Sofie Asplund

The soprano Sofie Asplund has begun this autumn with a livestreamed La Bohème with the Göteborg Opera, where she made her role debut as Musetta. Later this year, Sofie will appear as Waldvogel in Siegfried, also at the Göteborg Opera. The previous season included Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro in Gothenburg, which was followed by Gilda in Rigoletto at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo. Sofie appeared as s soloist during the Nobel prize award ceremony and she sang Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra led by Christoph Eschenbach.

In 2018/2019 Sofie sang her first Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos at the Göteborg Opera, with great success and fantastic reviews. Sofie was a guest at the Royal Swedish Opera in Stockholm as Constance in Dialogues des carmélites and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. and she participated in Barbara Hannigan’s Equilibrium young artists’ project where she sang Anne Trulove in The Rake’s Progress. The project included semi-staged performances in Munich with the Münchner Philharmoniker, as well as on a European tour with the Ludwig Orchestra visiting Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Dresden and Dortmund, all performances led by Barbara Hannigan.

Sofie has previously appeared as Susanna and Barbarina in Le Nozze di Figaro, Olga Sukarev in Giordano’s Fedora and Oscar in Un ballo in Maschera at the Royal Opera in Stockholm. She has sung Erste Magd in Daphne at Staatsoper Hamburg and at the Opera in Basel. At the Malmö Opera, Sofie Asplund has sung Oscar, Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier and Pousette in Manon. She has appeared as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and the Vixen in The cunning little vixen at the Läckö castle and as Carolina in Il matrimonio segreto at the Drottningholm Court Theatre. At the Vadstena Academy, Sofie has sung Lydia in Pride and Prejudice and Laura in Star Cross'd lovers. She has also sung Eurydice in Orphée aux Enfers by Offenbach in a staged concert in Uppsala together with the Drottningholm barock ensemble.

Sofie Asplund’s concert repertoire include Mozart’s Requiem, the Coronation Mass, Exultate Jubilate and Mass in C minor. She has sung Bach’s Magnificat, St John’s passion and St. Matthew passion, The Creation by Haydn, Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Les Illuminations by Britten, Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem and God in Disguise by Lars-Erik Larsson.

Sofie Asplund has also appeared in musical theatre roles including Maria in West Side Story and Christine in The Phantom of the Opera, which she has performed at the Finland National Opera and at the Göteborg Opera.

Sofie Asplund graduated from the Royal College of Opera in Stockholm in 2013. She has been engaged as a guest soloist at the Göteborg Opera, where she made her praised debut as Susanna in Le Nozze di Figaro. On the same stage, Sofie has performed her first Grete in Hänsel und Gretel, Gilda in Rigoletto and Erste magd in a concert version of Daphne and Maria in West Side Story.

In 2018 Sofie Asplund was the first winner of the new singing competition the Schymberg Award. Sofie Asplund has been awarded the Sten A Olsson culture scholarship of 2018 and the Rosenborg-Gehrmansscholarship of 2015. In 2013 she was recipient of both Anders Wall and Birgit Nilsson scholarships. Sofie has also received scholarships from the Royal Music Academy of Sweden and the Drottningholm Court Theatre.

September 2020

"Sofie Asplund was an unforgettable Zerbinetta. Her stage presence was fizzing with outward mischief but she convincingly showed her true (and more complex) feelings in her tender meeting with the Composer... Ms Asplund’s heavenly coloratura simply soared without strain, with the shimmering sweetness of a lyrical soprano right to the top. Zerbinetta’s famous aria was genuinely moving, not just a technical showpiece.." Niklas Smith, Seen and Heard International, 2018-02-19

Sofie Asplund was the page, Oscar. She is a brilliant coloratura soprano who gave a convincing interpretation. The director played on the gender confusion by dressing Oscar up as a woman during the masked ball, which provided an interesting twist. Asplud featured the best Italian pronunciation of the entire production which, together with her vocal agility and pure tone colour, turned her performance into one of the highlights of the evening. (Laura Servidel, Bachtrack 1 mars 2017)