Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie von Otter is one of the finest singers of her generation. Her relationship with Deutsche Grammophon produced a wealth of recordings and numerous awards including: Recording Artist of the Year, International Record Critics Association; a Grammy Award for best classical vocal performance for Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn; and a Diapason d’Or for a recording of Swedish songs with her long-time accompanist, Bengt Forsberg. She collaborated with pop legend, Elvis Costello on the disc, For the Stars and in October 2010 released her first recording with the Naïve label, Love Songs, a collaboration with legendary jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. The second recording under her exclusive contract with Naïve, Les nuits d’été with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, is released in October 2011.   

Anne Sofie von Otter gained an international reputation as an outstanding Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) with performances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris and the Wiener Staatsoper. She also performed the role as part of a series of engagements with James Levine and The Metropolitan Opera; and a recording under the late Carlos Kleiber is available on DVD. Other seminal opera recordings include Le nozze di Figaro under Levine, Orphée et Eurydice under John Eliot Gardiner and Ariadne auf Naxos under Giuseppe Sinopoli. ... read full bio

Internationally acclaimed mezzo-soprano, Anne Sofie von Otter is one of the finest singers of her generation. Her relationship with Deutsche Grammophon produced a wealth of recordings and numerous awards including: Recording Artist of the Year, International Record Critics Association; a Grammy Award for best classical vocal performance for Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn; and a Diapason d’Or for a recording of Swedish songs with her long-time accompanist, Bengt Forsberg. She collaborated with pop legend, Elvis Costello on the disc, For the Stars and in October 2010 released her first recording with the Naïve label, Love Songs, a collaboration with legendary jazz pianist Brad Mehldau. The second recording under her exclusive contract with Naïve, Les nuits d’été with Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre-Grenoble, is released in October 2011.   

Anne Sofie von Otter gained an international reputation as an outstanding Octavian (Der Rosenkavalier) with performances at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Bayerische Staatsoper, Opéra national de Paris and the Wiener Staatsoper. She also performed the role as part of a series of engagements with James Levine and The Metropolitan Opera; and a recording under the late Carlos Kleiber is available on DVD. Other seminal opera recordings include Le nozze di Figaro under Levine, Orphée et Eurydice under John Eliot Gardiner and Ariadne auf Naxos under Giuseppe Sinopoli.

She continues to be sought after by the world’s leading conductors, orchestras and opera houses. Recent highlights have included her role debut as Charpentier’s Médeé for Oper Frankfurt in a new production by David Hermann and conducted by Andrea Marcon, concert performances of Tamerlano opposite Plácido Domingo at Gran Teatre del Liceu conducted by William Lacey, and her long-awaited return to Theater Basel (from where her international career was launched) for Offenbach’s La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein in Christoph Marthaler’s production conducted by Herve Niquet. Other recent engagements include Baba the Turk (The Rake’s Progress) conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt for Theater an der Wien, Countess Geschwitz (Lulu) at The Metropolitan Opera, conducted by Fabio Luisi and in May 2011 she appeared with Jonas Kaufmann and the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio Abbado for a televised performance of Das Lied von der Erde on the hundredth anniversary of Mahler’s death.

A busy concert schedule takes Anne Sofie von Otter to all corners of the globe and in the current season she performs with the Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen, New York Philharmonic/Alan Gilbert, Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle, Münchner Philharmoniker/Ivan Fischer, Sydney Symphony, and the London Symphony Orchestra/Michael Tilson Thomas. On the opera stage this season she can be heard as Geneviève (Pelléas et Mélisande) under Philippe Jordan for Opéra national de Paris, Clytemnestre (Iphigenie en Aulide) in Pierre Audi’s production for De Nederlandse Opera conducted by Marc Minkowski, and Giulio Cesare at the Salzburg Festival with an all-star cast including Cecilia Bartoli and Andreas Scholl.  

Anne Sofie von Otter was born into a Swedish family. She graduated from the Stockholm College of Music and studied further at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Last updated August 2011. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.