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- update 03/2006
 The
Finnish soprano Kirsi Tiihonen graduated from the Sibelius Academy,
where she studied with Liisa Linko Malmio. After winning several major
international singing competitions, Kirsi was soon known as one of the
most interesting dramatic sopranos in Europe.
She started
her career with engagements at the Finnish National Opera (1994-96)
where she sang Elisabetta (Don Carlos), Donna Anna,
Leonore (Fidelio) and Desdemona and has ever since been
frequently invited back for guest appearances. In 1997, she made her
role debut as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at the Savonlinna Opera
Festival. Soon after she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and
Gutrune in Götterdämmerung at the Braunschweig State Theatre and
joined the Staatsoper Berlin on a tour to Japan, where she sang several
parts in Wagner’s Ring conducted by Daniel Barenboim. During the fhe
following seasons she made her debut as Amelia in “Un ballo in
maschera” at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen, sang a brilliant role
debut as Isolde at the Gothenburg Opera, and returned as Senta
to the Savonlinna Opera Festival. In the 2003-04 season, Kirsi Tiihonen
made her debut at the Komische Oper Berlin as Leonore in Fidelio,
including a tour to Hongkong, and sang the role of Riita in The
last Temptations by Joonas Kokkonen at Tampere Opera and Prague Spring
festival.
Last season
Kirsi sang the huge title role in Mare and her son by Tauno
Pylkkänen at the Estonia Theatre in Tallinn, Isolde at the Halle
Opera, Germany, and also made her debut at the Teatro alla Scala in
Milan as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser under the baton of Jeffrey Tate.
In the summer of 2005, she was Aida at the Savonlinna Opera
Festival and returned to the Komische Oper Berlin for Fidelio. Recent
engagements include her Richard Strauss-debut as Ariadne (Ariadne
auf Naxos) at the Lyon Opera.
Her role as
Die Färberin in Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in Helsinki was a
sensation.
Kirsi’s future engagements include Isolde at
Leipzig Opera, Aida at Tampere Opera.
In addition
to her performances on opera stages, Kirsi Tiihonen has appeared as a
concert singer in many of the most prestigious concert halls all over
Europe, such as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with Ingo Metzmacher, the
Philharmonic of St Petersburg, the BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall in
London with Maestro Osmo Vänskä and the Berlin Philharmonic under the
baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. Additionally she has also sung under the
conductors Mark Wigglesworth, Paavo Berglund, Jukka-Pekka Saraste etc.
Kirsi has
recorded two solo-CDs for the NAXOS label: the songs of Toivo Kuula and
Leevi Madetoja (1999) and Sibelius (2001) and “Mare and her son” by
Tauno Pylkkänen(2005, Ondine).
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