Soile Marja Isokoski (born 14 February 1957) is a Finnish lyric soprano, active in opera, concert works and lieder.
Life and career
Isokoski was born in Posio, Finland. She graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (a cantor-organist diploma, a singing teacher's degree and a singing diploma) and made her concert debut there in 1986.
Isokoski won the Lappeenranta song competition in Finland (1987), the Elly Ameling Competition in the Netherlands (1988), and the Tokyo International Singing Competition (1990). In 1987 she was a finalist in the BBC Singer of the World competition in Cardiff.
She worked first as a church musician in Northern Finland. In 1987 she was engaged as a soloist with the Finnish National Opera and stayed there until 1994. Her first appearance there was as Mimi in Puccini's La bohème in 1987.
Isokoski has sung at all the leading opera houses in Europe, including the Vienna State Opera, Théâtre du Châtelet, Opéra Bastille, La Scala, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Berlin State Opera, Semperoper, the Hamburg State Opera, and the Cologne Opera.
She made her début at the Metropolitan Opera as the Countess in The Marriage of Figaro in 2002. The New York Times wrote on 28 January 2002: "Ms. Isokoski... touched on the Countess' sense of abandonment by the Count without diminishing her regal bearing or the graceful humor she must contribute to the second act. And her dark, burnished soprano should make her a good addition to the Met roster."
In 2007 Isokoski made her San Francisco Opera debut portraying the role of the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier. In 2010 she made her Los Angeles Opera debut as Elsa in Lohengrin.
She has also appeared at many festivals such as Salzburg Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, Chorégies d'Orange, The Proms in London, Tanglewood Music Festival and Savonlinna Opera Festival.
Isokoski's song repertoire is extensive. She has given recitals with her regular accompanist Marita Viitasalo all over the world, including in New York, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Vienna, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Berlin, Munich, Rome, Athens, Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Tokyo.
Isokoski has appeared with many renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, James Conlon, Andrew Davis, Colin Davis, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Marek Janowski, Neeme Järvi, Okko Kamu, James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Yehudi Menuhin, Riccardo Muti, Sakari Oramo, Seiji Ozawa, Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Leif Segerstam, and Osmo Vänskä.
Roles
Così fan tutte "Fiordiligi" (Mozart) Don Giovanni "Donna Elvira" (Mozart) The Marriage of Figaro "Countess " (Mozart) The Magic Flute "Pamina " (Mozart) Otello "Desdemona" (Verdi) Falstaff "Alice Ford" (Verdi) Simon Boccanegra "Amelia" (Verdi) Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg "Eva" (Wagner) Lohengrin "Elsa" (Wagner) Der Freischütz "Agathe" (Weber) The Bartered Bride "Marenka " (Smetana) Der Rosenkavalier "Marschallin" (Richard Strauss) Capriccio "Countess" (Richard Strauss) Ariadne auf Naxos "Ariadne" (Richard Strauss) Daphne "Daphne" (Richard Strauss) The Tales of Hoffmann "Antonia" (Offenbach) Faust "Marguerite" (Gounod) La Juive "Rachel" (Halévy) La bohème "Mimi" (Puccini) Turandot "Liù" (Puccini) Carmen "Micaëla" (Bizet) Eugene Onegin "Tatjana" (Tchaikovsky) Peter Grimes "Ellen Orford" (Britten) Dialogues of the Carmelites "Madame Lidoine" (Poulenc)
Recordings
CD
Christmas Carols Finlandia Records 1989
Schubert: Lieder Finlandia 1994
Schumann : Liederkreis Op. 39, Frauenliebe und –leben Finlandia 1995
My World of Songs, Schubert, Schumann, Sibelius, Grieg & al. Finlandia 1999
Finnish Songs Ondine 2000
R. Strauss: Orchestral Songs Ondine 2002
Wolf: Italienisches Liederbuch with Bo Skovhus Ondine 2002
Artist Portrait Schubert, Schumann, Grieg, Sibelius Warner Classics 2002
Finnish sacred Songs Ondine 2003
Mozart: Arias Ondine 2004
Hymns in Finnish Ondine 2005
Sibelius: Luonnotar, Orchestral Songs Ondine 2006
Songs by Sibelius, Strauss and Berg Wigmore Hall Live A BBC Recording 2006
Christmas Carols with YL Male Voice Choir Ondine 2006
Scene d'amore: Scenes and arias by Tchaikovsky, Bizet, Gounod, Puccini, Verdi Ondine 2008 Hindemith: Das Marienleben Ondine 2009 Richard Strauss: Lieder Ondine 2011 Richard Strauss: Three Hymns, Opera arias Ondine 2012 Oi jouluyö, Christmas Carols Ondine 2014 Chausson: Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Berlioz: Les nuits d'été, Duparc: Songs Ondine 2015