Measha Brueggergosman's says Christmas album a 'natural next step'

Measha Brueggergosman is embracing the highs and lows in her life and letting it show.

The Grammy-nominated, Juno-winning soprano, who is originally fromFredericton, has released a new album called, Christmas.

On the front of the album is a pictureof the internationally-known singer dressed in a shimmering metallic blouse showing the scar from her open heart surgery in 2009.

"Funnily enough, they initially sent it to me with my scar airbrushed out and I was like, 'I'm not sure who this photo is of, but if it doesn't have a scar then it's not of me, she said.

For a lot of my fans I think it would have been anachronistic because they would have wonderedif the photo had happened prior to 2009. For me it represents a timeline. It represents,you know. yes, there was open heart surgery. I almost died and all of these things. But it also represents the fact I'm still alive," said Brueggergosman.

"The scar is there, and everybody knows I had open heart surgery and I also think it would be a discredit not only to the people who worked so hard to keep me alive but also to other people who have survived open heart surgery," she added.

A lot has changed since that surgery in 2009.

Two and a half years ago, Brueggergosman and her husband welcomed a baby, a boy named Shepherd. Now she is juggling her busy international performing career with parenting and embracing her blessings.

Every day that I am privileged enough to wake up and walk on my own two feet and wake up in my own home, these are all the everyday miracles that just kind of come from having been born in the right time and place andthe blessings are abundant, regardless of whether or not you've experienced the extremities of life that I have, she said.

The new Christmas album features Brueggergosman's takes on classics and includes two originals produced with Canadian musicians Royal Wood and Sarah Harmer and producer Aaron Davis.

Brueggergosman said it was a natural step in her musical career.

"I started to sing more non-classical things and for me, as a classical musician, I am always singing a pre-existing repertoire and I think Aaron Davis and I wanted to tackle Christmas simply because it would allow us to put new clothes on a pre-existing body and I really enjoyed the process of kind of breathing our lives into those tunes, she said.

Brueggergosman is performing songs from her new Christmas album at a series of shows in December across Atlantic Canada.