About Me
An artist must be brave enough
to show the beautiful,
the broken and the vulnerable.
The first steps:
Memories:
Calendar
06.11.2011 — Concert Salvator-Saal, Barnabiteng. 14, 1060 Wien
01.12.2011 — Live Broadcasting
11.12.2011 — Concert Salvator-Saal
08.01.2012 — Concert, Högalidskyrkan, Stockholm
08.01.2012 — Concert, Maria Magdalena Kyrka, Stockholm
01.02.2012 — Concert Peterskirche, Wien
25.02.2012 — Fundraising Concert Salvator-Saal
29.02.2012 — Concert Bratislava more…
Curriculum Vitae
Curriculum Vitae, PDF [292.27kB]
Press photos, high resolution
My life’s journey
Elisabeth Wärnfeldt, born in Stockholm and raised in Dalarna. After a Bachelor in Music Science at Stockholm University she studied vocals at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Elisabeth debuted in the part of Halka by Opera Schlesien in Katowice, Poland. After her debut Elisabeth began an international career as an opera- and concert singer with parts such as Anna Bolena, Chrysothemis, Leonore, Donna Anna, Rosalinda, Gräfin, Santuzza, Witwe Bolte, Lia, The mother in Amahl and the Nightvisitors as well as the mother in Mr. God it’s Anna, the Lady in Lady there’s a fire by Boel Dirke and also Poulenc’s La void humaine. Elisabeth has made numerous performances in radio and TV and recorded several albums.
Most of the success stories are descriptions of a person’s life under the spotlight.
It hasn’t been easy to be a single, singing mother of two who’s been raised between two worlds; one in Stockholm with the parents and a whole other at grandpa’s farm by Lake Siljan in Dalarna. These two very different worlds gave me two different perspectives on music. On one hand there was the classical education I received in Stockholm with my first solo-part as an 11-year-old in Hindemith’s children’s opera; We build a town and one the other hand I sang my second solo together with Hugo Alfvén’s Rättvik-Boda Choir in Dala-corals in arr. for solo and choir. My real debut came with a Romance-concert in “Music by Siljan” with Jan Eyron as pianist. It became a powerful and successful debut with great critic in the newspapers and it jump-started my career. I came early to Austria that is now my second home country as I studied song at the Mozarteum’s Summer Academy every summer as of the year I turned fifteen.
To meet, hear and see all the most prominent singers and musicians in memorable performances taught my ear to love the music that would be mine to perform. But it also put the bar very high from the start.
Contemporary music
I quickly studied a Bachelor in Music Science and wrote my final paper on composer Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist’s music and developed, through this, an analytical method for contemporary artistic music called “the principle of association”. The close collaboration with the composer and the numerous pieces he wrote and dedicated to me contributed to a meeting that would, in everything important, become an entrance into the contemporary music which I ever since then have dedicated a lot of time for in performance and in many cases also performed for the first time. I have had the privilege to have many pieces written for my own voice and it has been a great joy to contribute to make our contemporary artistic music live in the meeting with the listener.
A career began
I got most of my vocal education at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. Without collecting my exam I debuted within “Music by Siljan” and thereafter began working at the Norrland’s Opera. The collaboration with conductor Arnold Östman was exciting and challenging and I had a fantastic first year before I stepped out into the world again. Through the Hollaender Agents I was sent to Klagenfurt for my first big performance in the part of Chrysothemis. I had by that time received a scholarship from Birgit Nilsson in Västra Karup and had been offered the Bayreuth-Price through the Swedish Wagner Society. Through my colleagues I soon got in contact with Opera Schleisen and I sought my way there because the musicians made the performances come alive and because that gave us a time when we could rehearse under Maria Foltyn. I began with singing the part of Halka in Polish and it felt like my opera-debut because I was a part of a whole that lent meaningfulness and satisfaction, something that I could call musical theatre. With this in my briefcase I travelled to USA and there got to know the conductor Peter Mark through my American Agent Isabella Wolf. And so I started by singing Anna Bolena in Richmond.
The most prominent of parts
During my time in the US my life in Sweden shattered to pieces and life became a very serious business. I had a heavy path to walk but after a few years that changed in that I met my former husband and had two wonderful children. The part as mother is the most prominent one that life could give me. With catastrophe still at my heels I had to take my responsibility and leave my opera career and sing my parts within an opera festival in Skåne lead by a dear friend Christian Myrup. I was sincerely grateful for the opportunities to work with composers such as Boel Dirke, Jan Wallgren, Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist, Stefan Säfsten and Monica Dominique. It became an animated encounter with the music whose stamp still characterizes my artistry today.
As a single mother I had to thread the line between being there for my children and their needs and take on enough commitments to keep us afloat every day. I rekindled my international contact and life as yet again brought me to the city of Vienna and Austria.
Maturity
Today I limit the amount of performances and sing only a couple of parts each year so that I can spend more time on my writing and my young singers and the project “Singers without Borders”. As a mature woman in the middle of life it is no longer plausible to portray 17-year-old girls on stage, in their immaturity and naivety. But now, more than ever, accept my maturity as a human being and respect the fact that my heart and my eyes have been open and seeing through a half life. There are not many parts that hold the mature perspective of women but through my own writing I now have my libretto Völvan. Its musical costume created by Maestro Leif Segerstam and this is a part that offers a part that often gets omitted. And more is on its way. It’s against this backdrop that I have now shortened my repertoire though I have not, of course, forgotten all the parts I have sung. Every part is like a close friend that I have a confidant and familiar relationship with.
It takes courage to live. All the artist and singers that I admire carry something tragic within them. An artist must be brave enough to show the beautiful, the broken and the vulnerable and be brave enough to be vulnerable him/herself.
You are welcome to contact me on: elisabethwarnfeldt@gmail.com
Through my blog you can follow my journey as it continues, Welcome!