Anne Sofie von Otter's Biographical Timeline


“She possesses one of the most flexible and natural vocal instruments of any living artist.”

Opera Now(London), November 2008

Anne Sofie von Otter was born in Stockholm and studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London with Vera Rosza. She also attended classes in lied interpretation with Geoffrey Parsons in London and Erik Werba in Vienna. In 1980 she began her collaboration with the pianist Bengt Forsberg. Two years later she joined the ensemble of the Basle Opera, where she made her mark as an interpreter of Mozart (Cherubino, Dorabella, Sesto) and Richard Strauss (Composer). One of the finest singers of her generation, the internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano works with the pre-eminent conductors of the day, has triumphed at the world’s major opera houses and is a regular guest at leading festivals. Anne Sofie von Otter has also achieved great success as a lieder interpreter, mostly in collaboration with Bengt Forsberg.

1984Debut with the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome under Giuseppe Sinopoli; first appears at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
1985Covent Garden debut as Cherubino; Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ and La Damnation de Faust at the Opéra de Lyon under Gardiner. Beginning of her association with Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion
1987CD releases: Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo (Messenger; Edison prize, 1988), and Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, both with Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists
1990Named "Recording Artist of the Year" with an International Record Critics Award
1991At Covent Garden, first sings the title role in La Cenerentola; CD releases: three Mozart operas - Idomeneo (Idamante) and La clemenza di Tito (Sesto) with Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists and Le nozze di Figaro in the Metropolitan Opera production under Levine; Brahms lieder with Bengt Forsberg (Grand Prix International du disque, 1991)
1992Debut at the Salzburg Easter Festival in Wolf's Spanisches Liederbuch; at the Salzburg Festival in summer she appears with great success as Ramiro in Mozart's La finta giardiniera
1993Release of Grieg songs with Bengt Forsberg (Gramophone Award, Prix Caecilia, Brussels, 1993; Edison Award, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 1994)
1994Tours Japan with the Vienna State Opera in Der Rosenkavalier; CD releases: Speak Low (Weill songs) with Gardiner, the NDR Symphony Orchestra and Forsberg; Handel’s Marian Cantatas with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln (CD Compact Award, Barcelona, 1995); lieder by Berg, Korngold and Strauss with Forsberg
1995“Singer of the Year” at the Cannes Classical Awards and Germany’s Echo Awards; on CD: Berg’s orchestral lieder with Abbado and the Wiener Philharmoniker, and Schumann lieder with Forsberg (Grand Prix de la Nouvelle Académie du disque, Prix Caecilia, Brussels, 1995)
1996First recital at the Salzburg Festival; “Artist of the Year” at the Gramophone Awards; tours Europe and North America with Swedish songs from Wings in the Night (Echo Award, 1997); other CD releases: La bonne chanson (Edison Award, Grand Prix du disque, 1997); lieder by Mahler and Zemlinsky, and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea (Ottavia)
1997Great success as Handel’s Ariodante (under Minkowski) in Europe; debut as Carmen in Japan with the Opéra de Lyon and Kent Nagano, performs Carmen at the Berliner Philharmoniker’s New Year’s Eve concert with Abbado, recorded for DG and telecast live; Diapason d’or as “Artist of the Year”; CD releases: Ariodante (title role) with Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre (Classic CD Award and Cannes Classical Award, 1999)
1998Creates the role of Sorl in Ståden by Sven-David Sandström at the Royal Swedish Opera; CD releases include La Damnation de Faust (Marguerite) with the Philharmonia Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung and Lamenti (Baroque vocal works) with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln
1999Appears in Poppea in Aix-en-Provence; CD releases: Rendezvous with Korngold with Bengt Forsberg and Friends; Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Thomas Quasthoff, the Berliner Philharmoniker and Abbado (Grammy 2000); Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress (Baba the Turk) with the London Symphony Orchestra under Gardiner (Grammy 2000)
2001Named “Singer of the Year” at the Echo Awards; CD releases include For the Stars, with Elvis Costello (Edison Award 2002), and Mots d’amour (Mélodies by Cécile Chaminade) with Forsberg (Gramophone Award “Best Vocal Recording” 2002)
2002. CD releases: Handel's Hercules (Choc du Monde de la musique, Diapason d'or 2002) and arias and scenes by Offenbach, both featuring Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre
2003BBC Prom with Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre; CD releases: Mahler’s Third Symphony with the Wiener Philharmoniker under Boulez, orchestrated Schubert lieder with Abbado and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Grammy 2004), and Handel’s Giulio Cesare with Minkowski (Diapason d’Or, Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2003)
2004Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict and Strauss’s Capriccio in Paris, Poppea in Paris and London; CD releases include Watercolours, a second Swedish song recital with Forsberg (Diapason d’or, 2004), and Ravel’s Shéhérazade with Boulez and the Cleveland Orchestra
2005Appearances include Mélisande and Sesto, Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole and Gluck’s Orfeo; BBC Prom with Gustavo Dudamel and the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. On CD: Mahler with Boulez and the Wiener Philharmoniker, and Music for a While – Baroque melodies by Caccini, Monteverdi, Frescobaldi, Ferrari, Strozzi, Dowland and Purcell
2006 World premiere of Sven-David Sandström’s St. John Passion in Stockholm; European tours with the programmes “I Let The Music Speak” and “Excerpts from the Great American Songbook”. CD releases: I Let The Music Speak – with the music of ABBA and songs by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, and the Christmas album Noël with Bengt Forsberg. On Hélène Grimaud’s disc Reflection she performs three songs by Clara Schumann
2007 Role debut as Brangaene in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with the Los Angeles Philharmonic; appearances include Didon in Berlioz’s Les Troyens, Ravel’s Shéhérazade, Mozart’s Requiem at the Verbier Festival and Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été Her greatly acclaimed recording of music by Jewish prisoners in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) concentration camp is awarded a Diapason d’or
2008 Orfeo, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, and Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn in Stockholm; Lully’s Thésée in Paris; Ravel’s Shéhérazade at the Deutsche Oper Berlin; Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress under Nikolaus Harnoncourt in Vienna; Mozart arias in Salzburg and Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne in Grenoble, Frankfurt, Spain and at the Budapest Festival under Marc Minkowski; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and Berlioz’s Les Troyens with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under James Levine. Residency at Vienna’s Musikverein including concerts with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and recitals with Bengt Forsberg. Further recitals with Forsberg in Finland and Milan. Festival appearances in Santander, Lucerne, and Edinburgh. Christmas concert tour to the Far East. Release of Swedish orchestral songs by Hans Gefors, Anders Hillborg (both world-premiere recordings) and Laci Boldemann with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Nagano.
2009 Mahler’s Symphony no. 3 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Stockholm and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; Wagner’s Götterdämmerung in Stockholm and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival; Songs from Theresienstadt in the USA, on tour in Europe, at the Rheingau, Schleswig-Holstein and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern music festivals and at the Schubertiade; Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein in Basle and Vienna. Stravinsky’s Oedipus rex with the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Salonen. Bach is on the programme of a European tour with Concerto Copenhagen to support her new recording of famous arias by J. S. Bach with Concerto Copenhagen under Lars Ulrik Mortensen, which is due for release in the spring

2/2009