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The Norwegian soprano, Siri Karoline Thornhill, who was born in England, began her singing studies in her native city of Stavanger with Marit Storækre. With the assistance of scholarships from the Norwegian government, she was able to continue her study of voice with postgraduate work under Marius van Altena, Rita Dams and Diane Forlano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. She completed her studies with distinction, and she lives since then in Freiburg, Germany. Master-classes and opera courses with Cristina Deutekom, Elly Ameling, Ton Koopman, Beata Heuer-Christen, Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox rounded off her training.
Siri Karoline Thornhill's busy concert and opera career includes repertoire ranging from early music to works of the 21st century. She has sung under Fabio Biondi, Ivor Bolton, Harry Christophers, Ottavio Dantone, Iván Fischer, Rolf Gupta, Thomas Hengelbrock, Philippe Herreweghe, Ton Koopman, Sigiswald Kuijken, Gijs Leenars, Helmut Müller-Brühl, Daniel Reuss, Michael Schneider, Andreas Spering, and Bruno Weil. She has performed with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Collegium Vocale Orchestra, La Petite Bande, Freiburger Barockorchester, Musica Fiata, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Kammerorchester Basel, Les Cornets Noirs, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, Kölner Kammerorchester, Stavanger Symfoniorkester, Württembergische Philharmonie, Concertgebouw Kamerorkest, Opéra National de Bordeaux and Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.
Siri Karoline Thornhill has been invited to perform at major international festivals, such as the Händel Festivals in Göttingen and Halle/Saal, Thüringer Bachwochen, Rheingau Music Festival, Mozartfest Augsburg, Tage alter Musik Regensburg, Haydnfestival Eisenstadt, Beethoven Fest Bonn, Festival international de l’Opera Beaune, Early Music Festivals in Bruges and Utrecht, Oslo Chamber Music Festival, Sydney Festival, Rencontres musicales de Vézelay, Bozar Music in Brussels, J.S. Bach cycle of the Slovakian Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, Les Grands Concerts Sacrés in Paris, Lucerne‘s Easter Festival, Feldkirch Festival, and Festival de Printemps in Monte Carlo. Guest appearances have taken her to major concert halls, including in Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Berlin (Konzerthaus and Philharmonie), Bordeaux (Auditorium), Brussels (Palais des Beaux Arts), Dresden (Frauenkirche), Frankfurt (Alte Oper), Graz (Konzertverein), Hamburg (St. Michaelis), Lucerne, Milan (Sala Verdi), Monte Carlo (Salle Garnier), Munich (Gasteig), Oslo (Konserthus), Paris (Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), Stavanger (Konserthus), Stuttgart (Liederhalle), Vienna (Konzerthaus), Washington D.C. (Kennedy Center), Göttingen and Brühl, and has regular guest engagements at the opera houses in Halle/Saal and Freiburg.
Emphasis of Siri Karoline Thornhill's singing activity is compositions of Purcell, George Frideric Handel and above all J.S. Bach. Siri Karoline Thornhill has sung operatic roles in Halle (Clomiri in), at the Freiburg Theater in Rameau‘s Dardanus, at the Komische Oper Berlin in carnival music from Venice and Florence with Thomas Hengelbrock, at the Quedlinburg Cathedral in Stradella‘s San Giovanni Battista and on tour in northern Germany with Reinhard Keiser ‘s Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona. In August 2006 she made her debut as Donna Anna in W.A. Mozart's Don Giovanni with La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken at the Festival de l’Opera in Beaune and the Bruges Early Music Festival. More recent opera performances include such roles as Miss A in Luke Bedford’s Through his Teeth and Pamina in W.A. Mozart's Die Zauberflöte and she has performed at theatres and festivals in Freiburg, Halle, Kristiansand, Beaune and Komische Oper Berlin. Further W.A. Mozart's -roles in her repertoire are 1. Dame, Venere and La Contessa. In addition she dedicates herelf to compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has appeared in several premieres, among them Louis Andriessen‘s Odysseus at De oude Vertrekhal in Rotterdam and De Melkweg in Amsterdam.
Siri Karoline Thornhill's extensive discography includes CD-recordings of J.S. Bach's Cantatas with La Petite Bande and Sigiswald Kuijken (Accent) as well as all J.S. Bach's solo cantatas for soprano with the Kölner Kammerorchester and Helmut Müller-Brühl (Naxos). Furthermore, she recorded J.S. Bach's Matthäus-Passion (BWV 244) with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging and Jos van Veldhoven (Channel Classic Records) and cantatas and Membra Jesu Nostri of Dietrich Buxtehude in Ton Koopman's Opera Omnia Project (Channel Classic Records). Other CD's include: Johannes Brahms' German Requiem with Bremen Cathedral Choir and Wolfgang Helbich (DG), Antonio Lotti‘s Requiem with Balthasar-Neumann-Chor and Thomas Hengelbrock) (BMG), G.F. Handel‘s Imeneo with Capella Augustina and Andreas Spering (CPO), G.F. Handel‘s Messiah with Knabenchor Hannover and Jörg Breiding (Ars Musici), as well as broadcast productions, including G.F. Handel‘s Saul with Peter Neumann for NDR and Bertali‘s Maria Maddalena with Alexander Weimann for WDR. She has also recorded for Tyskland label. Among her most recent world-premiere-recordings of Simon Mayr's opera Telemaco (main-role), Mayr’s Missa di Gloria and a reconstructed Requiem by Donizetti (Naxos). In July 2017 her first Lied-CD with songs of Edvard Grieg was released (Ars Produktion). |
