Soile Isokoski

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Soile Marja Isokoski (born 14 February 1957) is a Finnish lyric soprano, active in opera, concert works and lieder.

Contents

Life and career

Isokoski was born in Posio, Finland. She graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (a cantor-organist diploma, a singing teacher's degree and a singing diploma) and made her concert debut there in 1986. [1]

Isokoski won the Lappeenranta song competition in Finland (1987), the Elly Ameling Competition in the Netherlands (1988), and the Tokyo International Singing Competition (1990). In 1987 she was a finalist in the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition.

She worked first as a church musician in Northern Finland. In 1987 she was engaged as a soloist with the Finnish National Opera and stayed there until 1994. Her first appearance there was as Mimi in Puccini's La bohème in 1987.

Isokoski has sung at all the leading opera houses in Europe, including the Vienna State Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin State Opera, Semperoper, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Cologne Opera.

She made her début at the Metropolitan Opera as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro in 2002. The New York Times wrote on 28 January 2002: "Ms. Isokoski... touched on the Countess' sense of abandonment by the Count without diminishing her regal bearing or the graceful humor she must contribute to the second act. And her dark, burnished soprano should make her a good addition to the Met roster." [2]

In 2007 Isokoski made her San Francisco Opera debut portraying the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier . [3] In 2010 she made her Los Angeles Opera debut as Elsa in Lohengrin . [4]

She has also appeared at many festivals such as Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Chorégies d'Orange, The Proms in London, Tanglewood Music Festival and Savonlinna Opera Festival.

Isokoski's song repertoire is extensive. She has given recitals with her regular accompanist Marita Viitasalo-Pohjola  [ fi ] all over the world, including in New York, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Vienna, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Athens, Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Tokyo.

Isokoski has appeared with many renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Riccardo Muti, Sakari Oramo, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, and Osmo Vänskä.

Roles

Recordings

CD


DVD

Awards and recognitions

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References

  1. Richard Wigmore (2008). "Isokoski, Soile". The Grove Book of Opera Singers. Oxford University Press. p. 234. ISBN   978-0-19-533765-5.
  2. Allan Kozinn (2002-01-28). "Opera Review; Letting Figaro Be Itself, so Subtlety Can Shine". The New York Times . Retrieved 18 November 2023.
  3. "Der Rosenkavalier". SFist.com. June 11, 2007. Archived from the original on November 16, 2011.
  4. "Opera Today : December at Los Angeles Opera: Lohengrin and Rigoletto". operatoday.com.
  5. "BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, 1987 – The Final". BBC .
  6. Gramophone, September 9, 2002[ full citation needed ]
  7. "The State Music Prize awarded to Soile Isokoski". Ministry of Education and Culture. November 7, 2006. Archived from the original on July 27, 2011.
  8. "About Wigmore Hall Live | Watch & Listen". Wigmore Hall.[ dead link ]
  9. "Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra". Classical:NEXT. 1 January 1970. Retrieved 29 April 2022.
  10. BBC Music Magazine , May 2007[ full citation needed ]
  11. "The Sibelius Society, The Sibelius Medal". Archived from the original on 2018-08-31. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
  12. "Soile Isokoski mit Titel Kammersängerin ausgezeichnet". OTS.at.
  13. "Diapason d'or de l'année 2008 for Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra's Kullervo recording". Ondine.
  14. "Les Prix Caecilia 2009". Le Soir . March 11, 2010.
  15. "Conferment Ceremony of the Faculty of Theology". helsinki.fi. 27 May 2011.

Further reading