The Swedish soprano, Lina Maria Äkerlund, started her training with Kurt Widmer at the Music Academy of Basel with teaching and solo singing diplomas. She was distinguished twice with the Migros scholarship. During the years 1984-1985 she was a member of the international Opera Studio at the Opera House of Zürich. She trained herself further in master courses as well as with Juliette Bise and Margreet Honig.
As an opera singer Lina Maria Äkerlund has made guest appearances at opera houses in her homeland and abroad (including: Grand Théatre des Champs-Elysées, Sommerfestival Macarata, Opernhaus Zürich, Stadtheater St. Gallen). Her concert activity, which includes oratorio singing as well as Lieder interpretation, has led her to different international Festivals in the whole Europe (Amsterdam, Berlin, Lisbon, Paris, Versailles, Prague, Vienna etc.) as well as to the June Weeks in Zürich and repeats to the International Music Weeks in Luzern.
Lina Maria Äkerlund co-operated among others with Christophe Coin, Joshua Rifkin, Heinz Holliger, Jürg Wyttenbach and the Viennese Schubert Trio, and participated in numerous premieres of contemporary works.
Lina Maria Äkerlund appears in a broad range of repertoire. As a member of the IGNM-Ensemble of Basel she performed Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierot Lunaire and Alban Berg's 7 Early Songs with Jürg Wyttenbach. Other productions she took up included Alessandro Scarlatti’s IL giardino d'amore with the Clemencic Consort, with August Wenzinger her first solo album with George Frideric Handel Cantatas, and with Accademia Bizantina she performed Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater and Salve Regina. Among her pupils and/or singers who have attended her master-classes: Yves Brühwiler (Bass-Baritone), Flavio Ferri-Benedetti (Counter-tenor). |