Silja Aalto, soprano

The Finnish soprano Silja Aalto studied with Eeva-Liisa Saarinen at the Sibelius Academy, Helsinki, where she graduated in 2018. She made her opera debut the same year, as Countess Almaviva (Le nozze di Figaro) with Estonian National Opera, of which she is now a regular guest and for which her roles have included Mimi (La boheme), Leonora (Il Trovatore) and Elsa (Lohengrin). Aalto made her debut with Finnish National Opera, Helsinki, as the soprano soloist in Christian Spuck’s choreographed production of Verdi’s Requiem. Her operatic repertoire also includes Leonore (Fidelio), Sieglinde (Die Walküre), First Lady (Last Temptations), Mrs. Alice (Falstaff), Helena (Midsummernights’s dream) and Minna (E. Rautavaara: The Gift of Magi).

Last season’s engagements included, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Sakari Oramo, Vaughan Williams’s A Sea Symphony at the Barbican, London, as well as Saariaho’s Mirage at the Royal Albert Hall, London; her role debuts as Elisabetta di Valois (Don Carlo) in Helsinki; Riitta (The Last Temptations) for Tampere Opera and Savonlinna Opera Festival; and Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the Vanemuine Symphony Orchestra and Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with the Orchestra National du Capitole de Toulouse conducted by Tarmo Peltokoski.

Having won the 2016 Toivo Kuula Singing Competition (Alavus, Finland), in 2017, she won the Grand Prize in the Opera Division of the Metropolitan International Vocal Competition (New York); the Opera Division of the Lyra New York International Vocal Competition; Secon Prize and the Lieder Prize in the Elizabeth Connell Prize International Singing Competition (Sydney); and Second Prize in the PMLF Vocal Competition (Tallinn).