Susanne Rydén

The Swedish soprano Susanne Rydén belongs to Europe’s renowned singers specialising in early music. She regularly performs with internationally acclaimed ensembles and conductors, such as Nicholas McGegan, Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Concerto Copenhagen, Cantus Cölln, Concerto Palatino, the Academy of Ancient Music, Masaaki Suzuki and Bach Collegium Japan, Die Lautten Compagney Berlin, Joshua Rifkin and others. She is a frequent guest at the major European music festivals and concert venues and has also toured Australia, the USA, Japan, Russia and South Africa.

Highlights from her past concert seasons include Bach Christmas Oratorio with the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and Nicholas McGegan in San Fransisco, the St Matthew Passion with the Nederlandse Bachvereiniging, Bach’s St Mark Passion with the Academy of Ancient Music at the Easter Festival in Luzern, Bach cantatas, as well as Handel’s Messiah with Bach Collegium Japan.

Susanne has appeared at various European opera houses and festivals in roles such as Dido (Dido and Aeneas) and Titania (Fairy Queen) by Purcell, Poppea (L’incoronazione di Poppea) by Monteverdi, Euridice (Orpheo e Euridice) by Gluck, Angelica (Orlando), Galathea (Acis and Galathea) and Meleagro (Atalanta) by Handel, and Amahl (Amahl and the nightly visitors) by Menotti. In 2004 Susanne sang the soprano part in the opera “Song of Songs”, written especially for her by the Swedish composer Hans Ola Ericson. She also created the large Christina’s Journey project, a staged performance about the life of the Swedish queen Christina, which has toured Europe since the spring of 2004. The production received various prizes, among others an honorary award for Rydén’s work within the early music field by the Swedish Early Music Society, and was broadcasted by Swedish Television.

Her interest in chamber music and the song repertoire has led to the development of several innovative projects. Together with Mark Tatlow (fortepiano) she has explored the song repertoire, and their first recording with songs by Haydn was released in August 2007. Trio Veracini (John Holloway, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and Jaap ter Linden) as well as Bell’arte Salzburg are other regular chamber music partners.

Susanne Rydén has made numerous CDs for labels such as Harmonia Mundi, BIS, Avie, Caprice, and cpo Germany – several of them award-winning. Future plans include concerts together with Lars Ulrik Mortensen, Concerto Copenhagen, and recordings with Emma Kirkby, Concerto Köln and the Regensburger Domspatzen.

In 2008 she will sing Dorinda in Handel’s opera Orlando in Göttingen, and in 2009 she is engaged for a tour of Japan as Galathea in Handel’s opera Acis and Galathea. She will also be back at Drottningholm. In the autumn of 2008 she will tour Australia with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, singing Mozart concert arias.

Ms Rydén studied at the Royal Academy of Music in Stockholm and at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. She now teaches at various festivals around the globe. In 2007 she was appointed as a member of the Swedish Royal Academy of Music.