Pia Freund studied voice at the Sibelius Academy and has also studied further with Professor Dorothy Irving in Sweden, among others.
Pia Freund has been a regular guest artist at the Finnish National Opera since her début as
Mimì in Puccini’s La bohème. She has subsequently appeared as Anna in Nicolai’s Die lustige
Weiber von Windsor and Kyllikki in Tapio Tuomela’s Äidit ja tyttäret (Mothers and Daughters). Her performance as Clemence in Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin in 2004 and 2006 as well as her performance as Refka in Kaija Saariaho’s Adriana Mater in 2008 was greatly acclaimed. Recent engagements include her successful opera debut in the
USA, Adriana Mater in Santa Fe Opera, and L’amour de loin in the Bergen Music Festival with Den Nye Opera.
Other major roles in her repertoire are Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, Pamina in Mozart’s Die
Zauberflöte, Belinda in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas and Minna in Rautavaara’s Tietäjien lahja
(The Gift of the Magi).
Pia Freund has a concert repertoire ranging from the Baroque to the contemporary. She is
particularly known for her interpretations of the vocal music of Kaija Saariaho. In 2006 she
premiered Kaija Saariaho’s oratorium La passion de Simone in Wiener Festwochen in
Vienna. In 2007 engagements also included performances of the mentioned work at the
Helsinki Festival and in Baltic Sea Festival in Stockholm .
She has also appeared at the Norrland Opera and the Dortmund Theatre, and at several
international festivals such as the Prague Spring, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival and the Oleg Kagan Festival. In Finland, she has
appeared at the Helsinki Festival, the Kuhmo Chamber Music Festival, the Naantali Music
Festival and the Time of Music contemporary music festival in Viitasaari.
Pia Freund has worked with many distinguished conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Peter Schreier, Osmo Vänskä, Herbert Blomstedt, Harry Christophers, Hans Graf, Susanna Mälkki and Ralf Gothóni, and apart from orchestras in Finland she has appeared with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, the Drottningholm Baroque Ensemble and L’Orchestre National d’Île de France.
Pia Freund’s competition achievements include first prizes in the Lappeenranta singing competition in 1992, the Mustakallio singing competition in 1991 and the Kangasniemi singing competition in 1991. She has also received the culture award of the Town of Hämeenlinna and the Sibelius Award of the Sibelius Society. She has numerous discs and TV and radio recordings to her credit.
7/2009
Photo: Heikki Tuuli
