Siri Karoline Thornhill

The Norwegian soprano, Siri Karoline Thornhill, who was born in England, began her singing studies in her native city of Stavanger with Marit Storakre. With the assistance of scholarships from the Norwegian government, she was able to continue her study of voice with postgraduate work under Marius van Altena, Rita Dams and Diane Forlano at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, Netherlands. She completed her studies with distinction in 1995, and she lives since then in Freiburg, Germany. Master-classes and opera courses with Cristina Deutekom, Elly Ameling, Ton Koopman, Beata Heuer-Christen, Anna Reynolds and Jean Cox rounded off her training.
Siri Karoline Thornhill's busy concert and opera career includes repertoire ranging from early music to works of the 21st century. She has sung under Philippe Herreweghe, Thomas Hengelbrock, Michael Schneider, Andreas Spering, Helmut Müller-Brühl, Harry Christophers, Ivor Bolton and Sigiswald Kuijken at international festivals, such as the Händel Festivals in Göttingen and Halle/Saal, the Rheingau Music Festival, Bozar Music in Brussels, the J.S. Bach cycle of the Slovakian Philharmonic Orchestra in Bratislava, Les Grands Concerts Sacrés in Paris, Lucerne‘s Easter Festival, the Feldkirch Festival, Festival de Printemps in Monte Carlo, Festival de l’Opera in Beaune and the Bruges Festival. She has also appeard in the big concert halls of Europe, such as in Berlin, Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), Lucerne, Vienna (Wiener Konzerthaus), Stuttgart (Liederhalle), Göttingen and Brühl, and has regular guest engagements at the opera houses in Halle/Saal and Freiburg. She has performed with the Collegium Vocale Orchestra, La Petite Bande, Freiburger Barockorchester, Musica Fiata, Balthasar-Neumann-Ensemble, Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie, Basel Kammerorchester barock, Les Cornets Noirs, Hannoversche Hofkapelle, Kölner Kammerorchester, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra and the Württembergische Philharmonie.
Emphasis of her singing activity is compositions of Purcell, George Frideric Handel and above all J.S. Bach. In addition Siri Karoline Thornhill dedicates herelf to compositions of the 20th and 21st centuries. She has appeared in several premieres, among them Louis Andriessen‘s Odysseus at De oude Vertrekhal in Rotterdam and De Melkweg in Amsterdam.
CD recordings, such as the Johannes Brahms' German Requiem (Bremen Cathedral Choir/Wolfgang Helbich) on DG, Antonio Lotti‘s Requiem (Balthasar-Neumann-Chor/Thomas Hengelbrock) on BMG, G.F. Handel‘s Imeneo (Capella Augustina/Andreas Spering) on cpo, G.F. Handel‘s Messiah (Knabenchor Hannover/Jörg Breiding) on Ars Musici, Bach Cantatas (La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken) on Accent Heidelberg and Bach Solo Cantatas (Kölner Kammerorchester/Helmut Müller-Brühl) on Naxos, as well as broadcast productions, including G.F. Handel‘s Saul with Peter Neumann for NDR and Bertali‘s Maria Maddalena with Alexander Weimann for WDR document her artistic achievements. She has also recorded for Tyskland label.
She made her opera debut as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni with La Petite Bande/Sigiswald Kuijken at the Festival de l’Opera in Beaune and the Bruges Early Music Festival. She has sung several operatic roles for example in Halle (Clomiri in Imeneo), at the Freiburg Theater in Rameau‘s Dardanus, at the Komische Oper Berlin in carnival music from Venice and Florence with Thomas Hengelbrock, at the Quedlinburg Cathedral in Stradella‘s San Giovanni Battista and on tour in northern Germany with Reinhard Keiser ‘s Sieg der fruchtbaren Pomona.