Univ.-Prof.ⁱⁿ M.Mus. Laura Leigh Aikin, Sopran
Ordinariate for Voice
aikin@mdw.ac.at

American soprano Laura Aikin's repertoire includes works from the Baroque to the present, making her a welcome artist at the world's great opera houses and concert halls. She began her career, now spanning more than 30 years, as an ensemble member at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin (1992-98) under the artistic direction of Daniel Barenboim. At the Staatsoper Unter den Linden she has appeared more than 300 times in major roles such as Lulu, Queen of the Night, Zerbinetta, Feldman's Neither, Sophie, Konstanze, as well as in the world premiere of Sciarinno's Ti vedo, ti sento, mi perdo, a co-production with La Scala.

Laura Aikin is a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera, La Scala Milan, Bavarian State Opera, Zurich Opera House, Netherlands Opera, Opéra National de Paris, Semperoper Dresden, Gran Teatro del Liceu Barcelona, Frankfurt Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Santa Fe Opera, San Francisco Opera, and Metropolitan Opera New York, among others.

In addition to her numerous concert appearances at the Salzburg Festival since 1995, she has appeared as the Queen of the Night, in the world premiere of Henze's opera L'Upupa (Bad'iat), as Blondchen and Konstanze (Die Entführung aus dem Serail), and was highly praised by audiences and the press for her interpretation of Marie in Zimmermann's Die Soldaten in 2012 and as Morgan Le Fay in Birtwistle's Gawain in 2013.

In demand as a concert singer, Laura Aikin has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin, Munich, and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago and Vienna Symphonies, the Cleveland Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the WDR, SWR, and MDR Radio Symphony Orchestras, as well as with Ensemble Intercontemporain, Les Arts Florissants, the Gürnzenich Orchestra and Concerto Köln, and Concentus Musicus Wien.

She was also highly praised by audiences and the press for her interpretation of Emilia Marty in a new production of Janáček's Vec Makropulos at the Vienna State Opera. An equally great success was Henze's Elegy for Young Lovers at the Theater an der Wien, Donna Anna Don Giovanni conducted by Iván Fischer in Budapest, at the Edinburgh Festival and in New York, Schönberg's Erwartung in Salzburg, and Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus at the Vienna State Opera.

Her numerous recordings include Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge with Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Nicholas Harnoncourt and Concentus Musikus, Schoenberg's Die Jakobsleiter with the Südwestfunk Symphony Orchestra, Respighi's La Campana Sommersa (Montpellier Opera), DVDs of Lulu (Zurich Opera House), Henze's L'Upupa and Die Entführung aus dem Serail (both from the Salzburg Festival), and Dialogues des Carmélites with Riccardo Muti (La Scala), a solo recording of Songs and Cycles by Ned Rorem with pianist Donald Sulzen (Orfeo). Beethoven's Missa solemnis with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Concentus Musicus Wien at the 2015 Graz and Salzburg Festivals was an extraordinary experience, also immortalized on CD.

As a teacher, Laura Aikin gives numerous master classes, including at the Hochschule für Musik in Würzburg, at the University of Michigan, at the opera studio of the Komische Oper Berlin, at the annual congress of the Bundesverband Deutscher Gesangspädagog_innen. Since 2020 she has been a lecturer at the Lotte Lehmann Academy, and since 2021 a lecturer at the Institute for Music at the Osnabrück University of Applied Sciences. In October 2022 she will be appointed university professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna (mdw).
 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)-15.05.2023