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The American soprano, Rebecca Sjöwall, took her first voice lesson at Luther College, where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science. While living as an English teacher outside of Kyoto, Japan, a co-worker asked her to give a concert to raise money for The Friendship Foundation. The concert was an overwhelming success. After completing her teaching contract, she returned to the USA to study music, obtaining her Master of Music degree in Vocal Performance from UCLA. She is a two-time District Winner in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions and was a Studio Artist with Arizona Opera from 2010-2012. In 2007, she won the American Jenny Lind competition sponsored by the Barnum Festival and in co-operation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Music, which led to a concert tour of Sweden.
In 2008, Rebecca Sjöwall made her professional debut as Micaëla in a West Bay Opera staging of Georges Bizet's Carmen. She has since appeared with Arizona Opera, Nashville Opera, Opera Idaho, San Francisco Lyric Opera, Festival Opera of Walnut Creek, Pacific Opera Project, and the Sacramento Philharmonic and Opera.
Rebecca Sjöwall has performed over 30 different roles with opera companies across the USA. Her repertoire encompasses a wide variety of roles, such as She has performed a variety of roles, including Violetta in La traviata, Contessa Almaviva in W.A. Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro, Pamina in W.A. Mozart's The Magic Flute, Gilda in Rigoletto, Liù in Turandot, the Governess in in Benjamin Britten's The Turn of the Screw, Mrs. P in The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Older Alyce in Glory Denied, and Alice Ford in Falstaff. She also created leading roles in three world premiere operas by Kenneth Wells: Anna Roosevelt Boettiger in The First Lady, an opera depicting the days following Franklin D. Roosevelt's death and most recently the role of Professor Elyn Saks in the world premiere of The Center Cannot Hold and The Center Cannot Hold: Part 2. The latter two operas are based on USC Law Professor Elyn Saks' acclaimed memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness. Naxos released a studio recording of Michael Nyman's The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, featuring Sjöwall, Matthew Treviño, and Ryan MacPherson with Dean Williamson conducting the Nashville Opera Orchestra on September 9, 2016. The album was recorded at Ocean Way Nashville, located in the heart of Nashville's Music Row.
Rebecca Sjöwall's concert engagements have included the Requiems of Verdi, Johannes Brahms, Gabriel Fauré, and W.A. Mozart. She has also performed major works by Dvorak, L.v. Beethoven, Charles Gounod, César Franck, Schubert, and Ralph Vaughan Williams.
On 24 hours notice, Rebecca Sjöwall made her Carnegie Hall debut at the Stern Auditorium in a world premiere by film composer Stephen Edwards. She has created multiple projects with composer Christina Whitten Thomas. In the Garrett, is an award-winning song cycle based on Louisa May Alcott's poem. Mother's Word began first as an extended work for narrator, soprano, and pianist, which Rebecca premiered in 2019. Through monologue and song, Mother's Word focuses on the untold stories of mothers from the Bible, including Eve, Hagar, Sarah, Rebekah, Leah, Naomi, Ruth, Bathsheba, Elizabeth, and Mary, with text written by Marian Partee and music by Christina Whitten Thomas. The premiere took place at La Cañada Presbyterian Church and featured Sjöwall with pianist Aiko Fukushima and director/narrator Tina Tong. Christina and Marian Lamb, the lyricist, then expanded it by adding two more singers. The latest version was premiered in 2022. Also in 2022, she collaborated with composer Mark Carlson and pianist Victoria Kirsch to perform all of Mark's songs written for soprano, including a world premiere, at UCLA.
In 2009, Rebecca Sjöwall was part of the singing cast for the radio musical The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman by Sparks, which premiered on Sveriges Radio and was later released on vinyl and CD. Andy Gill in The Independent gave The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman a maximum rating of 5 stars and included the record among his 20 albums of the year. The world premiere of the live musical took place on June 25, 2011, at the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in Hollywood. It was hosted by the Los Angeles Film Festival and starred Sparks, Guy Maddin, Peter Franzén as Bergman, Tammy Glover recreating her role as the Hollywood Welcoming Committee, reprising her role as the Hollywood Starlet, and Ann Magnuson as Greta Garbo. She sings duets with Russell Mael on the final track of Sparks' album Hippopotamus, which was released by BMG Records on September 8, 2017, and entered the UK Album Charts at No. 7. In the 2021 film Annette, featuring story and music by Sparks, Sjöwall portrays the the gossip reporter Connie O'Connor. The film was directed by Leos Carax and stars Adam Driver, Marion Cotillard, and Simon Helberg. It opened the 74th Cannes Film Festival and won several César Awards, including Best Original Music. She is also credited with additional voices in the film and on the Cannes Edition (Selections from the Motion Picture) Soundtrack. And she performed with the Sparks during the Los Angeles leg of their Hippopotamus world tour. Also in 2021, she is the featured score vocalist in Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar. Directed by Josh Greenbaum, the film has a screenplay by Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo, music by Christopher Lennertz and Dara Taylor, and stars Wiig, Mumolo, and Jamie Dornan. Millions of gamers have heard Rebecca Sjöwall's voice as the singer of the "Rapture Anthem" on BioShock and BioShock 2.
Rebecca Sjöwall now calls southern California home. She and her husband, composer Marcus Sjöwall, make their own music when not busy with other projects. They have collaborated on several classical songs and released their first pop single (CHAOS) in 2020. When not working, you will probably find her reading or exploring nature with their son. |
