Maria Forsström

Swedish mezzo-soprano Maria Forsström is at home in music from the Venetian baroque to the Berlin cabaret, but has made her name interpreting repertoire from the Viennese masters Mozart and Mahler. Her voice draws consistently evocative adjectives from critics, some of whom have compared her to illustrious Nordic forbears Kirsten Flagstad and Birgit Nilsson. Maria’s interest in comparative style and original musical sources brings both sincerity and authenticity to her performances.

Maria enjoys a close relationship with the conductor Teodor Currentzis. She made her professional operatic debut with the conductor’s MusicAeterna ensemble, taking the role of Dorabella in Così fan tutte. She also participated in Currentzis’s acclaimed recording of Le nozze di Figaro on Sony Classical, singing Marcellina, and has appeared as a soloist with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under the conductor.

Maria’s smooth, creamy tone has made her much sought after in Mahler’s orchestral song repertoire and similar works by Brahms, Berg, Britten, Wagner and Zemlinsky. She is equipped with a notable coloratura technique and her operatic repertoire includes the title role in Carmen, Isabella in Rossini’s The Italian Girl in Algiers and Maffio Orsini in Donizetti’s Lucrezia Borgia. Other repertoire roles include Birgitta in Die tote Stadt, the sorceress in Dido & Aeneas, the title role in Giulio Cesare, Amneris in Aida and Erda and Flosshilde in Das Rheingold. Her lieder and oratorio repertoire incorporates works by Sibelius, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Stenhammar, Elgar, Haydn, Dvorak, Duruflé, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff and many more.

Maria has worked at the Malmö Opera and with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. She has also appeared with the State Opera and Ballet of Perm, Russia, with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan and the Dala Sinfonietta in Sweden. She has made an acclaimed recording of Mahler songs for the Musica Rediviva label. She signed to Nordic Artists Management in 2018.