SARA JONSSON
Soprano
Sara Jonsson was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. After working as an organist and violinist while still at school, she went to Kapellsbergs Musikskola, Härnösand, Sweden, taking triple principal studies in voice, violin and piano. She was frequently employed as an organist and violin soloist as well as playing in several orchestras, including in a professional production of Carmen in collaboration with Den Norske Opera. In 1993 and 1994 she received youth scholarships from the Royal Academy in Stockholm for vocal studies.
From 1996 to 2000 she studied singing in the UK at the Birmingham Conservatoire. Initially training as a mezzo, she there sang principal roles such as Giulio Cesare (Giulio Cesare), Florence Pike (Albert Herring) and Athamas (Semele). She won several song prizes and awards at the Conservatoire, including the John Ireland Prize and the Reginald Vincent Lieder Prize, and graduated in 2000 with a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours).
In the same year she won the all-inclusive Weingarten scholarship for vocal postgraduate studies at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest. In 2001–2002 she was awarded a scholarship from the Hungarian Ministry of Education for a second year at the Academy, continuing her studies with Hungary’s leading performer of contemporary music, Professor Erika Sziklay.
Sara has participated in master-classes with, among
others Philip Langridge
CBE, (London Master Classes, 2004), Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau (Symphony Hall, 1998),
Nicholas Cleobury, Sarah Walker, Petra Lang, Robin Bowman, Nicoletta Conti,
David Syrus and Ingrid Surgenor.
During the London Master Classes she also sang Lieder eines fahrenden
Gesellen with London Soloists Chamber Orchestra as part of the conducting
class with Benjamin Zander.
Sara has a large repertoire of Lieder and French and English song,
including song cycles by Beethoven, Berg, Debussy, Fauré, Gurney, Mahler, Poulenc,
Schumann, Stenhammar, Vaughan Williams and Wagner, as well as being an experienced
orchestral song and opera
performer. She has performed Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire and has also
been involved with many first performances.
Furthermore, she
directed her first full opera in February 2008, when The Oxford Opera Company
performed
Britten's The Turn of the Screw. Please see
Press Reviews
Principal roles include Freia and Wellgunde Das Rheingold, Countess, The Marriage of Figaro, Fiordiligi,
Così fan tutte, The Governess, The
Turn of the Screw, Lady Billows, Albert Herring, The Witch, Hansel and Gretel
and Judit, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, as well as scenes from Tosca, Don Carlo, Pagliacci, Peter Grimes and
Eugene Onegin. For a full list please
see her Curriculum Vitae.
Sara has been chosen as one of five finalist to compete for the Wagner Society's Bayreuth Bursary for young Wagnerian singers. The panel will include Dame Gwyneth Jones and the final will take place at the London Welsh Centre on 5th December 2009.
For more information or to join Sara's mailing list please contact:
Telephone:
07714 112563