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Anna Larsson started her musical education already at the age of ten, when she began her studies in Stockholm at the Swedish choirschool Adolf Fredriks Musikskola and graduated after nine years, having majored in language and music. At the age of seventeen Anna met her singingteacher Florence Düselius, who was a great and constant inspiration, encouraging her to develop her talents and pursue a professional singing career. They continued to work together until Florence passed away in August 2006.
Anna was trained in Performing Arts Skills for three years at the operastudio -67 before entering the operaschool of Stockholm. There she met Anna Sims, the English Breathing and Voice coach, with whom she continues to work. Anna Larsson's international debut was made in Mahler's second Symphony with the Berlin Philhamonic Orchestra and Claudio Abbado in 1997 and her opera debut as Erda in Wagner's Das Rheingold at Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Anna Larsson has, among other roles, achieved international recognition and status as the world's foremost exponent of Erda, with her rich, melliflous, "dark velvet" voice, in Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen, with perfomances at operahouses in Berlin,Vienna, Munich, Salzburg, Aix-en-Provence and Stockholm, and successfully created the roles of Kundry, Waltraute, Orphée, Zia Principessa, Fricka and Dalilah at theaters including La Monnaie in Brusseles, Bayerisches Staatsoper München, Festspiele Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence, Royal Opera London, Teatro Maggio Musicale Firenze, Palao des Arts Valencia, Royal Opera Copenhagen , Finnish National Opera and Royal Opera Stockholm, with many distinguished conductors- Barenboim, Mehta, Welser- Möst, Rattle, von Dohnany, Segerstam, and Nagano. In concert, Anna is rightly justifying her position internationally as the premier, and most consumate interpreter of Gustav Mahler's works. She regularly sings with all the great orchestras- Berliner Philharmoniker, Lucern Festival Orchestra, New York Philharmonics, Wiener Philharmoniker, Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonics, London Symphony and London Philharmonic orchestras. She sings almost the entire concert repertoire for contralto and orchestra, with the most illustrious conductors including Abbado, Mehta, Salonen, Rattle, Dudamel, Pappano, Osawa, Masur, Maazel, Gilbert and Harnoncourt. Her extensive repertoire ranges from Handel's Messiah thro' Elgars Sea Pictures, Gustav Mahlers all songcycles and Verdi Requiem, to contemporary music. Anna was nominated for a Grammy 2005 for the recording of R Strauss "Daphne", with Westdeutsche Rundfunks Symphonieorchester conducted by Semyon Bychkov. Anna Larsson has her roots in the village of Vattnäs outside Mora in Dalecarlia in Sweden, where she now has opened her own concert hall: Vattnäs Concert Barn. She is an only girl out of four children and sang a lot with her mother as a child. Now she sings with her two boys of 11 and 7 but they are not always very interested. They often travel around the world with their mother, and the oldest has experienced "Das Rheingold" in four different productions already. Anna is married to tenor and artist manager Göran Eliasson and they live in Lidingö outside Stockholm, and each year they organise a highly appreciated opera festival in Vattnäs Concert Barn in Vattnäs in Dalecarlia. The most recent addition to their family is the little lady dachshund who moved in with them in november 2007, but she doesn't want to sing at all. © Anna Larsson |
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