Laura Aikin © Jeremy Knowles
Laura Aikin © Jeremy Knowles
SOPRANO

Laura Aikin

Representation: World

BIOGRAPHY

With a range spanning over three octaves, world-renowned American soprano Laura Aikin embraces repertoire from baroque to contemporary, making her a most welcome artist in the most renowned opera houses and concert halls. She began her career as a member of the ensemble at the Berlin State Opera (1992-98) under the artistic direction of Daniel Barenboim, where she appeared over 300 times in major roles such as Lulu, Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta, Amenaide (Tancredi), Sophie, Adele, and in the title role in Zaide.

Laura Aikin is regularly invited to leading opera houses worldwide such as the Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milano, the Bavarian State Opera, Opernhaus Zurich, the Netherlands Opera, Opéra national de Paris, Semperoper Dresden, Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, Opera Frankfurt, the Chicago Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera and Metropolitan Opera New York.

At the Salzburg Festival, alongside numerous concert appearances since 1995, the artist has performed as Queen of the Night, in the world premiere of Henze's opera l’Upupa (Bad’iat), as Blondchen and Konstanze in Die Entführung aus dem Serail, and was highly acclaimed by audience and press alike for her interpretation of Marie in Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten in 2012 and for Birtwistle‘s Gawain in 2013.

An equally sought-after concert singer, Laura Aikin performs with orchestras such as the Berlin, Munich and Vienna Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago and Vienna Symphony Orchestras, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the WDR, SWR and MDR Radio Symphony Orchestras, as well as with the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Arts Florissants, Concerto Köln and Concentus Musicus Wien.

The list of leading conductors she has performed under includes names such as Claudio Abbado, Alain Altinoglou, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Martin Brabbins, Sylvain Cambreling, William Christie, Christoph von Dohnányi, Iván Fischer, Mikko Franck, Daniele Gatti, Michael Gielen, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Manfred Honeck, Jakub Hrůša, René Jacobs, Fabio Luisi, Kent Nagano, Zubin Mehta, Cornelius Meister, Ingo Metzmacher, Riccardo Muti, Helmuth Rilling, Donald Runnicles, Giuseppe Sinopoli, Michael Tilson Thomas and Franz Welser-Möst. One of her most notable collaborations was with Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Beethoven’s Missa solemnis at styriarte in Graz and the Salzburg Festival, which was also eternalised on CD.

Among the soprano’s recent operatic successes stands her critically acclaimed interpretation of Emilia Marty in the new production of Janáček´s Vec Makropulos at the Vienna State Opera. An equally huge success was Henze’s Elegie für junge Liebende (Elegy for young lovers) at the Theater an der Wien. Highlights of the 2017/18 season included Donna Anna (Don Giovanni) under the baton of Iván Fischer in Budapest, at the Edinburgh International Festival and in New York, Schoenberg’s Erwartung in Salzburg, the world première of Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo by Salvatore Sciarrino at Milan´s La Scala and the Berlin State Opera, as well as Rosalinde (Die Fledermaus) at the Vienna State Opera and performances of Feldma’s Neither in Munich and Cologne.

More recent highlights include the role of Helena in Manfred Trojahn's Orest at the Vienna State Opera, revived later at the Haus am Ring in autumn 2019. The 2021-2022 season brought Shostakovich's The Nose to the Bavarian State Opera, as well as the world premiere of Stefan Wirth's Girl with a Pearl Earring at Opernhaus Zurich, and a concert version of Der Rosenkavalier conducted by Lawrence Foster, where Laura Aikin was heard for the first time as the Marschallin. The start of the 2022/23 season saw her perform Mrs Grose in a production of Britten's The Turn of the Screw, conducted by Iván Fischer in Budapest and Vicenza, while also returning to the Vienna State Opera as Rosalinde in the traditional Fledermaus.

Projects for the coming season include Mahler's Symphony No. 8 in Tallinn conducted by Neeme Järvi, Webern songs with Klangforum Wien conducted by Ingo Metzmacher, Bernd Alois Zimmermann's Die Soldaten (Countess de la Roche) with the Gürzenich Orchestra conducted by FX Roth in Cologne, Paris and Hamburg, and a revival of Shostakovich's The Nose at the Bavarian State Opera.

Laura Aikin’s numerous acclaimed recordings include Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Schoenberg’s Die Jakobsleiter with the Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra, Respighi's La campana sommersa (Montpellier Opera), DVDs of Lulu (Opernhaus Zurich), Henze’s l’Upupa and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (both from the Salzburg Festival) and Dialogues des Carmélites with Riccardo Muti (La Scala). She can be heard on a solo recording of Songs and Cycles by Rorem with pianist Donald Sulzen for Orfeo, as well as in Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge and his Missa solemnis - both under the baton of Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Sony Music. Laura Aikin’s most recent widely acclaimed recording was as Rosalinde in Johann Strauss’ Die Fledermaus for Pentatone, recorded with the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Lawrence Foster.

