Biography

Picture
©Shirley Suarez
Opera singer Karin Torbjörnsdóttir works internationally as a freelancing opera singer and film-actress.
In June 2020 she was awarded Singer of the Year 2020 by Gríman, the Icelandic Performing Arts Awards, for her portrayal of Cherubino in the Icelandic Opera's production of Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart.
Karin has been accepted to a workshop with Barbara Hannigan in Paris later this year.

Musically versatile, Karin has already shown some of her many colours with operatic repertoire ranging from baroque to contemporary, especially in Mozart and early romantic music.
Some of her prior engagements include Luzerner Theater (CH), and at the opera studio in Staatsoper Stuttgart (DE), where she performed various operatic repertoire.

Among Karin's roles are Mozart's Cherubino (Le nozze di Figaro), Annio (La clemenza di Tito), 2.Lady (Magic flute), and Amando (Le grand Macabre/Ligeti), Flora (La traviata/Verdi), Tisbe (La cenerentola,/Rossini), Rosina and Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia/Rossini), as well as Alto 2 (Prometeo/Luigi Nono)

She has appeared as a concert soloist on numerous occasions in various European countries, and international festivals such as Anima Mundi in Pisa in Italy, Macau International Music Festival, Lucerne Festival in Switzerland, Barocknacht, and Nacht der Komponisten in Salzburg.

Born in Lund, Sweden, the early musical background of the Icelandic mezzo soprano include piano studies and competition-leveled choral singing, followed by private vocal studies with Swedish Mezzo Kerstin Grevelius and Prof. Laura Sarti before enrolling the Reykjavík Academy of Singing and Vocal Arts in Iceland, graduating DipABRSM with Distinction. Further studies at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg followed; Bachelor studies 2010-12, and Master of Arts - Opera and music theater 2012-14, lastly with Andreas Macco, Prof. Josef Wallnig and Eike Gramss, graduating on both occasions with Distinction.

Master classes of Voice and Operatic repertoire with Laura Sarti, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Galina Pisarenko, Donald Kaasch, Martha Sharp, Margaret Singer, Jane Thorner and Marianne Cornetti. Lied with Clara Taylor, Richard Stokes and Breda Zakotnik; baroque gestures and baroque acting with Margit Legler, improvisational acting with Nicola Hümpel, as well as voice lessons with soprano Monika Lenz, and mezzo-soprano Helene Schneiderman.