast of a showpiece aria: quite long with suspended lyric sections alternating with forceful and elaborate, tricky high-flying coloratura sections. These climax near the end of the aria in an octave leap to a sustained High F6, which then resolves to a held High E-flat before cascading down two octaves to land on the low E-flat. Hoch concludes the aria with a cadenza that shoots up to another held High F.