Alongside her concert and opera engagements, Laura Aikin is an outstanding vocal teacher. She can regularly be found on the jury of international singing competitions and gives master classes at home and abroad. Since autumn 2022 Laura Aikin has held a professorship for singing at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.

2023 | 2024

This biography is to be reproduced without any changes, omissions or additions, unless expressly authorized by artist management.

DISCOGRAPHY

Album Cover

Ludwig van Beethoven: Complete Symphonies
Laura Aikin, Ingeborg Danz, Maximilian Schmitt, Tareq Nazmi
WDR Sinfonieorchester | WDR Rundfunkchor, NDR Chor
Conductor: Jukka-Pekka Saraste
Label: Profil – Edition Günter Hänssler | 2019

More on haensslerprofil.de

Album Cover

Johann Strauss Jr.: Die Fledermaus
Nikolai Schukoff, Laura Aikin, Jochen Schmeckenbecher, Elisabeth Kulman, Christian Elsner, Mathias Hausmann et al.
NDR Radiophilharmonie | WDR Rundfunkchor
Conductor: Lawrence Foster
Label: Pentatone | 2018

More on www.pentatonemusic.com

Album Cover

Ernst Krenek: Chamber Music and Songs Vol. 1
Laura Aikin, Bernarda Fink, Florian Boesch
The Ernst Krenek Ensemble
Piano: Anthony Spiri, Nina Tichman
Label: Toccata | 2018

More on toccataclassics.com

Album Cover

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 9
Laura Aikin, Michaela Selinger, Steve Davislim, José Antonio López
Orchester Wiener Akademie | Chorus Sine Nomine
Conductor: Martin Haselböck
Label: Alpha | 2017

More on outhere-music.com

VIDEOS

CALENDAR

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Nose

Boris Pinkhasovich, Platon Kusmič Kovaljov
Sergei Leiferkus, Ivan Jakovlevič
Laura Aikin, Praskovja Osipovna
Andrey Popov, Chief of Police
Sergey Skorokhodov, Ivan
Anton Rositskiy, the nose
Stanislav Kuflyuk, Lackey of the Countess
Andrii Goniukov, Official of the advertising department

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Kirill Serebrennikov, staging, stage and costumes
Evgeny Kulagin, co-staging

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Nose

Boris Pinkhasovich, Platon Kusmič Kovaljov
Sergei Leiferkus, Ivan Jakovlevič
Laura Aikin, Praskovja Osipovna
Andrey Popov, Chief of Police
Sergey Skorokhodov, Ivan
Anton Rositskiy, the nose
Stanislav Kuflyuk, Lackey of the Countess
Andrii Goniukov, Official of the advertising department

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Kirill Serebrennikov, staging, stage and costumes
Evgeny Kulagin, co-staging

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Nose

Boris Pinkhasovich, Platon Kusmič Kovaljov
Sergei Leiferkus, Ivan Jakovlevič
Laura Aikin, Praskovja Osipovna
Andrey Popov, Chief of Police
Sergey Skorokhodov, Ivan
Anton Rositskiy, the nose
Stanislav Kuflyuk, Lackey of the Countess
Andrii Goniukov, Official of the advertising department

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Kirill Serebrennikov, staging, stage and costumes
Evgeny Kulagin, co-staging

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS

Dmitri Shostakovich: The Nose

Boris Pinkhasovich, Platon Kusmič Kovaljov
Sergei Leiferkus, Ivan Jakovlevič
Laura Aikin, Praskovja Osipovna
Andrey Popov, Chief of Police
Sergey Skorokhodov, Ivan
Anton Rositskiy, the nose
Stanislav Kuflyuk, Lackey of the Countess
Andrii Goniukov, Official of the advertising department

Vladimir Jurowski, conductor
Kirill Serebrennikov, staging, stage and costumes
Evgeny Kulagin, co-staging

FURTHER INFORMATION & TICKETS
 

CONTACT

Representation: World

IN FOCUS

LAURA AIKIN sings the Countess de la Roche in Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten"
18Jan2024
LAURA AIKIN sings the Countess de la Roche in Zimmermann's "Die Soldaten"

Together with the same orchestra that performed the opera’s premiere, this time conducted by FX Roth, Laura Aikin can be heard as the Countess de la Roche in Cologne, Hamburg and Paris.

READ ARTICLE
LAURA AIKIN with "Girl with a Pearl Earring" at the opera house in Zürich
08May2022
LAURA AIKIN with "Girl with a Pearl Earring" at the opera house in Zürich

Laura Aikin has repeatedly demonstrated that her versatility is ideally suited to contemporary opera, as now, in the Zurich world premiere of Stefan Wirth’s opera Girl with a Pearl Earring.

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LAURA AIKIN as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera
31Dec2019
LAURA AIKIN as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera

On three evenings, Laura Aikin will be heard as Rosaline in Johann Strauß' operetta "Die Fledermaus".

READ ARTICLE