Anu Komsi
About
Anu Komsi continues to be praised for her versatile musicianship and her dynamic coloratura voice. She began her musical education in Kokkola, Finland, where she played both flute and violin in the Ostrobothnian Chamber Orchestra. Equally at home on both opera and concert stages, she has appeared regularly all over Europe and in the United States.
She is a versatile recitalist and chamber musician with a repertoire ranging from Renaissance to contemporary music. New York Magazine described her as being a "Pyrotechnic Grace" on the stage when she performed John Zorn's Machine de l'être in the New York City Opera. Engagements at leading opera houses and concert halls such as the Vienna Musikverein, Berlin Philharmonie, Royal Albert Hall, Barbican, Walt Disney Hall and Avery Fisher New York, Salle Pleyel, Chatelet, and Stockholm Concert House have kept her busy. Her repertoire takes in over 40 operatic roles, including George Benjamin’s Into the Little Hill, a role written specially for her. Morton Feldman's Neither has become one of her signature roles. At her Salzburg Festival debut in summer 2011 she was hailed in the press as "the excellent anti-opera heroine".
She has been the soloist with numerous major orchestras such as The Berlin Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, San Fransisco Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Stuttgart, London Sinfonietta, and the Ensemble Modern, and worked with celebrated conductors. Recent Recordings for Alba: Being beauteous and Coloratura for BIS have been internationally acclaimed in European and American Press.
Forthcoming engagements include two title Roles in Lady Sarashina by Eötvös in Warsovie National Opera and Heinz Holliger's Schneewitthen in Basel Theatre. Anu Komsi leads an Opera Company in her home Town of Kokkola on the West Coast of Finland.