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The Finnish soprano, Kajsa Dahlbäck, studied church music at the Sibelius Academy (1999-2005), Helsinki and graduated with excellent grades in 2005. She then continued with a master's degree from the Opera Academy of Gothenburg University (2005-2006). Now she (since 2014) is a doctoral candidate at the artistic program of the Sibelius Academy and also studies conducting with Jorma Panula. Susanna Eken, Kammersänger Tom Krause and Dame Emma Kirkby have been her most important voice teachers. In 2004, she won the second prize at the Kangasniemi singing competition. In 2007 she was rewarded with an opera role (Purcell: The Fairy Queen) in the international singing competition AsLiCo in Como, Italy. In 2008 she reached the final round at the Lappeenranta singing competition and was awarded two special prizes (recognition prize by the jury and prize for an excellent performance in the semifinals).
Kajsa Dahlbäck is an experienced interpreter of early, classical and contemporary music. She has performed as a soloist with many orchestras, among them with Tapiola Sinfonietta, Helsinki Baroque Orchestra and the Finnish Baroque Orchestra at the Bolzano Festival (Italy), Musica Antiqua (Brazil), Brezice Festival (Slovenia), Kirkko Soikoon! festival, Helsinki Festival and Vantaa Baroque festival.
Kajsa Dahlbäck especially enjoys singing on the concert platform with different orchestras and instrumental ensembles. She has an extensive repertoire ranging from works by Monteverdi, Grandi, J.S. Bach and George Frideric Handel to contemporary composers such as Kimmo Hakola and Kaija Saariaho. She has premiered many works, both forgotten pieces from the 17th century and contemporary ones by e.g. Kaj-Erik Gustafsson and Peter Hilli.
Her debut at the Finnish National Opera was in 2015 as Drusilla and Amor (voice) in Monteverdi's L'Incoronazione di Poppea. Other operatic work has included e.g. Morgana from G.F. Handel's Alcina, Valencienne from Lehár's The Merry Widow and Damon from G.F. Handel's Acis and Galatea.
Kajsa Dahlbäck is the artistic director of Vaasa Baroque, an early music festival in Vaasa, Finland (www.vaasabaroque.com) that she founded in 2013. She also conducts Vaasa Baroque Ensemble and has conducted e.g. Finnish Baroque Orchestra, Sinfonietta Cracovia, Vaasa City Orchestra and Kuopio City Orchestra.
Kajsa Dahlbäck's work is supported by the following foundations: Pro Musica, Helene och Walter Grönqvist and Vaasan Jaakkoo, from which she has received so called scholarships of recognition. In 2013 Konstsamfundet rewarded her the Jenny Spennert grant for her work in the early music field. Other scholarships have been granted e.g. by Finnish Cultural Foundation, Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland and Viljo ja Maire Vuorio foundation. The Swedish Cultural Foundation rewarded her with a two-year working grant for artistic work 2014-2016. Currently she is finalizing her artistic doctorate degree with the kind support of Victoriastiftelsen.
Argo ensemble's debut album in 2013, "Canta la serenissima", received excellent reviews in international media.
In her spare time, Kajsa Dahlbäck enjoys time outdoors with the family in her native Finland. She is also fond of baking cakes, a tasteful cognac and reading fiction in different languages. |
