Lina Maria Åkerlund, mezzo-soprano
After completing her soloist diploma in recorder with Clas Pehrsson at the Stockholm Academy of Music, Lina Maria Åkerlund was awarded the major foreign scholarship for wind instruments by the Academy of Music. She then completed postgraduate studies with Jeanette van Wingerden at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. At the same time, she began her training as a singer with Kurt Widmer at the Basel Music Academy and graduated with a teaching and soloist diploma for solo singing "with distinction".
Lina Maria Åkerlund has twice been awarded the Migros Scholarship. She was a member of the International Opera Studio at Zurich Opera House and continued her training with Margreet Honig and in master classes.
Lina Maria Åkerlund has performed extensively as a Lied and chamber music interpreter as well as an oratorio singer at various international festivals throughout Europe. She has sung at the Musikverein Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, the Festival Ars Musica in Brussels, the Risør Chamber Music Festival in Norway, the June Festival in Zurich and repeatedly at the International Music Festival in Lucerne.
As an opera singer, she has performed at opera houses in Switzerland and abroad such as "Le Châtelet" and "Grand Théatre des Champs- Elysées" in Paris, at the Macerata Summer Festival in Italy, at the Fondaçao Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon, at the Zurich Opera House and at the St. Gallen City Theater.
She loves chamber music and has performed with Jürg Wyttenbach, Heinz Holliger, Christophe Coin, René Clemencic, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Ensemble Contrechamps, Collegium Novum Zurich, Accademia Bizantina, Matthias Ziegler, Patrick Demenga and Johann Sonnleitner, among others. She performs as a Lied duo with Hans Adolfsen and Sebastián Tortosa.
A particular passion for languages and style has led to Lina Maria Åkerlund speaking 6 languages, singing in 9 languages and placing particular emphasis on the technical realization of stylistic diversity.
Experimental formats and music-theatrical performances have fascinated and accompanied the mezzo-soprano since her studies. Her "Salon Musical", a project that began as a series of concerts in historical rooms (with a historical background) with rediscovered songs from the 19th century, is just one example.
She was a board member of "Freunde des Liedes" Zurich from 2004 to 2010.
In addition to a wide range of CD recordings (e.g. solo cantatas by G.F. Händel, 7 early songs by A. Berg and A. Schönberg's "Pierrot Lunaire"), the singer has premiered numerous contemporary works.