Biography
Swedish-American soprano, Erika Sunnegårdh made her astonishing operatic debut in September of 2004, in the title role of Turandot at the Malmö Opera och Musikteater in southern Sweden.
Only 18 months later she made her much publicized Metropolitan Opera debut in the role of Leonore in Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as her Carnegie Hall debut singing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and James Conlon. This was followed by a tour of Japan with the company’s production of Die Walküre conducted by Christoph Eschenbach and Andrew Davis.
Immediately after her debut in Sweden she stepped in at very short notice singing Elettra in a Danish Radio concert performance of Idomeneo under the baton of Adam Fischer.
2005 began with a new production of Turandot at Norrlandsoperan using the Luciano Berio ending and filmed for a Swedish Television Broadcast. Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Mario Venzago followed, and in September she went to Spain to sing her first Elsa, in concert performances of Lohengrin conducted by Semyon Bychkov.
November of 2005 brought her to her North American debut in Milwaukee, as Leonore in the Florentine Opera production of Fidelio. She also sang Schönberg Op.8 and Zemlinsky’s Lyric Symphony with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Gianandrea Noseda, to critical acclaim, before
having the great honor of singing at the 2005 Nobel Prize Ceremony in Stockholm.
Besides her whirlwind experiences with the Metropolitan Opera, 2006 included her first Verdi Requiem with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert,
as well as spending the summer at Teater Hedeland, Denmark for her first Nabucco led by Giordano Bellincampi.
The 2006-07 season began at the Metropolitan Opera, with the First Lady in the Magic Flute, followed by the title role in Tosca in concert with the Malmö Symphony, as well as the world premiere of a commissioned work by Carl Unander-Scharin written for Ms. Sunnegårdh and the renowned percussion ensemble, Kroumata. She finished off the season singing Turandot at the Metropolitan Opera with both Marco Armiliato and Fabio Luisi, to rave reviews. The Summer included Die Walküre in Aix-en-Provence with Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic, as well as concerts in New Zealand with the Auckland Philharmonia.
So far during the 2007-08 Season, she has sung the Final Scene of Richard Strauss’ Salome with the Swedish Radio Symphony and Myung Whun Chung, followed by concerts with the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Milwaukee Symphony, the Malmö Symphony, and chamber music with the New York Piano Quartet. In February she took on her first staged Salome at the Florentine Opera to unanimous rave reviews. The season finished off in Europe with a reprise of Die Walküre at the Salzburg Easter Festival, opera concerts in Stockholm and Gothenburg, as well as her critically acclaimed Leonore in a new production of Fidelio at the Oper Frankfurt.
Prior to embarking on an operatic career, Ms Sunnegårdh spent a considerable amount of time on both the contemporary and recital repertoire. Erika performed songs and chamber music by Argento, Berkeley, Birtwistle, Dallapiccola, Diamond, Harbison, Henze, Messiaen, Bruce Saylor, Howard Fredricks, and also song cycles written for her by Hiromi Abe and Ronald Roseman. In the recital repertoire she is particularly drawn to German, Spanish, Swedish, and American composers, and hopes to be able to continue exploring the more intimate setting of recital hall performance.
During her education she attended the Israel Vocal Arts Institute, Tanglewood Music Center, the Britten-Pears School for Advanced Musical Studies, The International Institute of Vocal Arts, as well as the undergraduate program at the Manhattan School of Music; all on scholarship.
In 1999 Erika completed her Master of Arts degree at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College after two profoundly inspiring and healing years there – an experience to which she credits much of her present success.
Ms. Sunnegårdh is a recipient of the annual Cultural Award of the American Scandinavian Society, for the promotion of Scandinavian Culture in the United States. In 1999 she founded In time with Music, a community outreach program for the benefit of hundreds of public school children in Queens, New York.