Lina Johnson
The Norwegian-American soprano Lina Johnson impresses both with her natural stage presence and with her lyrical, clear and expressive coloratura voice.
Since her opera debut in 2019 as Naiad (Ariadne auf Naxos) at the Royal Danish Opera in Copenhagen she has appeared there regularly in roles such as Soeur Constance (Dialogues des Carmélites), Musetta (La bohème), Despina (Così fan tutte), Suor Genovieffa (Suor Angelica), Lauretta (Gianni Schicchi) and Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail). Another important venue for her is the Norwegian National Opera, where she has sung Adele (Die Fledermaus), the Queen of the Night (Die Zauberflöte), Vespetta in Telemann’s Pimpione, Gilda (Rigoletto), Rosina (Il barbiere di Siviglia) and in Rolf Wallin’s Elysium.
Alongside her numerous performances at Scandinavian opera houses and concert halls she has appeared at venues including the Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Scottish Opera, the Auditori in Barcelona and the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing.
As a well-known concert soloist, her repertory includes Handel’s Messiah, Bach’s St John Passion and St Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Missa solemnis, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Poulenc’s Gloria, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Mozart’s ‘Coronation’ Mass and Strauss’s Vier letzte Lieder. She has performed with the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Le Concert des Nations, the Copenhagen Philharmonic, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the Hamburg Camerata, the BBC Philharmonic, the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin and the Symphony Orchestras of Trondheim, Stavanger, Århus, Aalborg, Odense and Malmö. In 2019 she released the album Face to Face on the label Amchara / Naxos. It received much critical acclaim, and was followed in 2020 by the album A Quiet Beauty on the LAWO label.
Lina Johnson studied singing at the Norwegian Academy of Music in Oslo and the Royal Danish Music Academy in Copenhagen, going on to join their Opera Academy. During her Mozart residence at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2010 she sang Serpetta in Mozart’s La finta giardiniera, broadcast live by the European television channel ARTE. In 2007 Lina Johnson won second prize at the Kokkola Nordic Lied Competition in Finland, and in 2008 she was awarded the Léonie Sonning Music Prize.