Sara Jonsson

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Sara Jonsson was born in Örnsköldsvik, Sweden. She took voice, violin and piano as triple principal study at the Kapellsbergs Musikskola, Härnösand, Sweden, 1994-96, whilst working as an organist.

From 1996 she studied singing at the Birmingham Conservatoire and there won song prizes and awards, including the John Ireland Prize and the Reginald Vincent Lieder Prize, and graduated in 2000 with a First Class Bachelor of Music (Honours). Other prizes include St John's Singing Competition, 2005, (Art Song). In 2000 she received a full scholarship from the Joseph Weingarten Trust for vocal postgraduate studies at the Franz Liszt Academy, Budapest until 2002.

Master-classes and coaching include Philip Langridge and Benjamin Zander (Royal Academy of Music / London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, London, 2004), Julius Drake, Malcolm Martineau, (Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 1998) Nicoletta Conti (Teatro Communale, Bologna), Nicholas Cleobury, Ingrid Surgenor and Raymond Fischer.

She has a large repertoire of Lieder and French/English/Swedish song, including song cycles by Beethoven, Berg, Debussy, Fauré, Gurney, Mahler, Poulenc, Schumann, Stenhammar, Vaughan Williams and Wagner as well as first performances such as A Time to Dance, John Ellis (Sir Jack Lyons Concert Hall, York) and Songs to Poems by Hwang Chin, Maria Vatenina-Winter (Holywell Music Room). She has worked together with the pianist Elizabeth Burgess for the last three years.

Other works with orchestra include Mahler, Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (Lambeth Orchestra), Shéhérazade, (St Albans Symphony Orchestra) and miscellaneous opera scenes and arias.

Roles include The Governess (The Turn of the Screw); Berta (Il barbiere di Siviglia); Dorabella (Così fan tutte); Barbarina (Le nozze di Figaro); Papagena, Second Lady, Second Boy (The Magic Flute); Giulio Cesare (Giulio Cesare); Florence Pike (Albert Herring); Athamas, Ino (Semele) and Wood-Nymph (Rusalka).

Future engagements include Berlioz, Les Nuits d'été (Hitchin Symphony Orchestra), Wagner, Wesendonklieder (Hertford Bruckner Orchestra)and Rossini, Petite Messe Solennelle (Cambridgeshire Choral Society, West Road Concert Hall). She will also be recording Mahler, Fünf Rückertlieder and Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen with the orchestra Treffpunkt.

www.sara-jonsson.com

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