GERDA FINDEISEN

Soprano

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Helveto-Canadian Swiss soprano Gerda Findeisen is known for her radiant vocal timbre paired with a richly expressive musicality.  On the opera stage, some of her roles include Donna Elvira (Don Giovanni/ Mozart) Zerbinetta (Ariadne auf Naxos/ Strauss), Ophélie (Hamlet/ Ambroise Thomas), Olympia (Les Contes d’Hoffmann/ Offenbach) and Zempoella (Indian Queen / Purcell). Gerda Findeisen has had the privilege to collaborate with numerous renowned conductors, including Peter Dala, Kent Nagano, Jean-Philippe Tremblay, Franz-Paul Decker, Wayne Ridell, Nicolau de Figueiredo, and Fritz Näf. She has been a soloist with the Orchestra del Teatro Communale di Bologna, the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, the Octuor de France and has performed at prestigious festivals, including the Lanaudière Festival, the Zempleni Festival in Hungary, and the New Jersey Baroque Festival (USA).

 

 On the concert-stage, Gerda Findeisen is an avid explorer of new repertoire. She could be heard in Offenes Lied by John Rea, with Trio Résonances in D. Argento’s To be Sung upon the Water, Thibaudeau’s Cantate pour un fleuve (creation) and in the opera Fata Morgana, written in the fascinating semi-improvised sound painting-style. She has been been the featured soloist in several silent film-productions (The Phantom of the Opera, 1925, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame, 1923), en tournée in France, Italy, Switzerland and Canada. In oratorio, she has recently been a soloist in J.S. Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium (Drummondville), as well as in Camille Saint-Saëns’ Oratorio Noël, Pietro Mascagni’s Regina Coeli, and Antonio Vivaldi’s Dixit Dominus.

 

 Gerda Findeisen is a graduate of the Musikhochschule Zürich and the University of Montreal and received further training at the Orford Arts Centre, Opera Nuova, Nouvel Opéra and Oberlin. Some of her teachers and mentors include Stefano Algieri, Louise-Andrée Baril, Dana Nigrim, Nino Castel, Janet Perry, Adrienne Savoie, Jeanette Aster,  Richard Margison, Aline Kutan, Jane Thorner-Mengedoht and Arlene Shrut.

 

 Winner of the Crescendo International Arts Festival-Competition and the WOW-Contest in New York, recipient of bursaries by the Canada Conseil of the Arts and the University of Montreal, she also participated as semi-finalist in the Classical Singer- and Centre for Contemporary Opera-competitions in New York. 

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