Mesa native returns to Tucson song fest after 9-year absence

If lyric mezzo-soprano Angela Brower gets the chance while she's in Tucson this week, she hopes to sneak off to Kartchner Caverns sometime in the next handful of days.

"I remember going when I was a kid, and I just think that's a very special place for me," said the Mesa native, who has called Munich, Germany, home since 2009 and doesn't get back to Arizona often.

On this trip home, she'll spend two weeks in Tucson performing a pair of concerts with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra as part of the 2026 Tucson Desert Song Festival. 

First up this weekend, she's singing Hector Berlioz's "Cléopâtre" on the orchestra's "Debussy's La mer" concert Friday, Jan. 23, and Sunday, Jan. 25, at Linda Ronstadt Music Hall.

Next weekend, she rejoins TSO Music Director José Luis Gomez and a chamber-sized TSO for Mozart's Requiem at Catalina Foothills High School.

This marks Brower's third song festival appearance since her 2015 debut, which also was her Arizona debut. Brower, who earned a degree from Arizona State University, performs primarily throughout Europe.

This weekend marks her first time singing "Cléopâtre," a dramatic cantata that the 19th-century French composer wrote for the prestigious Prix de Rome contest in 1829. The jury deciding the prize was reportedly so shocked and incensed by the piece, depicting the famous Egyptian queen’s final moments after inducing a cobra to bite her, that they didn't award a first prize. 

"I'm really excited to debut this piece," Brower said during a phone call last week from visiting family in Utah. "It's quite dramatic. It's like this 20-minute aria, very scenically, dramatically set by Berlioz, which is really cool for me as an actor, as an opera singer."

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The Berlioz is bookended by Olivier Messiaen's "Les Offrandes oubliées" and a pair of tone poems by Debussy — "Ibéria," with its Spanish rhythms and flair, and "La mer," a three-movement work that captures the ocean's mood through shimmering orchestral colors and textures. 

Performances are at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Sunday at the Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave. Tickets are $16.90-$109.30 through tucsonsymphony.org. 

The TSO Chorus, under director Marcela Molina, will share the Catalina Foothills stage with Brower and a trio of soloists — soprano Zoe Allen, tenor Omar Najmi and baritone Edward Vogel — for Mozart's Requiem at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Jan. 31 and 2 p.m. Feb. 1.

Mozart was working on the Requiem at the time of his death in December 1791.  The piece, a commission from German aristocrat Count Franz von Walsegg in memory of his late wife, was completed by Mozart's contemporaries Joseph Eybler and Franz Xaver Süssmayr. The first performance was a benefit for Mozart's widow, Constanze.

"It's really interesting because it starts very, very Mozart, but then ends not very Mozart because Mozart didn't finish the piece," Brower said. "It's very sobering to be singing his final piece because he's a composer that I've really admired and honored and have sung the most in my career."

Tickets for Mozart's Requiem at Catalina Foothills, 4300 E. Sunrise Drive, are $58.35-$102.13 through tucsonsymphony.org. 

This is not the first time Brower has done two concerts for the Tucson Desert Song Festival. Her first time at the festival in 2015 included a pair of TSO concerts.

This is her first time back to the Song Festival since 2017, when she did a recital with the Tucson Guitar Society and French classical guitarist Judicaël Perroy.